Line #29 Music/FaithNoMore


1	[[quoteright:910:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ezgif_2_234f5c5c13.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:910: The band's lineup from 1997 to the present. [[note]] From L-R: Mike Bordin (drums), Billy Gould (bass), Music/MikePatton (vocals), Jon Hudson (guitar), Roddy Bottum (keyboards) [[/note]]]]
3
4	->''Introduce yourself! Right on!''
5	->''Introduce yourself! Right on!''
6	->''Introduce yourself! Right on!''
7	->''Introduce yourself! Right on!''
8
9	Faith No More is an AlternativeMetal band formed in San Francisco, California in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, vocalist Mike Morris and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later, Wade Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum and Mike Morris was ousted. After going through a series of singers which included Music/CourtneyLove, the band was joined by Chuck Mosley in 1983. The same year, Jim Martin was recruited to replace guitarist Mark Bowen. After a long, long time spent changing the lineup before, eventually, Chuck Mosley was replaced by Music/MikePatton, and the band found massive success with their third album, ''The Real Thing'', which contains their best-known song "Epic".
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11	The band is best known for combining elements of HeavyMetal, {{Funk}}, ProgressiveRock, HipHop, HardcorePunk, and {{Jazz}}, among many, many, many, many others, and is considered one of the most influential rock bands of modern times, "Epic" having massively influenced the NuMetal genre.
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13	They broke up in 1998 but reformed, triumphantly, in 2009. [[http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/faith-no-more-to-release-first-album-in-18-years-plot-u-s-tour-20140902 Their seventh album, the first in 18 years, followed in May 2015.]]
14
15	Oh, and apparently they are destined to one day found the "[[Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney Faith No More Spiritual and Theological Center]]".
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17
18	!! Discography:
19	* ''We Care a Lot'' (1985)
20	* ''Introduce Yourself'' (1987)
21	* ''The Real Thing'' (1989)
22	* ''Angel Dust'' (1992)
23	* ''King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime'' (1995)
24	* ''Album of the Year'' (1997)
25	* ''Sol invictus'' (2015)
26	----
27
28	!! (We care a lot!) About listing tropes regarding this band:
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30	* TheAlcoholic: Billy Gould wrote "Take This Bottle" to express how awful he felt about being one.
31	* TheCameo: From 2010 until his 2017 death, former singer Chuck Mosley occasionally joined the band live to sing one of the ''We Care a Lot'' and ''Introduce Yourself'' tracks.
32	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Patton is a fucking ''specialist'' at this. Crosses easily into ChewingTheScenery.
33	** "Cuckoo For Caca" has this lovely piece: 'YOU CAN'T KILL IIIITT!!! YOU CAN'T KILL IIIITT!!!'
34	** From "Caffeine", this pearl: 'I'M WARNING YOU, I'M WARNING YOU, I'M FUCKING YOU, I'M WARNING YOU'
35	** Most of "Jizzlobber" has Patton on this mode, the chorus in particular:
36	---> "SMILES, BRUISES, SMILES, BRUISES, BARS... IN THE WOOOOOMB! [[MotorMouth IHIDETHEDIRTYMINUTESUNDERMYDIRTYMATTRESSANDTHEYAREMAKINGMEIIIITCH]], MY TIME IS SPLIT MIIIILK!!!"
37	** "Helpless" has a subtle but still creepy example. Near the end of the song, there's [[SelfBackingVocalist three tracks of Mike Patton's vocals going at once]] - two of them are sung call and response parts, the third is just Mike shouting "HELP!" at the top of his lungs in time with the music... The screams aren't given as much emphasis in the mix as the more melodic vocals, but eventually everything in the song fades out ''but'' that part, so the last few seconds of the song are just Mike repeatedly screaming "HELP!" like his life depended on it.
38	* ChurchOfHappyology: The lyrics of "Land of Sunshine" are mostly taken directly from fortune cookies and Scientology personality surveys. Scientology isn't mentioned by name in the song, however.
39	* ClusterFBomb: Well, when you title your song "Motherfucker" and the refrain is "Get the motherfucker on the phone" over and over...
40	* ComedicSociopathy: "Ricochet" has the line "It's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious".
41	* ConceptVideo: The "Last Cup of Sorrow" video is an AffectionateParody of ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'', with Mike Patton as Scottie, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh as Madeleine, and the rest of the band making humorous cameos.
42	* CoverVersion:
43	** "Easy" by the Music/{{Commodores}}, "War Pigs" by Music/BlackSabbath, the ''Film/MidnightCowboy'' theme, "Poker Face" by Music/LadyGaga, "Let's Lynch the Landlord" by Music/DeadKennedys, "Reunited" by Peaches and Herb, "I Started a Joke" by Music/TheBeeGees, "I Wanna Fuck Myself" by Music/GGAllin, "Niggas in Paris" by Music/KanyeWest and Music/JayZ, "Highway Star" by Music/DeepPurple. Not all of these are full covers -- some were brief snippets they would include in the beginning or middle of their own songs when playing live.
44	** In a live performance in the UK they've covered the ''Series/{{Eastenders}}'' theme, to an enthusiastic reaction from the audience
45	* EpicRocking: "The Real Thing", "Jizzlobber", "Zombie Eaters", "King for a Day", their cover of "[[Music/BlackSabbath War Pigs]]"
46	* EvilLaugh: The chorus of "Land of Sunshine" consists of this provided by Mike Patton.
47	* FakeOutFadeOut: The album version of "Anne's Song" fades out near the end of the track, then it quickly fades back in for about ten seconds and [[NoEnding just abruptly cuts off]] -- this is particularly jarring because the next track on the album, "Introduce Yourself", has a LyricalColdOpen.
48	* FatBastard: Their only LiveAlbum was titled ''You Fat Bastards: Live at the Brixton Academy.''
49	* GenreRoulette: Their specialty. There aren't many genres that they ''haven't'' dabbled in at one point or another.
50	* GratuitousForeignLanguage:
51	** "Caralho Voador", from ''King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime'', has a verse in Portuguese (as well as the title [[note]] "Flying Dick", as in "penis" [[/note]]). For bonus points, it's styled after Bossa Nova.
52	** The non-album track "Das Schützenfest", which is sung entirely in German and written in the style of polka. Apparently it's about meeting a girl at a festival held by a rifle club, then making love with her in a pig trough, and there's also a gratuitous ShoutOut to German folk singer Heino somewhere in there.
53	** They have performed live versions of "Evidence" in several languages. The translation isn't always so smooth. A studio version of the song in Spanish was available via iTunes, and appears on the Argentinian release of ''Fool for a Day... King for a Lifetime''.
54	* GratuitousLatin: ''Sol invictus'' translates as "Invincible Sun" in Latin.
55	* GreatestHitsAlbum: They have a few, two with cheeky titles, ''Who Cares a Lot?'' ([[CallAndResponseSong the very first track is]] "We Care a Lot") and ''The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection''.
56	* HarshVocals: Mike Patton occasionally uses these in songs like "Caffeine", "Cuckoo for Caca", "Ugly in the Morning" and "Surprise You're Dead". The most surprising example, however, is "Midlife Crisis", which uses them in the verses, but does it in such a way that it just sounds like a sort of whispered rapping. When most people hear the song for the first time, it sounds completely normal, yet was completely innovative.
57	* IndecipherableLyrics: Patton screaming ''[[MotorMouth DON'TLOOKATMEI'MUGLYINTHEMORNING!]]'' throughout "Ugly in The Morning." [[{{Scatting}} By the end he's just singing gibberish.]]
58	* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: "Crack Hitler", "Jizzlobber", "Cuckoo for Caca", "Naked in Front of the Computer", and "Motherfucker". The latter was a single, no less.
59	* JeopardyThinkingMusic: They'd play it in concert as a joke.
60	* ListSong: "We Care a Lot", listing things the band supposedly cares about as a mockery of Live Aid and celebrity charity songs.
61	* LeadBassist: Billy Gould. Not only is he exceptionally skilled, but he's also one of the band's songwriters, not to mention most of their biggest hits, notably ''Epic'' are completely dominated by Gould's bass playing.
62	* LyricalDissonance:
63	** "Land of Sunshine", which has quite a funky tune, is about cults brainwashing people by asking a lot of personal questions and then pretending these things are 'wrong' and they can help them. [[note]]The song was written by piecing together phrases from fortune cookies and [[ChurchOfHappyology Scientology]] personality test questions.[[/note]]
64	** With its cheerleader samples and generally uplifting tone, "Be Aggressive" sounds like it should be some sort of PepTalkSong... It's actually an ode to gay fellatio.
65	** "Edge of the World" is a smooth, soulful song about a paedophile.
66	* ManOfAThousandVoices: Mike Patton is a musical example, with wildly varying voice pitches. It's perhaps worth noting that his vocal range is [[http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2014/05/digging-deeper-axl-rose-is-not-singer.html considered to be the highest on record]], being three whole notes past the singer with the second-highest range (Corey Taylor).
67	* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Trey Spruance's guitar credit is buried at the very end of the credits in the liner notes for ''King for a Day...'' due to the band being pissed at him for backing out of the band at the last minute after replacing Jim Martin and recording the album (he saw the tour schedule and decided it wasn't for him).
68	* NewSoundAlbum: After releasing a single, "Quiet in Heaven"/"Song of Liberty", and demo cassette in a PostPunk style, they would shift into a more Metal-influenced sound with their debut ''We Care A Lot'', which pioneered AlternativeMetal and FunkMetal, although it is primarily seen as a Post-Punk album. Their later album ''Sol Invictus'' would be a return to their Post-Punk roots.
69	** ''Angel Dust'' was [[DarkerAndEdgier much darker than anything the band had released before]], with the music being much heavier, the lyrics being more disturbing, and Mike Patton ditching the PerishingAltRockVoice he employed on ''The Real Thing'' in favor of a [[GothRock Gothic]] croon.
70	** ''King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime'' was heavier and almost keyboard-less due to Roddy Bottum being largely absent during that album's production.
71	* NonIndicativeName: The title of ''Album of the Year'' is a sarcastic contrast to the band's unhappiness with the final result - the artwork using images of Tomás Masaryk's funeral was selected to represent their imminent breakup.
72	* {{Parody}}:
73	** The video for "From Out of Nowhere" is this to HairMetal music videos.
74	** "Das Schützenfest" is a parody of German polka music, and how music sung in other languages can often include offensive lyrics that would go past the radar of someone who doesn't know the language in question.
75	* {{Oktoberfest}}: Das Schützenfest. (Technically something different than Oktoberfest, but the cliches in the lyrics are the same.)
76	* OneSteveLimit: Averted by singer Mike Patton and drummer Mike Bordin. Their first singer was also named Mike Morris.
77	* PrecisionFStrike:
78	** "Happy Birthday, fucker" and "I deserve a reward, 'cause [[SexGod I'm the best fuck that you ever had]]" from "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies".
79	** There was an improvised PrecisionFStrike when the band performed "Evidence" on ''Series/HeyHeyItsSaturday'', as Mike Patton turned to Bill Gould and said "I think I fucked up".
80	** In live performances, Mike Patton pretty much always adds a couple of these to "Epic" - "it's outta sight" becomes "shit's outta sight", while "so you lay down on it and you do it some more" becomes "so you lay down on it and you fuck it some more" [[note]]the latter was how Patton originally wrote the lyric - he was talked out of it before recording the studio version[[/note]].
81	* PrisonRape: "Jizzlobber" is about Mike Patton's fear of going to prison and (presumably) being raped.
82	* RearrangeTheSong:
83	** The Chuck Mosley era song "New Improved Song" was released on a sampler in 1988, before he left the band. It's possible the band would have intended it on their next album with him, but it didn't happen, so it was rewritten by the Mike Patton lineup as "The Morning After" and appeared on ''The Real Thing''.
84	** The 1989 ''Real Thing'' outtake "Sweet Emotion" appeared on a flexi disc, before it was reworked as "The Perfect Crime" for the 1991 soundtrack to Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey.
85	* RecycledLyrics: "Chinese Arithmetic" and "R n' R", both from ''Introduce Yourself'', share the following passage:
86	-->We've got the same ideas, we got the same old fears;\
87	Different colors sometimes, but hey, who cares?\
88	It's just years that shears our lives apart\
89	like the time you tried to teach your nephew to fart[[note]]In "Chinese Arithmetic", it's "teach your cousin to walk" instead[[/note]] \
90	He couldn't do it. PUSH!
91	** "Last Cup Of Sorrow" includes the lines "Raise your glass and let's propose a toast / to the thing that hurts you most" - this is a slight variation a lyric from "Bloody Mary", an old Music/MrBungle demo ("Raise your glass and toast / To the thing that hurts you most")
92	* {{Retraux}}: The song "Mouth to Mouth" from ''Album of the Year'' is written in the style of the band's work with Chuck Mosley. Mike Patton imitates Chuck's rhythmic style of rapping (similar to tracks like "R'N'R"), and the Middle Eastern sounding music calls to mind the way many of the songs from that period were based around synth lines and tight bass and drum rhythms. The track particularly stands out because the rest of the album is far more driven by electronica and metal. Many fans have wondered what "Mouth to Mouth" would sound like with Chuck on vocals.
93	* {{Sampling}}: In a few songs, most of them on ''Angel Dust''.
94	* ShapedLikeItself:
95	** "Epic":
96	-->[[PunctuatedForEmphasis "What. Is. It?"]] "It's IT!"
97	** "Cuckoo For Caca"
98	-->"Shit! Lives! Forever! 'Cause shit! Lives! Forever!"
99	* ShoutOut: The video for "Last Cup of Sorrow" is an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's ''Film/{{Vertigo}}''. The artwork to the single is modeled after a famous poster for the film.
100	* SoreLoser: "A Small Victory" is sung from the perspective of one. Losing "shouldn't bother [them], but it does."
101	* SpellingSong: "Be Aggressive". With cheerleaders, and everything!
102	-->''Be! Aggressive! B-E Aggressive!''\
103	''B-E-A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!''
104	* SpiritualSuccessor: They have seemingly found one with [[Music/DirEnGrey Japan's most successful metal band]].
105	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: "Motherfucker" has Roddy Bottum speak/rapping the verses, with Mike Patton only singing the chorus. Combine that with an IntentionallyAwkwardTitle and a chorus consisting of a ClusterFBomb, and it was a particularly unlikely lead single for ''Sol invictus''.
106	* StraightGay: Roddy Bottum. Bottum revealed his homosexuality in 1993. In a 2001 article in ''The Advocate'', Bottum stated that "I would never have thought as a gay teen I'd be in a band that would be considered heavy metal or hard rock."
107	* StylisticSuck: The "Everything's Ruined" video, which features laughably obvious ChromaKey and StockFootage, inspired by county fair video booths. While the video is deliberately cheap-looking, it really ''was'' shot on a tight budget - after more lavish clips for "Midlife Crisis" and "A Small Victory", there wasn't much money left for a third video to promote ''Angel Dust''.
108	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: Their cover of [[Music/BlackSabbath "War Pigs"]] was a live staple, so at a certain point they decided to spite the metalhead audience who started to ask for "War Pigs" and go into the Commodores' "Easy", and later Music/TheBeeGees' "I Started a Joke" instead. The band would also cover Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's In Love With You" before their initial breakup.
109	* SurrealMusicVideo:
110	** "We Care a Lot" features constant flashes to a baby. It's never explained.
111	** "Epic" involves the band performing on a soundstage while soaked by a storm, ominous close-ups of Patton, a flopping fish (which they jokingly claimed to have stolen from Music/{{Bjork}}) and Bottum's piano exploding at the end
112	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rcYBP0FdL8 Falling to Pieces]]" includes [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext exploding fish and hands with eyeballs.]]
113	* TakeThat:
114	** "We Care A Lot" mocks {{charity\|MotivationSong}} singles of its era. One line even goes "(We care a lot) about starvation and the food that Live Aid bought".
115	** "Epic" continued the trend by mocking the Music/RedHotChiliPeppers and their [[RapRock song style]] at the time.
116	* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: It's very rare for this band, but they do have an example in their cover of Music/GGAllin's "I Wanna Fuck Myself" - in order to mimic the low-budget feel of the original, they deliberately made the recording quality as murky and indistinguishable as possible.
117	* {{Troll}}:
118	** Bottum wrote the lyrics to "Be Aggressive" as unambiguously about gay fellatio as possible just to see if Patton would actually sing them.
119	** As noted on SurprisinglyGentleSong, to spite the metalheads who wanted "War Pigs" came other songs. Billy Gould stated that "just to see the number of middle fingers go up when we go into 'Easy' is amazing."
120	** Mike Patton has had a reputation for doing off-kilter covers live.
121	* TechnicianVsPerformer: Singers Chuck Mosley and Mike Patton. To put it kindly, Chuck couldn't sing, at least conventionally, but part of his charm was his raw. rhythmic, almost rap-like approach to singing. Mike Patton is a freak of nature with the biggest vocal range, and range of techniques seen in all of popular music.
122	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to the fish from the "Epic" video? [[spoiler:It was returned alive to its aquarium.]]
123	* WordSaladLyrics: A fair part of their discography; "Epic" springs to mind as a specific example, although you will hear all sorts of contradictory accounts of what Mike Patton allegedly said the lyrics mean, many of which are urban legends. Mike has mentioned before that he feels his lyrics are his weakest skill in composition, and he only sees lyrics as another instrument.
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