What can we say in regards to 2020 except - what a fucking bullshit year! We have seen a few ups and plenty of downs. Here is our summary of Faith No More and related projects activity for the last twelve months.
Our similar article to end 2019 was full of exciting news for the year ahead however due to this rotten pandemic many things didn't work out to plan - this included the first FNM world tour since 2015.
Coronavirus has gripped the world causing hardship and tragedy. Those within the gigging industry have suffered greatly and in some cases lost their livelihood with little or no help from governments.
Roadies and many more of those behind the scenes of live music extravaganzas are amongst those who have endured a tough year. Several charities have been set up to help including Roadie Relief. These are ongoing and need our support.
Faith No More themselves showed solidarity with their team by putting out exclusive merch. We spoke with FNM production manager Shaun Kendrick and front of house sound engineer Michael Brennan to find out more about the extensive work that goes into a Faith No More tour and tried to highlight the support the industry needs. Read the full interview.
Not only has covid 19 effected the way many now have to live but in the past year Australia and the band's home state of California experienced terrible bush fires which caused untold destruction. Again FNM showed empathy by arranging a second show at Brixton Academy with all proceeds from ticket sales donated to Wires (Australian Wildlife Rescue) and CFS Foundation.
For FNM's second home Chile it has been a year of intense turmoil on the edge of revolution which has been highlighted by Bill Gould.
In the last twelve months we have lost some key characters close to the FNM legacy. Bob Biggs, the founder of Slash Records passed away in October. Ray Burton, father of the late Cliff Burton and dear friend to Mike Bordin passed away aged 94 in January. We also lost musicians who have worked with or inspired the band - Florian Schneider (Kraftwerk), Gangxta Rid (Boo Yaa T.R.I.B.E.), Tim Smith (Cardiacs), and the maestro Ennio Morricone.
And, Roddy said goodbye to his mum this year who was dearly loved and a great inspiration to the keyboard player.
However, despite all this distress members of FNM have persevered and we have enjoyed new music, interviews, live shows, and much more to distract us.
New Music
It's actually been a pretty great year for new music. In April Bill, Jared Blum and Dominic Cramp released their long over due follow up to the Talking Book project. Talking Book II may be miles away from the sounds of FNM but we can not recommend this record enough. It is an otherworldly journey which plays like the soundtrack to a yet unmade film.
“We had originally thought this would be an easy follow-up to our debut album from 2011,” said Gould. “But in fact, this was a journey that took years. It was a wild ride, but in my opinion was totally worth the effort, it enabled us to really dig deep, and get this the way we wanted it. I feel like we have created a soundtrack to a film that can only be seen through listening.”
Bill also found the time to mix the latest release from Chilean Koolarrow band Como Asesinar A Felipes.
Roddy Bottum went into lockdown head first and produced lashings of amazing music. 2020 finally saw his output stream over-take that of Mike Patton! His newest project saw Roddy and his boyfriend Joey Hollman collaborate under the name Man On Man and release two singles. Described as "gay lovers making gay music."
Roddy told Rolling Stone,
“We’re setting out ultimately to document this odd time in the history of the world and to address the importance of creativity and togetherness. The statement of the song and video for ‘Daddy’ maybe is a celebration of love in isolation and is a love letter to the not-so-distant past of a place and time where we communed physically together with our queer community.”
Crickets aka Roddy, JD Samson (Le Tigre, MEN), and Michael O'Neil (MEN) released their self-titled debut album in July.
In October the long awaited collaboration with French trio Hifiklub was released - a spoken word album titled Things That Were Lost in the Fire.
The FNM keyboard player also released a new composition every day during August via his bandcamp page.
We innocently commented in March that this could be Mike Patton's busiest year to date. Of course no virus could stop the man of a thousand voices from making music - we can only imagine a lockdown meant he was even more productive in the studio than ever.
In April Patton and Anthony Pateras released their second record Necroscape via Ipecac Recordings. Patton contributed to a cover of The Cramps classic Human Fly by Italian outfit Zeus!, he regrouped with Dead Cross for a cover of the Black Flag song Rise Above and under the pseudonym of The Lonely Rager he joined members of Anthrax to perform a quarantine version of Speak English or Die Stormtroopers of Death.
In October the 2020 version of Mr. Bungle - Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn, with Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian - released the record of the year. A re-imagined and re-recorded The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny . The band's first studio recording since 1999 received high praise from music press and fans alike. Louder saying, 'As brilliantly off-beam as ever but crushing like never before, Mr. Bungle have turned a noble but nostalgic exercise into one of 2020’s most exhilarating metal records. Heroes.'
And finally, coordinated by Slaves On Dope, members of Anthrax, Korn, Mastodon, Refused, Run DMC and more covered We Care A Lot in aid of the afore mentioned Roadie Relief charity.
Live Performances
In February we witnessed the most anticipated return of any Mike Patton project since 2009 (Faith No More) when Mr. Bungle reclaimed their misshaped throne by hitting stages in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco - All Techies, Codgers, Millennials and LGBTQs welcome to thrash! No Rambos.
The addition of Lombardo and Scott Ian seemed to attract attention from fans and the press that Bungle criminally lacked during the 90s. Even Danny DeVito and Danny Elfman showed up.
We were at several of the shows and you can read our review here. The Bungle boys brought us possibly the highlight of 2020 when they gathered at Eureka Public Library to bring us The Night They Came Home - a face melting virtual live performance of The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny complete with hilarity, cameos and espressos.
With live music taking a hit from the pandemic Patton's pre covid January show with Laurie Anderson and a handful of MC50 shows featuring Bill in Australia were the only other events to take place.
Interviews and Other Stuff!
This has certainly been the year of the podcast and with coronavirus meaning more people stayed at home in isolation the podcast was more in demand than ever to wile away those long hours. Bill Gould has particularly embraced the medium and our favourites were episode 188 of Life In The Stocks, episode 217 of The Vinyl Guide and Undetermined: The Podcast.
Mike Bordin spoke with The Trap Set and Roddy with Bringin' It Backwards.
Podcast Croissant, the only dedicated Faith No More podcast, continued to deliver monthly instalments with subjects including King For A day and Angel Dust.
Mike Patton was more vocal than ever this year and conducted a host of Mr. Bungle interviews. Revolver Magazine have been super appreciative of Patton during the last twelve months bringing us exclusive Bungle interviews, a Patton cover story and weekly Spanish lessons presented by the singer! They also set up a video interview with Eric Andre.
Patton dedicated an hour long conversation to food along with UK chef Andrew Clarke for the Supersonic Festival.
Finally, all five members of FNM shared their own quarantine playlists on Apple Music.
Here at FNM Followers we conducted a few short Facebook book votes which escalated into a poll to rank every FNM song recorded. Midlife Crisis topped the chart, for the full 105 song list click here.
2021
We are all praying that life returns to normality sometime soon, however the future of live entertainment is still uncertain. Faith No More have already been forced to reschedule the Australian and New Zealand leg of their upcoming tour to 2022 (two years after the original dates) and many of the band's European and UK dates which have been moved already may still be in jeopardy. Let us hope that in 2021 and 2022 we all get to see our favourite five-some again.
The future of Mr. Bungle is also uncertain, although members of the current band have expressed interest in more shows Patton told Consequence Of Sound when asked if they would consider writing new music “I don’t know. Look, it could be fun. So I would never say no, but I kinda doubt it. It’s just really like a moment in time and we’re documenting a sound that we had that really most people don’t understand. It illustrates basically where we came from, and I don’t know if we could do that twice.”
We can at least hope for a DVD release of The Night They Came home.
There is good news for Patton fans however as he commented on other projects that are possible for a 2021 release date. "Tomahawk is done, and Dead Cross is in process."
Thanks from Scotty, Luis and Jim.
To Bill Gould for his constant support, friendship and the Yebiga!
To Roddy Bottum and Mike Bordin for chipping in and setting us straight.
To Mike Patton for the hair...
To FNM management and all at Ipecac Recordings for the support and sharing our articles.
Thanks Doug Esper for keeping Chuck’s memory alive for another year.
Thanks to Andrew at Faith No More Gig Database, Jared Blum, Andrew Couch, Adriano Mazzeo, Mike Hayes at Podcast Croissant, FNM Friends group and the Faith No More fan community.
Thank YOU. For commenting, liking, sharing, and following.
See you at a Faith No More show soon!
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