WELL, IT WAS GONNA HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER: FAITH NO MORE MAY REUNITE
Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 9:57am by Axl Rosenberg
With seemingly every band in the world reuniting right now, it seemed like it was only a matter of time ’til the members of Faith No More decided to tour again. Frankly, there’s just too high a possibility of making a lot of money not to do a reunion tour. I know that’s crass, but we’re all big boys and girls here at MetalSucks so let’s just be real and admit that “We thought playing together again would be fun” is not the driving reason behind most of these reunions.
But I digress.
SO. Kerrang! is reporting this rumor that FNM are, indeed, now getting back together in ‘09, and that venues have even been put on hold, etc. Bassist/guy-who-gets-asked-about-being-in-FNM-more-than-anyone-else-who-isn’t Mike Patton, Billy Gould, has been tacitly denying the reunion, but in a manner which I personally find about as convincing as Pamela Anderson’s breasts.
Let me be up front here: I think that I can safely speak for both Vince and myself when I say that an official announcement of a Faith No More reunion tour would be the fastest, best guaranteed way of actually making both of us jizz in our pants. Seriously. I used to sleep with a girl who would whisper “Faith No More are getting back together” in my ear every time I’d been taking awhile and she’d had enough already. Skeet skeet skeet.
That being said, I would like to go on record right now as saying a) I don’t think that a new Faith No More album would be a very good idea for reasons I have stated pretty clearly in the past, and b) if I find out that there’s gonna be a new Faith No More record, I will not be able to stop drooling from the time said news reaches my ears to the time I actually get to hear the album. Yes, I know that’s hypocritical, but I’m just being honest.
ANYWAY, I do kinda wonder who would play guitar on a FNM reunion tour. It seems pretty obvious that it in no way, shape, or form would be Jim Martin – I don’t think he could squeeze it into his busy pumpkin farming schedule – and if having Martin back onboard meant no songs from the post-Martin era, then I wouldn’t want him back, anyway. The band’s last guitarist was a dude named Jon Hudson, but I have no idea what kind of actual contribution he made. If the band were to choose a new guitar player, my ultimate super dork fantasy would be Buckethead, for the following reasons:
- Buckethead is awesome.
- We know Mike Patton is a Buckethead fan.
- Buckethead is awesome.
- I sometimes masturbate whilst imagining an alternate universe where Buckethead was always the guitar player in Faith No More.
- Buckethead is awesome.
- It would make Axl Rose really, really angry.
- Buckethead is awesome.
Now let’s all hold our collective breath and see if the reunion turns out to be a reality.
-AR
I just came.
I’ll agree to have mixed feelings about this as well. I would love to hear a new faith no more album or just some new material. However, I also think that it’s needed just about as much as another Jim Carey movie involving him being forced to act a certain way by some outside force that he con’t control.
Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!
woo
I really hope the reunion happens. Normally I hate when bands get back together; the anger, the desperation for attention, the need for validation is never there when they try to recreate the magic. It always comes off soft and they might as well be playing in a cubicle since it’s just a job anyway. But a FNM could be something worth seeing.
I hope there is some validaty to this, but I could never imagine Patton agreeing to it.
Who care? This band had one hit (”Epic”) and it was the only song of theirs that was even mildly good. Why would a one hit wonder band be so great of a reunion? That Patton guy seems like a douche anyway.
I’m gonna disagree with Axl, about a FNM reunion being unsurprising. The way I remember it, Patton was “too cool” to play in Faith No More since they got mainstream exposure. Patton then tried to go wicked underground with Tomahawk etc.–really, this guy is in pretty much that same boat as Phil Anselmo, but as fate would have it Patton doesn’t get the same kind of derision for running from his past (Patton with FNM, Anselmo with glam-tera).
I always thought it was kind of silly for Patton to try to dis-associate himself from FNM. So I would be hella happy for a FNM reunion as well, but I don’t see it written in stone yet. And I think Jim Martin is sorely overlooked for the riffs he contributed on their albums.
FNM are unbelievably awesome. I’d love there to be a reunion cos they each individually still seem to be at the top of their game. Bar Jim Martin perhaps but I’d agree that it’s better not to have him in exchange for some later material. Seriously, I’d eat this band’s poo.
You masturbate to Buckethead, and you need FNM to get you off? Wow.
This would make my century! But seriously?!?!?! Buckethead?!?!?! C’mon! What would rule is if they could get King Buzzo to do it. Him and patton are in like 32 projects together already, and Buzz rules. Maybe Jim Matin will emerge from a giant pumpkin on stage, Spinal Tap style! And “Ryan”? are you insane? Go listen to angel dust and tell me they have one good song! “Epic” was the worst song on the last 4 albums. Check out the Fantomas/Melvins Big Band dvd! Dave Lombardo and Dale Crover dueling drummers!
I won’t be disappointed if this happens. I’ve been a big fan of FNM ever since “Epic” came out, way back in ‘89 or so. I only saw them once up in SF on their last tour. I also like a lot of Patton’s projects since his FNM days.
We all know Patton has said that he doesn’t feel like there is any need for a reunion, etc so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. I’m not sure about the Buckethead suggestion though. I like Buckethead and saw them perform together as Moonraker at the Knitting Factory LA years ago but I wouldn’t want him to “Bucketheadize” the FNM songs. I haven’t listened to the Gn’R album so I don’t know if he does it on “C.D.” or not.
Martin would be great, but my guess is that it would be someone we don’t expect or don’t even know. I’ll be all over a tour and album if it happens but I’m not going to bother getting excited yet.
@Ryan – Just because you only hear “Epic” and maybe “Midlife Crisis” on the radio doesn’t mean they are just a one hit wonder.
@WCaL – I think it is a stretch to put Patton and Anselmo ‘in the same boat’, when Patton maybe wasn’t excited about it anymore and wanted to do something different and Anselmo went off on heroin binges, etc. due to his back pain, fighting, etc and well publicized negative interviews (whether true or not) and the death of a great guitarist. So it doesn’t seem like Patton would even deserve the same ‘derision’ since his departure didn’t include drugs and death.
A FNM reunion is one of the few reunions I’d actually like to see.
I hope this happens. would be SICK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i7nPy271wQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i7nPy271wQ
Above link is Patton talking about a possible reunion. I hope this happens, been listening to these guys a lot lately and was too young to go to shows when they were at their peak. This reunion would be sick. (tried not to use epic, but hell, it would be.)
Have you SEEN the youtube footage of FNM playing their last tour? Talk about a case study in a band not giving a fuck about the songs they are playing or being onstage with each other. If this reunion is anything like that, holy shit will it not be worth the price of admission, even if Jim Martin and the resurrected Christ himself were part of the lineup.
Plus, as a few others have pointed out, I think Mike Patton is far more interested in doing music he finds stimulating (i.e. Mondo Cane, Tomahawk, Fantomas, etc.) to rehash a bunch of radio friendly hits for any reason or amount of money.
That being said, I wouldn’t mind being wrong about this AT ALL. Seeing ANY line-up of Faith No More kicking out the jams on Digging The Graves, Get Out, Falling To Pieces, What A Day, From Out Of Nowhere, Midlife Crisis, etc… with conviction would be one of the best fucking experiences of my life. Although really, when I say “any line-up” I mean “any line-up that features Mike Patton” because no one is going to rock those songs the way he can, I don’t give a fuck who you are.
Sorry about that double post, my internet explorer screwed up on the first one.
I, in the UK, looked at the article in question in Kerrang and can now confidently report that it is complete unsubstantiated bullshit. NB: same article talks about Blink 182, as if anyone wants that to happen.
It’s either a complete lie, or a misunderstanding. Could be that a Patton’s project/band has been scoping out another tour and that somebody, somewhere down the line, some idiot intern at a venue has got the wrong end of the stick – “you know, the Faith No More guy” “whaa, Faith No More?!?! Thats awesome” etc. Or more likely they made it up. It’s a pile of shit, Kerrang.
However, funny that Ipecac have not responded to the swelling rumour.
I would love to see it happen- – but I doubt it.
FYI. Original FNM frontman Chuck Mosley has a new LP coming out in spring 2009! Could be a big FNM comeback year all the way around!
Check out Chuck’s new official website at http://www.chuckmosley.com
A rough mix of one of the cuts from the new LP is also up on his new MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/chuckmosleyvua along with some new promo shots.
If music is dying, musicians are killing it. Composers are the ones decomposing it. We are as responsible as anyone–although we’d love not to admit it. We lash out at “The Industry”, blaming things like corporate structure for our shitty music–but we are the ones making it. We open the box they’ve given us and jump in, wrap ourselves up, and even lick the stamp. Why? Insecurity–the need for acceptance–maybe even money. We’re not thinking about our music, just how it looks. One would rather have the warm tongue of a critic licking his asshole than the tongue of his spouse. It gives him a sense of validity and power. He seems to defy gravity. Maybe it is because he doesn’t know what the hell else to do. He sees it coming–but freezes with panic like a deer in the headlights. Don’t laugh–I’ve done it and you probably have too. And it has undoubtedly effected out music. (But have we learned anything form it?) We know that we are mostly a lot of slobbering babies who need constant stroking. We realize also in the moral order of society, we occupy positions similar to the thief, pimp, or peeping tom. We know that even if one has the pride of a bull, it is hard enough just to remain focused in this world. It gives us milliona upon millions of images–distractions–all saying the same thing at the same time: DO NOT THINK. If your fantasy and desire give you migraines, how easy it is to forget them when there is so much to look at. Our creations die quickly when abandoned like this. Do we realize that we are eating our young? It seems the passion that moves us is accompanied by an incredible urge to squash it. It is as quick as a fucking reflex–a conditioned response. It it a sexual problem? A puritanical one? The most intense and convincing music achieves a sexual level of expression, but what we normally feel is frigidity and limpness. It is just too easy for an artist to ’socialize’ his desires when life tells him cardboard is OK. You should be ashamed of yourself! What is your fucking problem? If you don’t come out, sooner or later you will die in there. Use chunks of yourself. Bodily fluids. Look left and right. Sift through others’ belongings. Borrow. Steal. And try to achieve some sort of pleasure while doing it. This excitement should increase and intensify when you visualize it being shared by a number of people. Think about it. If it comes from inside you, it is automatically valid–it just may or may not be good. Because if it is not communicating in some way, its pleasure is as short-lived as a quick fuck in the back room. It doesn’t mean shit. The labor of many composers is to construct elaborate walls of sound–but we often forget to leave a window or door to crawl out of. ow can we survive in these clever little rooms? We must eat our creation or we will starve. At this point, we have heard what we wanted to hear–our ears have shut down. We’ve resigned as slaves to our own gluttony. But if we have boarded up our learning environment, our only way out is to teach what we know. Will they listen? Why should they? Because they need you as much as you need them. You can save them from being swallowed up by the world–they can save you from being swallowed up by the world. Young and old players should be seeking each other out and using each other. They should develop a healthy exchange of smut–and learn to wear each other’s masks. In this kind of environment, incredible things can happen. Music can emerge that is athletic and personal. Music that is riddled with contradictions–impossibilities. And that is the shit that can defy gravity.
@mule
How frustrated would you have been if your computer froze while submitting that?
i agree with every point of this article its like it speaks out of my head.
i think that buckethead would be awesome in fnm because it would turn their music into a whole new direction (fnm never really had any bad acid trip shred guitar (not to take anything away from jim martin and trey spruance cos they were awsome)
i think that buckethead or jim martin owuld be great for fnm and so would king buzzo.
i would donate a kidney if they did reunite. and although most reunions suck ass in generalcv i am certain that faith no more are so talented in every single way that after the 10 year break they would bring something new into their music once again and stun us all and save metal.
oh and i read an interview with bill gould in a magazine of a festival where he played with the german band harmful (the czech woodstock) he said that he thinks it would be possible but that theyd need to all get together and talk about it for which there was no motivation. so if bill gould say maybe and patton says maybe that would leave puffy (who i think would probably join cos it must be boring working for ozzy osbourne all those years) and roddy botum (as far as i know imperial teen havent done much so he should be able to get back in) im hypothesising here but in theory seein that none of the members are explicitly against reuniting and a lot of people want them back it seems that it is possible.
i pray 6to god that it is.
Buckethead would be great if the tour lasts three weeks or until he flies the coop (pun intended).