Faith No More was an alternative rock group that formed in San Francisco, California in 1982 and disbanded in 1998.
Their music combined elements of heavy metal, funk, hardcore punk, progressive, soul, hip hop, and jazz, among many others.
History
Early days
Faith No More formed in 1982 out of the ashes of Faith No Man, a band formed and headed by Mike "The Man" Morris. Roddy Bottum, Mike Bordin, and Bill Gould left Faith No Man. They chose the name "Faith No More" at the suggestion of a friend (as "The Man" was
no more). After cycling through a few guitarists, the members recruited Jim Martin. A number of singers were tried, including a six-month stint by Courtney Love as confirmed by Mike Bordin in a
1997 interview Courtney was, and remains, a friend of Roddy's.
An airing has since surfaced of her performing on San Francisco Public Access TV with the band during their alleged "New Romantic phase".
Chuck Mosely became the band's full time singer and appeared on their first two records. A well known song from this era is "We Care a Lot", a satire of the prevalence of charity-related rock efforts such as Live Aid and "We Are the World". The song is also notable as one of the first rock songs to seamlessly blend in hip hop music.
During this period, the band gained a reputation for serious infighting and friction. In an interview in 1987, Mosely claimed that Martin had hit him with a bottle, and there were frequent rumors of physical confrontations between band members. Indeed, in a short history of the band in one issue, the British music newspaper
Melody Maker observed that the band's internal relationships had descended into "pathological hatred". Bordin in particular seemed to be very much the "whipping boy" of the band and the butt of numerous cruel pranks and practical jokes. It is doubtful that the band would have stayed together had they not been successful after their second album,
Introduce Yourself.
The Real Thing
Mosely was fired in 1988 and replaced with singer Mike Patton. Patton, who was singing with his high school band Mr. Bungle, was recruited at Martin's suggestion after he heard a demo of Mr. Bungle's long-over death metal days. Patton dropped out of Humboldt State University to join Faith No More and in two weeks had written all the lyrics for the songs that would make up the Grammy award nominated album
The Real Thing.
has been described as "early Brian Eno joins Led Zeppelin and Funkadelic."
The video for "Epic", which featured slow motion footage of a fish flopping out of water, received extensive airplay on MTV in the summer of 1990, despite provoking anger from animal rights activists.
That same year, Faith No More gave memorable performances at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards (September 6) and on the 666th episode of Saturday Night Live (December 1).
Some of the songs on
The Real Thing have subsequently been used commercially over the years. The lyrics to "Epic" were featured in the manga graphic novel
The Dirty Pair, a Plague of Angels. The Dirty Pair are two female law enforcement officers in a future world who go to a karaoke night and sing Epic.
From out of Nowhere features on the EA Sports' Games
Madden NFL 2005 and
NHL 2005. Additionally, "Falling to Pieces" featured prominently in Ridley Scott's 2001 war movie
Black Hawk Down where it is used as background music as the soldiers prepare for their mission. According to the Mark Bowden book upon which the film is based, when the soldiers were preparing for the actual 1993 mission, Guns N' Roses' song "Welcome to the Jungle" was playing on the base's loudspeakers, and some soldiers mused whether this might be an omen; Axl Rose refused to let the song be used in the film, so "Falling to Pieces" was substituted as appropriate to the time period and similarly prophetic. Faith No More toured with Guns N' Roses in support of
The Real Thing.
Angel Dust
Faith No More displayed an even more distinctly experimental bent on their next album,
Angel Dust. One critic writes that the album is "one of the more complex and simply confounding records ever released by a major label,"
and another writes that "'A Small Victory', which seems to run Madame Butterfly through Metallica and Nile Rodgers ? reveals a developing facility for combining unlikely elements into startlingly original concoctions."
featured the singles "Midlife Crisis," "A Small Victory," and a re-recording of the theme to the film
Midnight Cowboy. "Midlife Crisis" has been used in the popular videogames,
San Andreas, playing on fictional alternative station Radio X and in
Tony Hawk's Underground 2. Later pressings of the album also included their cover of the Commodores classic "Easy", which in some parts of the world became the band's biggest hit; "Easy" was subsequently used in a commercial for Levi's in 2006.
Angel Dust, though not as successful as
The Real Thing in the U.S., sold 700,000 copies there, and did manage to outsell
The Real Thing in many other world charts. In Germany, for example, the record was certified Gold for sales of more than 270,000 copies. Along with heavy airplay of "Easy" and "Midlife Crisis", the album became a bit of a sleeper hit in the UK, South America, Europe and Australia.
After touring to support
Angel Dust in the summer of 1992, longtime guitarist Jim Martin was fired by fax before the recording of their follow-up,
King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (or KFAD/FFAL) in 1995. He was replaced by Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance, who also left soon after; just before the band was to begin their world tour. Spruance was replaced by Dean Menta, the band's guitar roadie.
King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime
King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime was an equally experimental album, varying in styles and moods from heavy and slow to spasmodic and jazzy. In the U.S. the album failed to get any sort of attraction or following, slipping out of the charts quickly. Sales (about 1.5 million) were below that of
Angel Dust. The band accordingly decided to cut their world tour short by 4 months, canceled the singles "Gentle Art Of Making Enemies" and "Take This Bottle", and released a 7 x 7-inch box set of singles that included the B-sides and some interviews between the songs.
King for a Day ... Fool for a Lifetime sold well in the UK and Germany, and even went to #1 on the album charts in Australia.
Album of the Year
Album of the Year was released in 1997 and featured yet another new guitarist, Jon Hudson, who was a former roommate of Billy Gould. The album debuted much higher than expected in some countries, for example Germany (#2, later going gold) and Australia (#1 again, going platinum). In an additional 12 countries in Europe, it went either gold or platinum. In the U.S. the reaction was slow for the album; however, just as interest was picking up on their tours and album they called it a day. The singles "Ashes To Ashes" and "Last Cup Of Sorrow" had minimal success. The music video for "Last Cup of Sorrow" is based on the Alfred Hitchcock film
Vertigo. Electro-tinged ballad "Stripsearch" was released as a single in various countries (excluding the U.S. and UK). "She Loves Me Not" was canceled as a single which was a little indicator of their imminent break-up.
Faith No More?s end
In early 1998 the new flaring of break-up rumors on the Internet began. Starting with a rumor posted to the Faith No More newsgroup alt.music.faith-no-more claiming Mike Patton had quit the band in favor of side projects, this rumor, although denied at the time, proved to be at least partly true. The band canceled their planned support tour for Aerosmith and on April 19, 1998 Bill Gould began spreading the following by email and fax:
Faith No More played their last show in Lisbon, Portugal on April 7, 1998.
Post-Faith No More
After the dissolution of Faith No More the members have gone on to numerous different projects.
Mike Patton went on to work with long time side-band Mr. Bungle (whom he had been playing with before FNM). Later he worked with producer Dan The Automator on various albums including Lovage:
Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By. Other projects were with John Zorn, Björk, Rahzel, Imani Coppola. He has been active with several other groups, including Tomahawk, Fantômas, Peeping Tom, and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Mike Patton also plays the voice of The Darkness in the video game
The Darkness.
Keyboardist Roddy Bottum formed Imperial Teen in 1996.
Guitarist Jim Martin went on to collaborate with Anand Bhatt. He has made guest appearances including
Antipop by Primus, as well as having released a solo album entitled
Milk and Blood (1996). He also appeared on Echobrain's self-titled debut album alongside former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted.
Mike Bordin regularly performs as a member of Ozzy Osbourne's band, as well as Black Sabbath and he was also a member of Korn for a tour when their drummer David Silveria had suffered a broken wrist. He played drums on Jerry Cantrell's album
Degradation Trip.
Billy Gould was a member of Brujeria, as well as founder of Koolarrow Records, and has also overseen the releases of various Faith No More compilations. He also played a few songs on Fear Factory's 2005 album Transgression. In 1998, Billy Gould produced the album
Vainajala (1998) by the Finnish rock band CMX. He also toured with the German noise-rock band Harmful throughout Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and the Balkans in 2007. He produced their album
7, available through Koolarrow Records.
Faith No More's "Epic" will be featured in the upcoming video game
Rock Band for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3. It is scheduled for release on November 2007.
Gamers can play along with the original master recording, using guitar, microphone and drum controllers to simulate a virtual rock band in their living room.
Collaborations
Faith No More collaborated with the Boo-Yaa TRIBE for the song "Another Body Murdered" on the 1993
Judgment Night soundtrack. In 1998, the Sparks album
Plagiarism was released featuring two collaborations with Faith No More ("This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" and "Something for the Girl with Everything").
Band members
Discography
Studio albums
- 1985: We Care a Lot (Mordam Records: U.S.)
- 1987: Introduce Yourself (Slash Records: U.S.)
- 1989: The Real Thing (Platinum) (Slash Records: U.S.)
- 1992: Angel Dust (Gold) (Slash Records: U.S.)
- 1995: King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (Slash Records: U.S.)
- 1997: Album of the Year (Slash Records: U.S.)
Live albums
- 1991: Live at the Brixton Academy (Slash Records: U.S.)
Compilations
- 1998: Who Cares a Lot? (Slash Records: U.S.)
- 2003: The Best of Faith No More (Rhino Records: U.S.)
- 2005: Epic And Other Hits (Flashback Records: U.S.)
- 2005: The Platinum Collection (Warner Bros. Records: U.K.)
Soundtrack contributions
- 1991: Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey: "The Perfect Crime" (Guitarist Jim Martin also had an acting part in the movie.)
- 1990: The New Batch: "Surprise! You're Dead!"
- 1993: Judgment Night: "Another Body Murdered" (with the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.)
- 1997: Grosse Pointe Blank: "We Care A lot"
- 2001: Black Hawk Down: "Falling to Pieces"
- 2004: Tony Hawk Underground 2: "Midlife Crisis"
- 2004: San Andreas: "Midlife Crisis"
- 2004: Madden NFL 2005: "From Out Of Nowhere"
- 2004: "EA Sports NHL 2004": "From Out of Nowhere"
- 2007: Rock Band: "Epic"
- 2007: Burnout Paradise: "Epic"
Contributions
- 1988: "New Improved Song" (released with the second edition of Sounds)
Tribute compilations
- 2002: " A Tribute to Faith No More" (U.S.)
Videography
Music videos
- "We Care a Lot" (1988)
- "Anne's Song" (1988)
- "From out of Nowhere" (two very different versions) (1989)
- "Epic" (1990)
- "Falling to Pieces" (two very different versions) (1990)
- "Surprise! You're Dead!" (1990)
- "Midlife Crisis" (two not very different versions) (1992)
- "A Small Victory" (two not very different versions) (1992)
- "Everything's Ruined" (1992)
- "Easy" (two different versions of audio) (1992)
- "Another Body Murdered" (two different versions of audio) (1993)
- "Digging the Grave"(two not very different versions) (1995)
- "Ricochet" (two not very different versions)
- "Evidence" (two very different versions) (1995)
- "Ashes to Ashes" (1997)
- "Last Cup Of Sorrow" (1997)
- "Stripsearch" (1997)
- "I Started a Joke" (1998)
Other music videos
VHS releases
- Live at Brixton Academy
- Video Croissant
- "Evidence"
- Greatest Videos
DVD releases
Footnotes
