Mike Patton Week : Friday - Day 5

Recorded by Mike Patton in various hotel rooms, supposedly during a Faith No More tour in 1995, Adult Themes for Voice is a completely useless, non-musical, yet somehow fascinating, series of recordings. He bends, stretches, howls, woops, coughs, hacks, giggles, screams, oook ooooks, lip smacks, slurps, hums and makes that creepy sound sound in the back of his throat by slowly sucking in air. You know, that sound your older brother used to make to scare the shit out of you after you watched Halloween. Mike Patton is truly a man who lives and creates without any sort of creative boundary what so ever. There is not a single song to be found on any of these 34 tracks. There is plenty of feedback, mechanical manipulation and vocal experimentation. And I just really want you to have it. And not because of any weird "Ring" like curse where I have to give this album to someone else or I will be killed. I swear, it's nothing like that.

for you

And so, good citizens, Mike Patton (work) week has come to an end.

Good night, good luck and good riddance.

Mike Patton Week : Thursday - Day 4

Mike Patton enlisted an impressive and vast range of collaborators for the debut Peeping Tom effort. Word is he exchanged song ideas with the prospective partners via song files online, each side independently altering and adding until the finished product was created. There were no jam sessions or free flowing brainstorming as a traditional band would. Patton took what would normally be viewed as an intimate process of creation and made it cold and impersonal. Replaced was the exchange and communication between creative forces, instead there is only the ultimate and indifferent truth that what was once yours has been morphed and altered into a new creature. "Instead of swapping spit...we were swapping files," Patton appropriately points out on his Ipecac label's website. The result is both surprisingly passionate and not surprisingly diverse from track to track. Artists such as Kool Keith, Odd Nosdam, Dan the Automater, Amon Tobin, Jel, Massive Attack, Bebel Gilberto, Kid Koala, Doesone, Dub Trio and Norah Jones each tweaked and shaped their tracks independent of Patton himself. The album ranges in styles from rock to lounge to funk to alt. hip-hop and to electro, but always there is a general pop friendliness throughout. It is easily the most accessible creation for Patton since his FNM days. This is not meant to be disparaging, there is a serious drought of decent and interesting pop talent these days and Mr. Patton is more than willing to fill yet another musical void. It's an album that is easily enjoyed and is a perfect record to spin, with its' plentiful alt hip-hop beats, at your next party. Unless you want everyone sitting on the couch watching t.v. or standing in the kitchen just staring at each other. Hey man, it's you party... what do I care.

SUCKER

Mike Patton Week : Wednesday - Day 3

BEHOLD! Mr. Bungle's second album, circa 1995 Anno Domini, Disco Volante. You should fear this album, you should love this album and you should force this album on the unsuspecting public whenever the opportunity arises. The most experimental of Mr. Bungle's three albums, that is saying something folks, it explodes with an array of sounds and seemingly random expressions. Rock, disco, scat,circus, jazz, avante-garde,sci-fi, death metal, cartoon, industrial, doo-wop, horror, techno and I can't even remember what else... just fill in the blank with whatever style you want, you'll probably be right. The album twists and turns with violent disregard and while there are some accessible moments, they are just that: moments. Try to hold on to them, but all effort will be for naught. If you are willing to be absorbed by this album, it absorbs you- not the other way around, then you will find yourself on an acid trip voyage through the realm of the absurd, demented and obscene. "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz" sounds like a declaration of the cartoon apocalypse. You know, when the cartoons rise against us and crawl out of our televisions and murder us all. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, my words are useless when trying to describe something so foreign, so fanciful and so God damn brilliant.

if you don't like Mr. Bungle
you are an asshole.

BONUS LINK
ha ha ha ha

Mike Patton Week: Tuesday - Day 2

For your consideration... Fantomas' second album The Director's Cut. Comprised of Mike Patton (FNM, Mr. Bungle, Peeping Tom, etc.), Buzz Osborne (The Melvins), Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Testament, Grip Inc.) and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3), Fantomas are a super group of pretty awesome musicians and are somehow douche-bag free. A rarity in the land of so called "super groups." With a firm foundation in metal, Fantomas wanders freely in the more experimental waters of noise and avant-garde. The Director's Cut pays homage to great songs of film via Fantomas' inspired renditions of them. Included, but not limited to, is the theme from "The Godfather", the lost silent classic "Der Golem", "Cape Fear", "Charade", "Rosemary's Baby", "Spider Baby", and (of course) "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me". Why in the world would Fantomas do a cover album of movie themes, you ask? Well, Fantomas can do whatever the fuck they want. But, beyond that truism is the reality that these are not just covers. They are expansions and reinterpretations of classic pieces of cinema music. Each song will seem both familiar and foreign as they travel between the music you know and the realm of Fantomas. "The Godfather" opens the album as familiar as the standard version every red blooded American knows so well. But, it soon becomes apparent that while these are tributes, nothing is too holy that it cannot be dissected and re-envisioned wholly. The Director's Cut is a series of unique visions as singular as the films from which they came. Oh yeah, and it's totally bad ass.

"Fuck The Bears"

Mike Patton Week: Monday - Day 1

Welcome to Mike Patton (work) week. Monday to Friday will feature work by said artist. Why does Mike Patton deserve a week dedicated to his musical efforts you ask? Because Mike Patton is a real American hero, that's why.


Angel Dust was Faith No More's fourth full length, but only their second with Mike Patton at the helm. It was also his first as a contributing song writer. For a major label and so called mainstream release, this album was revolutionary. Scratch that- even if it had been some underground indie label release, Angel Dust was simply breathtaking and proved that this band was not content to rest on any laurels purchased with The Real Thing profits. It pushes boundaries of thrash, funk, punk, hip hop, cheer-leading chants, Native American chants and whatever else they could fit into the studio. Angel Dust combines so many genres and ideas so seamlessly that you will quickly realize how silly and restricting the notions of genres can ultimately be. It takes a uniquely talented group of artists to meld together their disparate individual visions and influences and create something so wholly perfect as this album. It contains experimental aspects, but this album is a fluid and accomplished masterpiece of music. It blew my fucking 8th grade mind when it first came out, and continues to do so today. For Angel Dust not to be on a top 10 albums of the 90's list, completely invalidates the given list. This album has it all.

Without me, you're only you.