Podcast Croissant, a podcast dedicated entirely to all things Faith No More, has launched today.
The podcast, hosted by Mike Hayes and Adrian Harte (author of the Faith No More biography, Small Victories, and this website), is available below and on most podcast platforms.
The first episode serves as an introduction to the pod. Each subsequent episode will focus on a different Faith No More subject (album, song, live show, band member etc), while also featuring latest band and band member updates, interviews, plus discussion of general new music.
A big part of every show will be questions and queries from listeners, so please let us know what you would like to hear discussed in later episodes.
If you have any general comments, please feel free to comment below.
We would also like to hear any specific insights or queries you might have on Faith No More’s one and only live DVD/video, You Fat Bastards, the subject of an imminent episode.
Have your say
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You don’t need anything special to listen to Podcast Croissant or any podcast.
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Simply listen at the Podcast Croissant site here or listen to the embedded player above.
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Podcast Croissant will soon by on the Podcasts iPhone app, so you will be able to listen there.
Podcast Croissant is also available here on Spotify
You mentioned Greta Van Fleet I agree but even Them Crooked Vultures was a cash in very unoriginal and just a derivative blend of QOTSA Zepp & Foo’s ! When they really could have explored music they just did a paint by mumbers album!
Jim’s cover of The Pogues’ Navigator on his Milk & Blood album is excellent…I listen to that one all the time. I also really like Hunter Shepard a lot. It was a really good album that I think just didn’t get enough attention or sell well enough. I think he’s got a family and perhaps staying in music to not quite make a good living while also always being away from them may have resulted in his staying home and pumpkin farming. When he played for Infectious Grooves he had commented that he may make more music and to stay tuned. I hope he does. While it’s a lot harder to make any money at it, sites like bandcamp can at least help it find an audience and help the creator actually make the money off of it instead of somebody else in a suit. On the other hand, if it sounds anything like the album “Conflict”, then I take back everything I just said! If Jim reads this, I’m just going to assume that Anand Bhatt is to blame for that album and that Jim just really needed the money!
So Jim can take credit for all the music for Jizzlobber and for going out and recording that swamp cricket sample in the beginning by himself. Bill Gould wrote the keyboard outro. Interestingly during live sets, while Roddy mimes playing it, it actually one long sample that he plays…this is clear from that one clip where Patton totally tackles Roddy and his keyboard and they are out of commission, but the outro plays out just fine! Patton wrote the lyrics and vocal melodies. Now whenever someone writes the meat of the song and has a vision for it, it still matters who the players are. Roddy’s staccato keys and Puffy’s beat really add to the song, and I think if Jim, Bill, and Patton had wrote that song in a different band, it would not have turned out as cool with a different keyboardist or drummer.
Adrian’s book sheds light on this topic quite a bit. But here is an entertaining link where Bill and Jim again squabbled in the press/blog world: https://music.mxdwn.com/2012/11/14/news/faith-no-mores-bill-gould-responds-to-former-guitarist-jim-martins-songwriting-claims/
Jim martins greatest Fnm contribution is without doubt “jizzlobber” but do we actually know how much credit for the song he deserves ? Pattons name also appears as a contributor so who done what ? The lyrics for me are the arguably the best the band ever produced. If the music is Jim’s that kind of surprises me (the use of church type organ) Jims clash with the band members I’d imagine was probably because is wasn’t like the other members in that he liked his metal music to be sounding in the traditional conventional manner. I doubt he cared too much for roddy and his keyboard participation to the bands music which in my opinion is fnm’s best asset and put them miles ahead of any other bands in that genre … especially when Roddy and Patton started experimenting with samples and mashing other songs into their own .. I think Gould was musically progressive and had a similar vision – I was glad he left but didn’t care too much dean menta and was glad to see Jon Hudson who fits in great.
Jim’s musical taste was still quite unique in that he listened to off the radar bands himself (he made reference to “the pogues” during the AD making of vid) I also think if I’m not mistaken it was him who spotted Pattons ability.. could be wrong on that one though.
Marty…I think you may be just putting this out there for the podcast but I’ll chat with you if you like! You made lots of good points that haven’t really been discussed. I suspect the band felt different about Jim’s work on AD and on the tour. I agree the album is great and the shows sound great, but Jim admittedly didn’t like the music from the start and didn’t put energy into his stage presence as he had in the past. So that’s probably not a huge issue either since Jon is not particularly exciting on stage. And yes, Jim lost his father and took on some family responsibilities. The band moved their rehearsals closer to him for that reason, but he still didn’t really show up despite saying “everything’s fine”. The band all seemed somewhat immature with communication problems around that time. They probably could have done more to understand how Jim was going to deny any difficulty. In the meantime, Roddy lost his father and friend and had drug addiction for KFAD. Then, he was more involved in AOTY, but the band didn’t really use his songs. He talked about that on a Imperial Teen bootleg I have about how FNM didn’t like any of his more poppy songs for AOTY, the only song used was “Instrumental” which showed up on Who Cares A Lot? The Imperial Teen song “I’m looking for a family that listens to my songs” says a lot. I think here’s the main difference: Roddy had been fundamental for the band’s first 4 albums, Jim’s sound was important but none of his writing was particularly crucial. And the biggest difference: everyone liked Roddy and no one liked Jim. So if you’re going to make life hard, ostracize yourself, do gross things like bang groupies, not really contribute much music, complain about everyone else’s music, then play well but look bored on stage, then the band will probably give you a hard time (in a band where they thrive on picking on each other already). So I don’t really have any sympathy for Jim. I just have some respect that he did the tour and that he didn’t really snipe in the press as much as the others. KFAD with Jim…couldn’t have happened or would have sucked. I am a crappy guitarist, but I can play the guitar parts of the first four albums pretty much by ear. I have no idea what Trey is doing on some KFAD songs, and really some of Jon’s parts can get intricate (rarely). Jim is a classic metal guitarist and everything filters through. Jon is a prog rock / hard rock guitarist, but is very adept at slinging 70’s funk and Serbian tunes. Trey can play anything he wants forwards and backwards. A lot of people bring up the production and the vocals as why TRT didn’t age as well as other albums, but I feel the guitar sounds kind of cliched as well. My favorite Jim guitar work is on IY with Faster Disco, Anne’s Song, Blood, Chinese Arithmetic, etc. Some fans love The Cowboy Song and want the band to release The Seagull Song….I am not one of them, those songs are obnoxious with the guitar for me.
I’ve nearly finished reading the new Small Victories book. It’s been an incredible journey, as a total FNM fan boy, getting to relive all those memories, and getting deeper context for where the original members came from. So many laugh out loud moments with their early touring mishaps, bitching and fighting!! An incredible level of detail and work clearly went into this book and I will be sad when I finish it (probably this evening). On that note, I’m excited about what the new podcast might offer!!
I have a question that still burns (and has done for many years) that I felt the book touched on, but I feel I haven’t got a conclusive answer on this….
Jim Martin – he clearly caused a lot of trouble for Bill, during the Angel Dust sessions, putting Bill in the position of having to painstakingly work through the guitar parts bit by bit, with Jim being difficult and unavailable throughout the whole process, but, Jim eventually pulled through with Jizzlobber and some really tasty guitar work on Be Aggressive (and maybe a couple more solos on the album – can’t remember off the top of my head). In my opinion Jizzlobber is one of the most amazing FNM pieces of music – heavy, dark, complex, epic … I guess my point is: He came through in the end. And then on tour – Jim played a blinder every night, as far as I can hear in any live recordings – He was a fantastic guitarist – And during the Angel Dust tour he didn’t seem to let the side down at all…
So … Why the beef with him in the end?
I wonder if it was a case that Jim was an easy target for all the in-band frustrations and tensions: It was just easier for the other four to blame Jim and distance themselves from him, instead of facing the harsh realities of how dysfunctional and stressed they all were?
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe behind the scenes Jim just acted like a rock star dick and the others didn’t want that energy anymore.
The reason I find it a little frustrating, is that when it came to the KFAD sessions, Roddy was the one who checked out and didn’t contribute, and while Roddy acknowledges this in the book, saying he accepts that he wasn’t available in a similar way that Jim wasn’t during Angel Dust, he got let off the hook!
Is there not an argument to be made that it was a bit unfair to sack Jim, given that other FNM members had behaved similarly in the past?
And can you guys discuss what you think FNM’s 5th album would’ve sounded like if Jim had still been on board? (perhaps it would not have featured Patton, as I think I read somewhere that Patton said it came to a point where if Jim hadn’t left, he would have).
I guess I find it sad, because Jim’s contributions to the first 4 FNM albums is great! Sure, Bill wrote most of his parts, but that role worked so well: Jim had a great sound and played wonderfully, and when he was allowed to wig out a bit more, he had serious chops!!
Also, do you wonder if the Angel Dust touring pressure, where 4 of the band were essentially bullying Jim, put him off continuing to make music (aside from his Milk and Blood album in 1997)?
The most recent update regarding the band is that interview that Roddy did with The Ring, the Cage, and the Stage
Matt Wallace attempting to intervene is true from the articles and books; however, it took place during TRT recording…and Patton didn’t take the advice. The quote, “This is just how I sing”, even though they had all heard him messing around between official takes with this big full voice. Also, TRT demo tapes him singing regular (not in his nasal character). Interestingly, in Adrian’s book, there is a Matt Wallace interview where he says that Patton was correct to use that nasal vocal style on TRT! I think he thinks that it attracted the crowd better, that Patton was correct…to sing to whiny raged-filled adolescents you have to sound like one. 1991 is such a great live era for FNM because Patton had toured with Bungle where he had essentially dropped the nasal sound, then sang the FNM songs with this mix of nasal and his more mature style. By Angel Dust, he had totally dropped it.
Didn’t Matt Wallace couch/persuade Patton to try singing without the nasally sounding voice on angel dust ? Best advice the man ever got I’d say .. I’m not a huge fan of the “the real thing” album vocally .. the lyrics/music are fantastic but Patton was an irritant for me and i think he tried too hard to sound regular .
If the Matt Wallace above thing is true or not , mike Pattons vocals for “angel dust” and from then after is what really catapulted the band into a red dwarf kind of dimension musically.
You only have to listen to “trt” song live especially while touring with “gnr” to see how many disgruntled fans of the real thing were left behind with all the people who wanted to hear the same old , nothing new , metal-er stereotype of music in favour of the (massive risk) untapped musically dormant/hibernating people that hadn’t got anything of such caliber from 5 band members in a long time (I say 5 band members because I think fnm are like the Harlem globe trotters of music)
FNM podcast is a great idea! Keep the episodes coming guys. Thanks
Thanks Ben. Great comment as always. Interesting on the song snippets. Will try to find out more.
Awesome! For the You Fat Bastards discussion: 1. Me and all my friends had never really heard Patton live at that point and all agreed, “He must have had a head cold or something” meaning he seemed extra nasal! 2. How much money, work, etc does it takes to get approval for song snippets like from NKOTB during WCAL? Did it make getting approval for live releases a nightmare for the record company? 3. What about the rumor that the song titles for The Grade and The Cowboy Song got mixed up…seems pretty probable to me. 4. Sorry no real personal insights!