Friday, December 12, 2008

For Your Consideration: Mike Patton

I listened to an abundance of really weird stuff this year largely thanks to both an eMusic subscription and my ongoing Sonic Youth fascination. Of all those oddities, there's really only one up for considderation on my list - Mike Patton's "A Perfect Place". Theoretically it's a soundtrack, but apparently the movie is like 20 minutes and the soundtrack is 40, so I think it's more of a long form music video.

Patton is a fascinating guy. I was a buig Faith No More fan back in the day, and sicne then have followed him off and on through his countless side projects and twists and turns. Sometimes they're pretty amazing (Fantomas' horror theme album come to mind) sometime they're lame (Tomahawk). This one is all over the place with a variety of sounds and a wide range in quality. But, it's that inconsistency that I love in Patton - picking up his new release is always a complete crap shoot, and in this case, I'm happy with what came up.

Anyway, here's the highlight of the disc:

3 comments:

Quinapalus said...

Whoa. That's the most awesome song about kinky sex I've heard all year. I always WANT to like Mike Patton more than I'm truly able to like him, I never quite feel like his talent is able to match up to his larger than life ambitions...but that's an entertaining song.

Via Chicago said...

I don't disagree with your assessment of Mr. Patton. I think that massive ambition is what makes him so interesting - and the fact that he pretty rarely really full on hits what I think he's aiming for, but still strives. If you're going to fail, fail big as they say.

But yes, I readily admit that for many of his projects, were there no Patton connection I wouldn't give them the time of day. But he intrigues me, and so I always am interested, and sometimes find gems like this.

drischord said...

That song is fun. Some of his early Tzadik albums sounded like recordings of him clearing phlegm in his throat, so it's nice to hear his more poppy side once again.