Mike Patton

[alliercollins]

Well I see everyone doing their fanboying for their favorite singers, albums, bands, and so forth... Usually I just keep quiet, but I can't resist this one time.

Does anyone listen to anything by Mike Patton? He is by far my favorite singer and if I were to power rate singers by stuff like range, versatility, etc... I would put him first. This isn't a naive gesture either, I go way back with many, many types of music and have heard arguments for all of these different singers, but I change a lot of them when I get people to listen to this man sing. Basically you have a man who can sing almost anything humanly possible and can go beyond that with digital editing... He can go as high as you need and as low as you need, while constantly changing the way his voice sounds. I mean you can listen to a song that he has done and swear that it's a few different lead singers in it, singing each part.

If you look him up anywhere, he and his groups are considered pretty much the most influential of our time. All the "big" rock groups now have them listed as influences and any songs you hear nowadays probably had their style previously done a decade or so ago by Patton.

Groups he has been a part of:
-Mr. Bungle - They started in the mid 80s as a college group, continue on today... This was a very talented group that would put out albums with many different songs that each was a completly different style of music, all for the sake of trying to match up with Mike Patton's vocals. I mean 13 years ago these guys were doing Slipknot like stuff, ska, and some other before their time songs. Each album was completly different though, along with every single song.

Good Songs are:
My Ass Is On Fire - Slipknot like song with like 20 different vocal changes.
Carousel - Ska with insane speed singing
Retrovertigo - Slow, well sung rock song
Slowly Growing Deaf - Slow rock song that shifts into fast punk song
Sweet Charity - Beach Boys type song with a harder edge
Goodbye Sober Day - One of the strangest songs you will ever hear, but amazing nonetheless.

-Faith No More - Most people have heard of this group. They were popular on MTV during the first half or so of the 90s. They started in 1985 with Courtney Love as their lead singer, then dropped her for Chuck Mosely. As they were breaking out they fired Chuck and begged college singer Patton to join them, while their other choice was Chris Cornell. Patton finally agreed and they took off. Unlike Mr. Bungle though, they kept their music straight up and didn't try to change it with Patton's vocal shifts. It came off as good though, but they admittingly were no where near as big in their day as they were after they broke up in I think 1999. After that break up, all of these huge rock bands started naming Faith No More as their influence and they became legends in the rock world.

Good Songs Are:
Epic - 1989 white boy rap song that is crossed with a Wheatus like sound
MidLife Crisis - Grunge sounding song, almost pulls off something like Alice In Chains with a lot of vocal shifts.
Ashes to Ashes - Rammstein like vocals to Wheatus to something in between. Sad song though.
Easy - Cover song, very R & B sounding.
A Small Victory - Great vocal rock song
Last Cup Of Sorrow - Very edgy rock song, strange but good vocals
Stripsearch - Almost sounds like Seal..
Kindergarten - Fun to listen to as he goes from high to low on the same word.


-Fantômas - Combonation of Melvin's guitarist, Mr. Bungle's Bassist, and Slayer's Drummer. They are an experimental metal group that has done three albums so far. The first was set to a comic book and was simply sound effects that came off as something more. It's really weird, but cool to hear. The second was a cover album of their favorite movie theme songs, and the third was one long, but well structured song that they put their heart and soul into.

Good Songs:
Experiment In Terror - This one tests the strangness and the range of Patton
Spider Baby - Fun song to listen to, very deep voice and creepy background vocals

-Tomahawk - This is a combo of The Jesus Lizard's guitarist, Melvin's bassist, and Helmet's drummer. This is an experimental metal/southern rock group.

Good Songs:
Sweet Smell Of Success - Very strange vocals, between a raspy voice, a smooth voice, and then a southern sounding rock voice.
God Hates A Coward - Insane song that he does behind this special singing mask that allows him to make it sounds like he is echoing in a room. I have seen him do it live, it's really really cool to hear.

Other Stuff to look for:
Lovage - Techno Group

His solo stuff, which is all experimental. he did a whole album of sound effects with his voice and some vocal tools.

He also has lead sang for other groups when they needed someone to fill in, like The Dillinger Escape Plan and Sepultura.


So anyway yeah, thanks for listening to my little thing about Mike Patton. I hope before you judge, you try at least a few of his songs. Every song you hear will be completly different, so you may hate one and like another, while not even being able to comprehend that it's the same guy on both songs. :)

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

I've been a FNM fan since The Real Thing. I was totally into "Edge of the Word" during Operation Desert Storm. I'd bought several more albums going back to Introduce Yourself and as new as King for a Day...

For the most part, I enjoy Patton's music and singing. At some point, I'll get around to the side projects. Tomahawk sounds interesting.

[alliercollins]

I think Mr. Bungle is the best of the bunch, but Tomahawk is an interesting and mature sound. I'm glad that someone else likes Faith No More though, it's strange that so few people listen to any of it.

I just wanted to start this thread simply because I was reading the JoJo thread and they were talking about who had real talent for singing out of all the female singers. I couldn't resist starting a thread about the one male singer who can sing any type of style and never sound the same on any song.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

As far as that thread goes, I'll be nice and respect their opinions. I have my own ideas about talent for female singers.