One of the greatest contributors to
music from the late 80's until present. Born on January 27, 1968 in Eureka, CA, Mike Patton's first project was
Mr. Bungle. In 1988, he took Chuck Mosley's job as frontman for
Faith No More. Patton sang in both Mr. Bungle and Faith No More until Faith No More broke up. In 1999,
Fantômas released their first album charged with the vocal range and lyrical vision of Mike Patton.
Vocal range and lyrical vision define Mike Patton and explain his following. Upon hearing his early work with Mr. Bungle, Faith No More recruited him out of college when he was only 20 years old. Patton brought more to Faith No More than Mosley could have dreamed. The band released four albums with Mike at lead vocals. They peeked with Angel Dust in 1992, easily one of the best albums of the 90's. Chilling Patton vocals with raging Jim Martin metal licks easily made them shine. Two FNM albums followed with musical brilliance, but pailed compared to the 92 masterpiece.
Mike Patton remains one of the busiest artists in the music industry. He released two solo albums in the 90's: Adult Themes for Voice in 1996 and Pranzo Oltranzista in 1997. Adult Themes reveals the darkest sides on Patton(a little too dark for this noder) for the album is Mike and a mic. No instruments, just production. The next year, he used instruments (including John Zorn on sax) for the album Pranzo Oltranzista. Patton contributed to several different projects last decade including disturbing, painful vocals for Milk Cult's Psychoanalytwist on their album Burn or Bury. In 1999, his new band Fantômas released their first album and are due by the end of 2001.
Then there is Mr. Bungle, Mike Patton's first and best project. Read Ldh's WU for band info. While I have listened to their earlier work, their last three albums are produced to perfection which is matched by the musical and lyrical brilliance that is Mr. Bungle. You would think each band member's middle name is "Timing" because of the execution this band displays. I have seen this band twice in concert for the Disco Volante and California tours. On the Disco Volante tour, the entire band wore masks the entire show(Mike in executioner's hood). Patton mocked and frustrated the crowd, only because they ignored the genius sounds of the technically insane album Disco Volante. At one point, the frontman exclaimed,"This is for you assholes we can never please!" Mr. Bungle then played Loverboy's Everybody's Working For the Weekend. They only played one song from their 1991 Warner Brothers release, Quote/Unquote(originally named Travolta), it was the encore and brought the house down! For the California tour, once again Patton's vocals sounded directly off the CD, to blow up La Zona Rosa In Austin. During that show, they played a drum n bass remix of My Ass Is On Fire and a cover of The Thrill Is Gone.
Through the various projects Mike Patton has worked on, forgetting him will be very difficult. Mr. Bungle's self titled 1991 release contains truly, scary Patton lyrics using samples and lines from David Lynch's Blue Velvet, songs about dying family dogs, lyrics of anal rape(My Ass Is On Fire), to a too much information song about his love of masturbation(The Girls of Porn.)While work on Angel Dust and California display dark thoughts about the generic and superficial side of people in society. From hide the feces to emptying a bottle of urine on his head in concert, Patton's earlier years can be described as crazy. But a more mature artist has risen from his past actions. As a test, listen to Mr. Bungle's California. Then listen to the album while reading the lyrics. Try this with FNM's Angel Dust. It's easy to see that incredible music and dark society reflecting lyrics define the best music of Mike Patton.