Booksoup in Hollywood and Green Apple Books on the Park in San Francisco proved wonderful venues for the final two book events of the Small Victories promotion tour.
Last Tuesday’s event in LA attracted a large crowd of Faith No More diehards keen to hear from Small Victories author Adrian Harte and long-time Faith No More producer Matt Wallace. After some initial words from the guest speakers, including the author asserting that Faith No More were in many ways an anti-LA band, a lively Q and A session followed, enlivened by many personal recollections and anecdotes from Matt Wallace.
Author Adrian Harte was joined by two Faith No More members in Mike Bordin and Bill Gould for the San Francisco event and the wonderfully-located Green Apple Books on the Park.
The session was a little more informal, and after a brief author introduction and an even briefer introduction from the author of the two FNM members seated eitehr side of him, a long and wide-ranging audience Q and A session followed for over an hour.
AngelPasto is comments on the last post gave a very thorough rundown of what was discussed and here’s an updated summary of those point and more:
On Epic: they included it in most setlists because it felt right, they didn’t get bored playing it. Moved the song to earlier in the setlist to avoid the sense of people waiting for it. Both made the point that it a song they like a lot, and that they, of course, chose to select Epic as the single that ultimately provided their breakthrough.
On Angel dust: they don’t feel is necessarily their best album, just one album offering a portrait of a specific time of the band, like any of the other albums. Mike said he prefers King for a Day actually. And Bill came equipped with a large previously unopened box of Angel Dust cassettes that he distributed to the audience.
On Last Cup of Sorrow video: Bill explained that it is one of their favourite videos and gave an explanation on how the video was selected, also explained in great detail in the book.
On playing with Chuck versus with Mike Patton: music is played the same, no difference from an execution perspective
On Chile connection: Billy said many of the details in the book were new to him (e.g., the notes about Chilean author Alberto Fuguet). They also said they were in the end cool with Chileans spitting on them, Mike said he was happy to be at the back of the stage though.
Billy mentioned Chilean band Como Asesinar a Felipes as one of the good new bands. In fact, Billy had just come back from Chile, where he was mixing their latest album which includes a collaboration with Chino from Deftones.
The band also spoke in great detail of their Brazil tour experiences for Rock in Rio and the 1991 tour.
On being a San Francisco band: it’s unlikely that the band would be the same if it was based elsewhere, they both agreed. Bill also told the story of how FNM and Primus has both competed in a battle of the bands contest at The Stone but both lost to a third band, who won the prize of an Arista recording contract.
On rotation of guitar players: the core of their creative process does usually not include guitars. Guitar players at some point want to play solo parts, which they don’t seem to appreciate much…
On jamming currently: they hinted they were jamming occasionally until recently, but the site they used in Oakland was flooded about a month ago.
The rehearsal space/studio in Oakland was indeed flooded at the start of the year, and the actual room that the band was using and where Sol Invictus was recorded has been damaged beyond immediate repair. However, all instruments, equipment and great has been salvaged, and the band has now moved into another room in the same complex, previously used by the band Testament, and it is in the process of being set up now.
Thanks from me to Matt, Mike and Bill and all at Booksoup and Green Apple for making these events so unforgettable.
FNM 2.0 is back! I missed you everyday you were gone!
Another good topic /// has any got a favorite riff , drum solo or a part of any of the bands songs that stuck with you ?
I always liked “return to your own vomit like a dog”
I also like the Kronos quartet bit they sampled
The whole song “Khad” is one huge wow weeeeee
But what has blown me away recently was Fantomas / suspended animation – Sunday ————- the start of that song with the classical vibe to it is superb —— anyone know who wrote that part or was it a sample from else where.?
Hello KingCol…I do the exact same thing! Everyday I just look at the latest post and check the comment number.
You asked a very difficult question…I know Bill picked Midnight Cowboy, Bill and Patton together picked I Started a Joke when they heard it in a karaoke bar in Guam…I get a sense that it was because it was so sappy in a powerful way, but that’s a guess. I’m sure Bill had his hand in the Serbia song and the Chilean Violeta Parra cover. I’d love to know the stories behind these choices. Jon played Rich Girl, Strawberry Letter 23, and Switch so well I wonder if he was involved. I tend to think that ultimately Bill was the driving force behind most. But geez, I don’t think there’s any possible way to know when they are taking the piss or not….take War Pigs…there is genuine love from Puffy and Jim, and pretty much no one else. So there you could have half the band showing respect while the other half are making fun.
I dunno if there are more recent comments on other threads here but I normally just check the article at the top of page and the number of comments attributed to it . If it’s at the same number as the last time I checked i move on .
Maybe a good idea for this site would be a comment section that’s not assigned to any thread so random thoughts/opinions etc can be posted …. like this one —->
In relation to past fnm cover versions and song samples and snippets, does anyone know or have an opinion on whether the band collectively or solely chose which songs to insert into their musical armoury ? And do you think that they were taking the piss out of any particular artists that they covered or only covered songs/bands that they actually liked?
Was any of the band members ever asked this question? maybe some of the songs were chosen because they were popular at the time of being covered perhaps?
This thought entered my head while listening to the live version of “I started a joke” in 95 when they start the song with “take that” and i wondered if it was chosen as a joke or pun because of the bee gee’s actual song title or did they or any particular band member perhaps like the “Take That” song/band/singer or whatever? It seems a pretty random song that i think not many people would have known about if it was a piss take unless you lived in Ireland or England… i for one actually think Gary Barlow is a strong vocalist and a pretty decent singer given that i doubt most people (especially rock/metal fans) would dare admit…
Looks like no more podcasts ? Revisiting a lot of older songs lately – “why do I bother” live and “the world is yours” live are the standout tracks for me . Yea , I agree with benrum – it would be nice if faith no more just plopped into the deep end musically and produced an album that is not being shackled with it having to be in the “must be able to play it live” box ..
FNM should strongly consider releasing an album with no plan to tour it. I feel like the last time Patton released a crazy musical composition was California and that it was so hard to reproduce live that he has descended into more raw music, which is fine, but for variety a bonkers studio album would be nice as well. FNM went crazy on Angel Dust, and then reigned in the chaos for the next almost 30 years. Everything after are fine musical statements, but when you worry about the live show, I think it can stifle imagination some.
No need for me to read the above – ‘angelpasto’ already filled us in (spookily almost word for word) via his comment in last thread. who is this so called ‘angelpasto’ ? How is he one step ahead of the author?? Has he stolen the identity of mr Harte?? Has he kidnapped him and forcing him to blog from the boot of his car while he continually plays epic over the car stereo? If the next podcast sounds claustrophobic or uncomfortable we’ll know. Ps : dear anglepasto , please get me a signed book while the Stockholm syndrome is fresh
Excellent! Good stuff! But did anyone beg and plead for some official live releases for the love of all that is decent? Did anyone ask Bill & Mike to please get on with it, get Jon and give Castro Sinatra another try?