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Mike Patton’s many bands – infographic
Mike Patton, a founding member of Mr. Bungle and a replacement member for the more successful Faith No More, goes far beyond those two bands. Even before the start of his label Ipecac Recordings, and definitely continuing afgterwards, his offshoots and one-offs are VAST… this Mike Patton infographic tries to tie the history down through now…
(click for larger – it’s massive)
It’s put together by Pedalja for Russian website Svinovik.ru. Some of the separate drawings are on this blog.
They’ve got their work cut out for them, if they plan on keeping this up-to-date, as it’s already out of date. (Seriously, Mike’s a busy guy.)
The future of Zorn’s Masada Book Two
Every time I talk about it, I’ll state that Masada Book Two is one of the best series on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. The quick premise: One page of music in a book of 300+ tunes, given to others to interpret and record.
Who has done it so far (bold being my faves so far): Jamie Saft Trio, Masada String Trio, Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier, Koby Israelite, The Cracow Klezmer, Uri Caine, Marc Ribot, Erik Friedlander, Secret Chiefs 3, Bar Kokhba Sextet, Medeski Martin & Wood, Masada Quintet featuring Joe Lovano, Mycale, The Dreamers, Ben Goldberg Quartet, Masada String Trio, and Cyro Baptista’s Banquet of the Spirits.
All seventeen thus far as stupendous releases… you can’t go wrong, especially if you love improvisational jazz and klezmer. Listen: Amazon search page.
Good Aural blog posted the following yesterday:
According to John Zorn, Tzadik records will release about four—possibly five—more Masada Book Two albums in 2012. It’s amazing to think that we’ll be hearing volumes 18, 19, 20, 21, and maybe even 22 of Zorn’s Book of Angels by the end of next year.
Want a preview of who’ll be playing on these upcoming volumes? Here are the new Book of Angels releases planned for 2012:
New Klezmer Trio
Clarinetist Ben Goldberg is a pioneer in avant-garde Jewish music. His New Klezmer Trio released their first album, Masks and Faces, in 1992; it was reissued on Tzadik in 1996. New Klezmer Trio has since released several more albums on Tzadik: Melt Zonk Rewire and Short for Something.
In 2010 Goldberg recorded Baal: the Book of Angels vol. 15 with Masada book veterans Greg Cohen, Jamie Saft, and Kenny Wollesen. This new Ben Goldberg Quartet was assembled and conducted by Zorn himself.
Finally, Goldberg plays clarinet with the acoustic ensemble Tin Hat, which appeared on the Masada anniversary album Voices in the Wilderness.
David Krakauer
David Krakauer is a clarinetist firmly rooted in both klezmer and classical music. His band, Klezmer Madness!, incorporates elements from funk, jazz, and a variety of other genres. He has collaborated with the Kronos Quartet and made several releases on Zorn’s Tzadik label, including Klezmer Madness! and Klezmer, NY.
Given that Krakauer has collaborated with Uri Caine and played both clarinet and bass clarinet on John Zorn’s seminal Kristallnacht, it’s only natural that he should (finally!) record a set of tunes from The Book of Angels.
Pat Metheny
Guitarist Pat Metheny recorded the acclaimed free jazz album Song X with Ornette Coleman and recorded Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint” with Kronos Quartet. Metheny’s upcoming Book of Angels entry is planned as a solo performance.
And Beyond…
Whatever Masada Book Two compositions remain will be recorded on one or two albums by artists not yet announced. Once those are completed, we’ll have finally reached the end of this chapter in Masada’s legacy. But for hardcore fans of this music, there’s still plenty to come.
On the horizon: Masada Book Three.
Good Aural apparently heard the news from John Zorn himself. I had heard rumors of the Pat Metheny one in the past, and the other conspirators are consistent with who Zorn has worked with in the past. I’m hoping Mike Patton’s Fantômas does something in this series in the future. It’s not out of the realm – they did one song for the Unknown Masada album in 2003 (a pre-cursor to the Masada Book Two concept). Oh, or the Moonchild Trio!! That would kick ass.
Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane – North American Tour
Update July 2011: it looks as though funding fell short for a North American Mondo Cane tour for 2011.
Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane was one of the absolute best albums of 2010… and by far the best packaged piece of musical art. He took it on the road for a few European dates and a San Francisco date in 2010, but sadly nothing else. Well, just announced on Cyro Baptista’s Facebook page and confirmed on Patton’s PR firm The Agency Group’s bio page (quote below), Mondo Cane will be at New York City’s Lincoln Center (in August – no specific date yet) with a North American tour as well:
Upcoming appearances include a concert at Lincoln Center with John Zorn, presented by New York City Opera, and a North American tour of Mondo Cane.
I’m hoping there is a good West Coast date or two… Portland? Seattle? Vancouver? Hell, I’ll even hit San Francisco if I can. No word on dates yet, but once they’re announced, be sure I’ll post them! Note: There is already a confirmed date in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 17, 2011.
If you don’t know about Mondo Cane – it’s not like Mike Patton’s other work (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Tomahawk, et cetera). It’s his 50s Italian pop big band group… listen to some samples over on the Amazons:
Artists of the Decade – 2000s (#11 to 20)
Artists of the Decade – Honorable Mentions (1/1/2010 blog link)
- Dweezil Zappa
- Tori Amos
- Celldweller
- Iron & Wine
- King’s X
- Derek Webb
Artists of the Decade (#21 to 25) (1/1/2010 blog link)
25 ~ Ben Folds (solo)
24 ~ Peter Mulvey
23 ~ Opeth
22 ~ dredg
21 ~ Holy Fuck
And now round 2…
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20 ~ Pedro the Lion (and David Bazan solo)
Pedro the Lion released their two most powerful and poignant albums in the early 2000s (Control and Achilles Heel), then frontman David Bazan decided to disband PTL and go solo (though by the 2000s, the writing was primarily Bazan anyway with hired guns for studios and tours). Prior to his first full length solo album, he did a side project called Headphones, put out annual Christmas 7″ vinyls, and released a split electric/acoustic EP. At the end of the decade, he hit the ground running with his fantastic “breaking up with God” record, Curse Your Branches. He’s been touring in a solo fashion fairly regularly since 2007 or so and is going to hit the road again this coming spring…
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19 ~ Jurassic 5
Jurassic 5 combined four well-versed, naturally flowing MCs (Chali 2Na, Soup, Marc7 & Akil) and two melodic, creative, musicianship-driven DJs (Cut Chemist and NuMark) to create some excellently catchy hip-hop and rap. What I loved about them is that they weren’t all about the “drugs and bitches” that the gangsta rap had just previously been all about (don’t get me wrong, I love Dr. Dre’s The Chronic from the 90s, but J5 tended to keep it positive and definitely more musically-inclined). All six members have gone on to do solo albums and/or side projects after the band’s official breakup in the late 2000s… my faves have been Cut Chemist’s The Audience’s Listening and Chali 2Na’s Fish Outta Water. I still long for a reunion record, and I bet it’ll happen… maybe in the 2010s?
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18 ~ My Brightest Diamond
Shara Worden’s utterly gorgeous, operatic voice is almost too much for the indie rock scene. Almost. It seems to fit in perfectly with Sufjan Stevens’ quirky folk and her own lush My Brightest Diamond string-infused indie pop (and the subsequent remix LPs/EPs centered around her studio albums). In a live setting, her voice is powerful and sublime, and her stage presense is charming. If you can get ahold of her pre-MBD band CDs, do so (AwRy was the name of the band).
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17 ~ Nellie McKay
Her debut, Get Away From Me, is a 2-disc / 18-song satirical, poignant, humorous & angsty romp. The tag-line of “Eminem meets Doris Day” rang true. She followed it up with a couple of more subdued albums with the occasional harder edge tune, and then by decade’s end, she released a Doris Day only album. It seems somewhere along the line, she lost the Eminem edge, but she ended up still topping my list with the more gentle album. Her live performance for the Doris Day material was fantastic – which definitely helped its appeal with me. She’s a vegetarian and animal rights activist, too… so, definitely on my friendly artists list.
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16 ~ Secret Chiefs 3
Book M and Book of Horizons (both in the early 2000s) were SC3’s last officially “SC3 studio albums,” but since 2007, they have been busy with a handful of impressive 7″ vinyl singles, a “greatest hits” compilation, an amazing John Zorn Masada Book Two release in 2008 (Xaphan), a great concert DVD, a soundtrack to a made-up movie, and the ever-lasting promises of the Book of Souls (an album in the making… since… 2005?).
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15 ~ Over the Rhine
In 2001, I think Over the Rhine made one of the best albums of their career… Films for Radio. They followed with a stunning double-album (Ohio), several solo albums by pianist Linford Detweiler, four live compilations, a few more pretty darn decent albums (including a new holiday album), and continual touring every spring & fall/winter. All in all, it was a pretty solid decade of a healthy work ethic. I’m curious what the 2010s will bring in the land of Over the Rhine. One can hope that they keep evolving.
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14 ~ Mike Patton
Mr. Bungle broke up at the front end of the decade… but Mike continued on from Fantômas to Tomahawk to Lovage (with Dan the Automator & Elysian Fields’ Jennifer Charles) to Peeping Tom to multiple movie scores to many projects with John Zorn and back to Faith No More in 2009. As we lead into 2010, there are more Faith No More touring plans, more Fantômas plans, new bands Mondo Cane (50s Italian pop) and Crudo (DJ/rock-oriented), another Peeping Tom in 2011, and plenty else up his sleeve. Patton’s vocal versatility and hard work ethic make him one of my faves this past decade.
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13 ~ Ani DiFranco
Similar to Tori Amos, the 1990s found a more consistently on her game Ani. While those days are gone, in the 2000s Ani kept delivering album after album after album and has way too many wins than loses, in my book. Revelling / Reckoning is quite possibly the most important release of her career (though not necessarily my favorite in this long oevre). She’s continually active and important in my musical world.
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12 ~ Johnny Cash
This decade brought us American III, IV & V, and the Unearthed box set… all true genius from Johnny and Rick Rubin. The video for “Hurt” (a cover of the Nine Inch Nails song) is one of the most powerfully emotional videos I’ve ever seen (he really brought something new to that original NIИ song). If Rick Rubin never does anything important in the world of music ever again, he’ll still be the one who made Johnny Cash a legend (again).
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11 ~ Dave Douglas
Founder of Greenleaf Music (a jazz label), and member of John Zorn’s Masada quartet… Dave Douglas is my #1 living trumpet player. My foray into a mega jazz love throughout the decade led me to be a fond admirer of Dave and his varied work. His various incarnations – the Quintet, Keystone, Brass Ecstasy, the Big Band, and more – show that he’s a hard worker. I can safely say, he’ll be back on this list in late 2019. :)
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Tune in tomorrow for the final round…
My Other Favorites of 2009 Recaps:
- Fave Concerts of ‘09 are recapped *HERE*
- Fave EPs/Vinyl/Live/more of ‘09 are recapped *HERE*
- Fave Vocal Albums ‘09 are recapped *HERE*
- Fave Instrumental Albums ’09 are *HERE*
- Old Years: 2008I, 2008V, 2008ep, 2008C, 2007V, 2007I, 2007C, 2006, 2005
~Dan – np: Charlie Hunter – Gentlemen, I Neglected To Inform You You Will Not Be Getting Paid
Oh, and for those who say that the decade ends at the end of 2010… meh. I’m starting with 0 and ending with 9 (like a LOT of people). Rationale: the 80s, the 90s… you don’t say the 80s went from 1/1/1981 to 12/31/1990 or the 90s from 1/1/1991 to 12/31/2000.
Mike Patton as a Decepticon
Thanks to Stubbadub for rescooping the MovieWeb scoop, because otherwise I wouldn’t have heard about it…
Apparently Mike Patton is confirmed as being the voice of a Decepticon in the upcoming sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He will be one of the seven pieces that form Devastator, likely Mixmaster. For more info, check out the MovieWeb post.
Meh, I don’t know much about Transformers mythology, but I guess I’ll at least Redbox the movie when it comes out simply due to Mike Patton’s involvement. He’s been getting a lot of movie-related gigs lately… Firecracker, Will Smith’s I Am Legend, A Perfect Place score, and the Crank 2 soundtrack (out soon). This year also “promises” another Fantômas record, the debut of Mondo Cane (Mike’s 50s Italian-pop band), at least one more John Zorn/Moonchild Trio collaboration, and maybe even Crudo (the Dan the Automator collaboration).
It may be a banner Patton year, if everything gets legs underneath…
~Dan – np: Buckethead & Viggo Mortensen – This That and the Other
he shouts… he scores!
From MovieWeb (thanks for the heads-up David!):
Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor have set out to create one of 2009’s greatest films with their upcoming Crank 2: High Voltage. Not only did they hire Corey Haim for one of the most important supporting roles in the highly anticipated Jason Statham sequel, they have also nabbed legendary musician Mike Patton to score the entire soundtrack. Earlier today while conducting an exclusive interview with Danny DeVito, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star let it slip that his friend was currently in the studio putting the finishing touches on the music for the film.
DeVito didn’t quite know how to describe the score, but did hint that there may be a song track that contains actual lyrics and singing by Patton. The former front man for both Mr. Bungle and Faith No More, who in recent years has put out an unstoppable flow of amazing music in nearly every genre, most recently headed down the road to scoring films with his work on the short A Perfect Place, and he recently contributed lyrics and vocals to the Marc Streitenfeld score for Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies. Crank 2: High Voltage will be the musician’s first foray into scoring an entire feature length film.
Patton has a busy year coming up. Not only will he be releasing the Crank 2: High Voltage score, he will also be releasing Mondo Cane, a record of Italian pop songs from the 50s and 60s and the first Crudo album, which sees him reteaming up with his Lovage sidekick Dan the Automator for some crazy hip-hop pop music.
Mike Patton’s A Perfect Place score for the short film of the same name is among my faves of 2008. So… yeah… a feature length score by Patton would be coo-el.
Yes, my man-crush on all things Patton usually runs at high levels.
a trio of music news
New Puscifer video… while CGI like the other Puscifer vids, it’s the first one that features a non-CGI Maynard James Keenan (complete with a bottle of his own Caduceus wine)… “Momma Sed,” brought to you by the A and F in ATF:
only the A & F in ATF… in that he doesn’t smoke.
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Ben Folds Five reunion show for The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner from last month’s MySpace Front to Back is now online in its entirety: GO HERE –> http://www.myspace.com/fronttoback
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The New Years’ Eve concert put on by Ipecac Recordings in San Francisco is set… Fantômas will be playing The Director’s Cut in its entirety. Openers: Tipsy & Zach Hill. It’s $45 and a long drive away; so it’s out for me… but go here if you’re interested: Great American Music Hall’s New Years 2009
Oh, and Breaking news: Beyonce has changed her name to Ra Tsass… or Hoo Kares… or Due Moss… or Sasha Fierce. Meh.
Mike Patton & the Metropole Orchestra 2008
Mike Patton has been known for off-the-wall stuff… Faith No More did crazy stuff, Mr. Bungle even more so… Fantômas is for some entirely crazy stuff. Hemophiliac, PainKiller, Naked City guest vocals, Moonchild, and many other collaborations with John Zorn are also in the crazy, avant-garde camp for Mike Patton.
However, Mike Patton also has a fondness for the more accessible. FNM cover Lionel Richie‘s “Easy,” Mr. Bungle had “Retrovertigo,” Patton’s Ipecac Recordings put out records by classically or instrumentally adventurous but still accessible Ennio Morricone (exotica / spaghetti western / classical / movie scores), The Tango Saloon (jazz / spag. western / tango), Flat Earth Society (big band), Kaada (multi-instrumentalist / movie scores), and Eyvind Kang (some of his classical compositions).
Mondo Cane is a 1962 Italian shock-documentary film (read more here). It’s also the name of Mike Patton’s “60s/70s Italian pop” project. And “60s/70s Italian pop” involves orchestration and some good ol’ crooning…
(photo: Monique Hofland)
A recent concert with Mike Patton and the Metropole Orchestra ( Paradiso Hall, Holland Festival June 2008 ) was filmed and is available in its entirety here:
http://www.fabchannel.com/mike_patton_concert/2008-12-06/
I’m only through the first 5 songs, but it sounds great. If tentative or skeptical, check out “Ore D’More” (#3) for a sample of the crooning.
I love this guy’s music. It’s true.
The 4 Elements (Mix CD)
Posty‘s Not-All-That-Quarterly Compilation
The 4 Elements
It’s thematic, obviously. Some of it is new music, yet most of it is just music I’ve always liked that seemed to fit the compilation’s schema. The liners are not completed, yet. Hell, a test pressing hasn’t even been completed; so the track order might change some. I’m just drumming up interest before I decide how much energy to expend… email me if interested. It’ll likely go out sometime in mid-to-late July ’06…




Music Shared without permission, but without ill-intent either, from these artists…
EARTH
1 – On “Avalanche” (from the album Shifting Skin )
2 – El Douje “Colision De Mundos” (from the album Worlds Collide )
3 – Celldweller “Own Little World” (from the album Celldweller )
4 – John Zorn “La Flor del Barrio” (from the album Music Romance, Vol. III: The Gift )
5 – Porcupine Tree “Collapse the Light into Earth” (from the album In Absentia )
SKY
6 – Tristeza “Stumble On Air” (from the album A Colores )
7 – Dredg “Ode to the Sun” (from the album Catch Without Arms )
8 – Pearl Jam “Thin Air” (from the album Binaural )
9 – The Tango Saloon “The Little Plane That Could” (from the album The Tango Saloon )
10 – Nick Drake “Pink Moon” (from the album Pink Moon )
WATER
11 – O.S.I. “Bigger Wave” (from the album Free )
12 – Au4 “An Ocean’s Measure of Sorrow” (from the album On: Audio )
13 – Chroma Key “Even the Waves” (from the album Dead Air For Radios )
14 – The Squirts “Lobster” (from the album Resquirted )
FIRE
15 – Tori Amos “Spark” (from the album From the Choirgirl Hotel )
16 – The Times “Laser Beams” (from the album Begin )
17 – Heatmiser (early Elliott Smith) “Flame!” (from the album Cop and Speeder )
18 – Fantômas “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” (from the album The Director’s Cut )
19 – Angeldust “Firestorm” (from the album System 3 )
Think of it as a stroll through a museum installation. The headsets are free this weekend.
And since we’re germophobes… um… go on and keep those there headphones…
~Dan – np: electric masada – john zorn’s 50th birthday month, vol. 4
Liner info, for those that care-o (fuzzy due to not having a proper Adobe P-Shop install on my new work laptop, had to do this via screencaps & MSPaint… oy…).