FAITH NO MORE INTRODUCE YOURSELF 28

FAITH NO MORE's second album celebrates it's 28th year since release today. 

In dedication to this outstanding album in FNM's catalogue we have collected a selection of articles for your reading pleasure.

Press Release

FAITH NO MORE is not to be confused with faithless. This iconoclastic quintet believes in just about anything. INTRODUCE YOURSELF is a demonstration in all that is forsaken. Chaotic power is infused with an emotional undercurrent that gloriously crests and mercilessly crashes. INTRODUCE YOURSELF is a dare made with two clenched fists. 

FAITH NO MORE was christened in 1982 and managed to operate from a San Francisco / Los Angeles base. Singer Chuck Mosley was anchored in Los Angeles and would commute to and from San Francisco, where the other prophets resided. In December of '85, FNM recorded their first LP for Mordam records. An obligatory tour followed and they returned after spreading their cacophonous beliefs across the U.S. The hardships of traveling this expansive continent in a '66 Dodge and stolen Jartran trailer is what they endured to establish their name on college radio and dance charts. 

Mission accomplished. FNM converted a few folk with the tune "WE CARE A LOT". With its pounding backbeat and unforgettable chorus, "WE CARE A LOT", displays cynical naivety using haughty lyrics and edgy bump and grind playfulness. It was re-recorded for INTRODUCE YOURSELF, with updated lyrics that address today's pressing social issues. Taking their dance antics into a raptuous philosophy is "ANNE'S SONG", which holds a solid bass groove while it bobs and weaves through lacerating drum punctuations as if crossing a mined field. The songs "SPIRIT" and "DEATH MARCH" obliterate notions of naivety and cast a melancholy shadow around FNM's confrontational perserverence. 

INTRODUCE YOURSELF leaves no room for passivity. Credit the fact that this contemptuous posse have very different and varied histories. Keyboardist, Roddy Bottum, joined FNM after 10 years of classical piano training. Drummer, Michael Bordin preferred the tribal, primitive rhythms and was studying African drumming when he was recruited. Guitarist, Jim Martin, enlisted after a bout with Vicious Hatred, a San Francisco metal band. Singer Chuck Mosley, grew up listening to Motown and was inspired by Devo. Billy Gould had been playing in a band with Chuck and cites the Sex Pistols and Germs as his main role models. These volatile influences assail each song, affirming FNM as the sonic touchstone for each individual member. 

INTRODUCE YOURSELF is a record that bridges the extremes. It is the acknowledgement and unification of everything between heaven and hell. Witness the riveting alchemy FNM possesses on INTRODUCE YOURSELF.

Reviews

Decibel

It was the riffs primarily that got us. Amidst floating keyboards, funky bass and rock-solid drumming there are some grinding riffs that just kill. Regardless of the other influences at play here, you can tell that Martin had metal in his blood. His guitar work was never anything other than heavy and dark. Whether it's twisty, snaky licks or full-on thrash-like chug-a-rama, he brought the heavy to Faith No More. Witness "The Crab Song" crusher that kicks in around 2:45.

All music by Greg Prato

On Faith No More's major-label debut, Introduce Yourself, the Faith No More that you've grown to know and love finally rears it's ugly head (much more so than on their 1985 independent release We Care a Lot). All the ingredients are there, but like its predecessor there's one crucial item missing, super-vocalist Mike Patton. This would be original singer Chuck Mosley's last outing with the band, before he was ejected due to erratic and unpredictable behavior. Still, the album is consistent and interesting, with Mosley's out-of-tune vocals being an acquired taste to most. "The Crab Song" is one of their most underrated tracks, which packs quite a wallop when guitarist Jim Martin's heavily saturated guitar kicks in. The title track is an enjoyable and brief rant, and the loopy bass and irresistible melodicism of "Anne's Song" should have been a hit. There's also a slightly updated version of "We Care a Lot" included, and the resulting video gave the band their first taste of MTV success (but nothing compared to what they'd experience with their heavily rotated breakthrough "Epic"). A step in the right direction toward the deliciously twisted sound they'd achieve on later releases.

Sputnik

Faster Disco is one of the aforementioned tracks, with a pretty recognisable sound accompanying it. Guitarist Jim Martin and keyboardist Roddy Bottum are the key factors in this sound, with the formers crunchy, triplet-laden riffs and the latter’s atmospheric keys filling the soundscape admirably. It doesn’t hurt to have a rhythm section that is consistently spot-on, alongside bassist Billy Gould’s hand in writing eight of the album’s ten tracks, including the self-penned closer Spirit. Given that these factors remained after the departure of Mosley keeps the band’s overall sound from making a really serious shift, instead being given the chance to shape and grow naturally. Admittedly, however, all these traits help the disc from falling completely flat, but ultimately aren’t enough to save this sophomore outing. 

Sounds | 1987 | Steffan Chirazi

BITTERNESS. ALCOHOL. Skate-boarding. Anger. Jim Martin (guitar), Bill Gould (bass), Mike Bordin (drums), Chuck Mosley (vocals), Roddy Bottum (keyboards). We're Playin' a little game of 'association' here, and all the above have one common, binding link... the Faith.Oh I know that you lot don't know what the bloody hell this is all about, but believe me I ain't religious, it's obsessive and extremely caustic. Each is a vital component of one of the best oiled new cogs on the big new music wheel. Introduce yourself... Faith No More. 

Now I dont as a rule push my luck with employers, but when Boss Banon murmured something to me about not being too sure about his FNM pre-release tape of the spanking debut LP 'Introduce Yourself', things had to be said. "Don't be so damn stupid man," I thundered, eyes bulging down the fragile transatlantic line, "put the bloody thing back on now and listen to it loud and stop being so .. .so.. .so measly!" 

The guitar. A grinding weapon, a swirling mass of six-string aggression, signs of the Sabbath creeping in, yet not without a small dash'of the mighty Metallica here and there. But as if to contradict that, within those very same grooves be the most hauntmg, melodic and poignant keyboards. Add to it all a murderously solid rhythm and a voice that could become one of 1987's great wailing larynxes and you have here a band that are certain to interest everyone from mincing wimpos to stomping death thrashers from hell.

" Washington Boulevard, East Bound....33, can I get a transfer man? 95 cents fuck you I'll skate to the beach. And I'll look better getting there."

The start to the song 'Death March', complete with Martin and Bordin beating bongos behind Chuck's melancholic tale of woe in LA. Faith No More believe in themselves, they know it's tough, but they will tour the USA for three months in a hire truck to get there. That's why they are enjoying a sudden delayed surge of interest in the USA. The albums already been our for some three months there. Here in Blighty, London records have only just released the aforementioned LP.
But with FNM being new to Europe, I guess you wanna understand just where the faith is coming from. Let's start in LA 1980 with Chuck Mosley and Bill Gould. Both were on the LA circuit, both in an LA band looking for the breakthrough. Chuck was always going to be in a band. He too was in LA, and having sober school days with Fishbone and played in Alice Cooper's Hollywood Vampires baseball team, t'was inevitable that he would join up with Bill and look for that magic mix.
Gould had gone to catholic and grammar school with Roddy Bottum, and Bottum had trained as a classical pianist....the third member was there. Mike Bordin was plucked from Berkeley University, where he was studying the arts of African rhythms among other things. Add a guitarist to this lot, and you have the first solid incarnation of FNM, a band based in LA and SF.The guitarist at the time was not working out too well. Cliff Burton (late Metallica bassist), a long time pal of Bordin's and Jim Martin, repeatedly suggested that if they were unhappy they should try Jim. Everyone knew weirdo Jim. Jim the strange. Jim the erratic. Him the brilliant malevolence behind Bay Area punishers Vicious Hatred. And one day Cliff's advice was taken, Bordin was reunited with his old pal and the real missing ingredient joined the melting pot. The Faith as we know it today was born. 

The heavy gigging started in earnest, FNM finding big college radio interest throughout the USA. They were signed by SF indie Mordam Records and released a self titled debut effort done on minimal budget, which received wide acclaim from the underground. The States and it's various piss hole clubs were seen from two transit vans, while FNM's underground  following grew and grew via the performances. sometimes in places akin to broom cupboards. Faith No More hit college 'God' status for life, weasled into dance charts and hooked Metal fans with their blatant volume and crashing rhythms. 

"I'VE ALWAYS really been my African beats and styles for their intensity," explains Mike Bordin, "and slowly I think the other guys got to see that there's a lotta power in that style. Bill's picked it up too, and it certainly makes for a stronger song." 

Bordin further states the advantage of having Martin, a guitarist who could become some sort of perverse 'axe hero'. "Visually we just do our own thing, we don't ever try and rehearse. And before anyone asks us about our hair (Bordin and Bottum have big, puffy dreaded lumps of hair), it's like that 'cause we want it like that. It's just us, not a 'band look' or anything pussy like that. We do things for us, and I guess that's the bottom line." 

It is a recent development that has seen the bigger boys leap for the Faith. Bob Biggs, president of Slash Records (the label for Los Lobos, and a Warner Bros affiliate) took a huge likmg to the death-charged, bombastic power of FNM, and signed them quickly. He gave them a budget, had Lobos' Steve Berlin co-produce, and got a video on MTV for the first US single. 'We Care A Lot'. 

BIGGS, the man behind much of the early LA punk scene, has openly declared his faith in Faith, and London Records snapped them up for European distribution. The latest word is that Warner Bros might very well take Faith all to themselves. The final icing?  The interest of Quiet Riot manager Warren Entner, who has just undertaken officially management duties. Moreover, FNM aren't about subtlety. "Subtlety is for old people," drawls Jim, "subtlety is for people who blow their noses into handkerchieves in the bathroom. We're not subtlety  'cause we blow our noses through OUT mouths onto the sidewalk. No way are we in with that subtlety shit. The record company mentioned that our record had to have a subtle  sleeve, so that what I said back. I'm doing the next sleeve though."

If you see a guy with a bottle in a brown paper bag, a pencil and sketch pad, it's Jim Martin. If you see an example of human combustion in front of you, chances are that person was listening to FNM. They tour Britain soon: the feeling live is just as painful but much more pleasurable. Introduce Yourself is the next big thing early.