Storytime with Ben

As I've found myself with a much freer schedule than anticipated this week (thanks BoJo, you mop-headed dunce) here's a little story not remotely connected to Xmas, harking back to a time when people could congregate in the tens of thousands. Perhaps one day that will be something we can do again and you'll get more gems like this. Fingers crossed innit.

Happy holidays, m'lovelies. Stay safe.

Passing the time

Just a heads-up that if you missed the repeat screening of BBC4's Secrets of British Animation, in which I occasionally appear as a sort of beardy linking device, it will be available to UK viewers via BBC iPlayer for the next month or so. Enjoy! It's got dirty bits and all.

With Black Friday moodily skulking around the corner there'll soon be another opportunity to get your mitts on my book Independent Animation: Directing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films at a reduced price if you pick it up directly from the publisher. Starting November 29th through to December 2nd it will be available at a whopping 30% off with free shipping on top. Indulge your seasonal consumerism and buy copies for all your independently-inclined animation pals! They'll love ya for it.

This one has nothing to do with me save for being a gushy little fanboy but what. The. Ever. Loving. Fuck. Are Faith No More counting down to? This appeared on their site a couple days ago after years of radio silence and I'm ever-so-slightly losing my mind. Roll on 7pm...
(UPDATE: It's a tour! Hurrah!)

'We Still Care A Lot' out now

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A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on Oct 31, 2019 at 3:28am PDT

Some not-so-Halloweeny but quite splendid news today in that the long-gestating tribute album to the late Chuck Mosley of Faith No More, Cement and VUA is out now.
Perhaps surprisingly my contribution (with some help by the wonderful Laura-Beth Cowley) isn't a Faith No More cover but one of my favourites from VUA, Nameless. I was overjoyed to get to meet him during his (sadly final) UK tour when he played just up the road at Bristol Bierkeller and see him do his version of the song live:

We Still Care A Lot features various artists paying tribute as well as a posthumous appearance by Chuck himself and I'm really proud to be a part of it. Head over to Murder Boy Music and grab yourself a copy.

Hey WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT huh?

The various dedicated Faith No More blogs I keep track of have let me know that the band's second (though often presumed first) album Introduce Yourself is a sobering thirty years old today.
I have a special fondness for this one, primarily as it was the first full album of theirs I ever bought (roughly 21 years ago) but also because, despite predating the era of the band where they teetered on mainstream fame, it genuinely boasts some of the best songs they ever wrote, at times reaching the same musical heights as their magnum opus Angel Dust.
To mark the occasion here's me foolishly attempting to cover one of said tracks onstage a few years back in loving tribute:
I was blessed enough to meet singer Chuck Mosley when he played in a Bristol a few months ago and treated us to an acoustic medley of songs from Introduce Yourself (as well as a fantastically bizarre instance of him covering the Mike Patton-era Faith No More track 'Take This Bottle').

Cheers to my boy Lee for taking what will be one of my favourite photos probably until I die.

Not really much else to say other than enthuse that if you've never encountered it before why not go ahead and treat yourself to a listen?

Idle Distraction

For no particular reason here's one of a handful of covers I put together during the period I was writing and recording The Birdcage a couple years back:
Usually for each album I end up doing a bunch of covers either to teach myself some previously unexplored process in Reason or just for the gits and shiggles of it all. Then I tend to just kind of forget about them.
While I've covered Faith No More in my live shows a bunch I don't usually have the audacity to make any studio recordings of their work but this is one that sort of weirdly fit into the universe of The Birdcage, arrangements-wise. Plus with each passing year my life resembles that of its lyrical protagonist more and more.
As the wry sampling near the end suggests one the many reasons I'm fond of this particular tune is that it always put li'l me in mind of the underwater levels in Super Mario Bros. I think if I ever go on The Voice this will be my audition song.
Apparently when Faith No More were making Angel Dust the working title for this song was 'Macaroni and Cheese'.
Eeeyup.
You can tell I'm procrastinating, can't you?
Well...back to work I guess.

"Chasing the night away..."

It's a double-screening for our lad Klementhro this Friday in Switzerland! Continuing the fabulous Nuit du court métrage tour the film is part of, there will be two simultaneous showings in Yverdon (at the Bel Air cinema) and Sion (at Cinéma Arlequin), both of which kick off at 8pm.

Would that I could be at either myself - as it happens that particular night I will be gleefully seeing Chuck Mosley (or Mosely, depending on which album sleeve you read) in concert as he's had the good manners to come to Bristol and play just down the road from me. Mr. Mosley was the predecessor to Mike Patton as the original vocalist for Faith No More, a band I may have voiced some enthusiasm for once or twice. Although the band found major fame after his tenure they undoubtedly made some amazing music together and I count plenty of the tunes he sang on as amongst my favourites. Also 'Introduce Yourself' was the first Faith No More album chubby li'l me was able to save up enough pocket money to afford and so it will always hold a special place in my heart.
The show is part of his ongoing European tour and proceeds are going to the homeless charity Crisis, so any Bristol folks out there should definitely swing by the Bierkeller this Friday night.

Meanwhile my Encounters/Skwigly Q&A sessions continue today as I meet attending filmmakers whose films screened as part of the animation programme It’s Only Natural - Lissi Muschol (Producer, The Wild Boar), Cartoon d'Or nominee David Dell’Edera (Dir. Balcony), Simon Scheiber (Dir. The Lighthouse) and Tomek Ducki (Dir. Emily King: The Animals).

Listen below or direct download. It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.

Summer Nights

Some general updates to keep you lovely bunch up to speed.
Firstly I'm really happy to see that mine and Laura-Beth's recent coverage of the stop-mo segments of The Little Prince caught the attention of the film's director Mark Osborne:

Amazing coverage of the genius team behind the stop-mo seqs of #TheLittlePrince! See and hear how it came to be! https://t.co/qgI6oB1wal

— Mark Osborne (@happyproduct) August 10, 2016

Even this many years in, it's still very validating to see people appreciate what it is we set out to do and I'm very proud to have been among the outlets for the team to discuss their process. If you didn't catch the episode you can give it a download here!

Montrealites - don't forget that Animaze kicks off today! Be sure to swing by the Museum of Fine Arts (Maxwell Cummings Auditorium) for Friday's 3pm Human Nature screening and catch Klementhro alongside some smashing films, or check out the full festival programme to see the other nifty stuff they have going on over the weekend.

From September on it's looking like a very busy few months for the film as far as international screenings go - between tours, festivals and special events my buddy Klementhro will be pestering audiences all over the globe through November. The furthest away looks to be Brazil's Anima Mundi who today announced their official selection and it looks like the adorable, paddle-dependent fool cut the mustard! This will be my third Anima Mundi inclusion so much love to the programmers. The event is set to take place in Rio de Janeiro late October and São Paulo early November, will keep you all posted.

In the more-immediate future, following the aforementioned Busho Festival in Hungary on September 3rd the film will get probably its quirkiest screening as part of the Fantoche International Animation Film Festival's Bagno Popolare 'spa film programme' on the 8th and 9th at 9pm. This will see a variety of water-themed films projected by a thermally heated outdoor pool - The Bäderquartier - where viewers/bathers can relax and unwind. Other great films include Julia Pott's Belly, Tomek Ducki's Baths and Thomas Stellmach/Maja Oschmann's exquisite Virtuos Virtuell, one of the major case studies included in my new book Independent Animation.

On that note, a few of you who pre-ordered it or ordered it when it first came out have been wondering when it will arrive - I'm still trying to determine that, but having made some enquiries the general consensus seems to be that the UK street date (good gracious, aren't I hip?) for the book is August 29th, for those who like to buy their books the traditional way. You can of course buy it online from all good retailers and the CRC website itself. So the date retailers are listing may be an indicator of when copies are being dispatched but if I learn any more concrete information I'll be sure to let you know.

Also just a reminder that I'll be speaking about the book and other related animationey outpourings at Animation Super Grill at Cardiff's KIN+ILK September 3rd. There's still time to pick up tickets and I've gleaned that thanks to some recent sponsorship the early bird price has been frozen, so considering the variety of events on offer it's a steal! The following Monday (5th) I'll also be talking about the book at the monthly local meetup Bring Your Own Animation Bristol. There's a lot of discussion points in the book so I'll be aiming to make each presentation unique for those of you who might be able to make both. The night will kick off at 7:30pm at The Lazy Dog, it's a great excuse to show off new animation work for feedback and Jake Hobbs from Wonky (who also helped out with the book) will be speaking as well. Check out their event page for more info and hope to see some of you there!

On a completely separate subject I wanted to leave you all with an old live recording from about five years back where I growl my way through a stab at Faith No More's deep track 'Why Do You Bother'. I've dug this out in honour of tomorrow's re-release of the band's long-OOP debut album We Care A Lot that the song appears on. Originally released 31 years ago before they were signed to a major label, this record often gets overlooked - I myself might not have gotten wind of it had its 10-year-delayed CD release not occurred pretty much exactly as I was getting into the band back in 1995. Even though it's always felt more like a collection of demos from a production standpoint, there are clearly moments of genius throughout, and this song has always been one of my all-time favourites of their entire back catalogue.
Even cooler is that this week they're doing a couple of celebratory shows with Chuck Mosley, the vocalist for their first two albums who's always been (unfairly) in eventual replacement Mike Patton's shadow - but then, isn't everybody? So after you've heard my warbly attempt I'm sure they'll show you how it's really done. Check out the live stream tonight on their Facebook page.

Kick, Scream etc

After unearthing last week's Garbage cover I've had more of a rummage through old recordings and found this passable stab at some Chuck Mosely-era Faith No More: This was recorded in Cheltenham in the Spring of 2011 to a positive crowd who evidently weren't familiar enough with the original track to appreciate what a second-rate job I was doing with it.

If that's left you feeling without a paddle, back in the world of animation I'm happy to say my sneaky new film will be drifting its way to Canadian shores as part of the esteemed Ottawa International Animation Festival!

Alas, it's proved too intimidating and impressive to be playing in competition but the extremely kind and beautiful folks at Laika (the studio behind Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls) will be screening it at their Salon des Refusés party this coming Thursday, September 17th at 11pm.
Similarly you may catch a glimpse of the film if you head down to the Rumpus Animation/Skwigly party in Bristol on that same night. That'll take place a little earlier, from 7pm UK time, so if you're in town for Encounters head on over to Kong's of King Street and we'll see you there!

That other thing I do

It's rare that I get a personal project done and dusted on the exact date I'll have proclaimed I will but, sure enough, today being Sol Invictus/Scarlet Gospels day I've followed through and released my new album The Birdcage. So how 'bout that?
It's been a fair few years since my last full LP, my rate of music production significantly slowed since the days of this particular hobby's function as homework distraction, but I think the extra marinating time makes it a much easier listen. As hinted at earlier, save for the opening track and the odd loud moment here and there it came out very low-key, almost folksy in parts, especially considering how synth-pop-weird the earlier albums had been.
For now you can stream the whole album for free and, should you be so inclined, buy high quality songs for keeps at 50¢ each (you can save a few pennies if you buy the whole LP for a $5). There's no CD version yet but knock wood there'll be time over the summer to put together a nice package for those nostalgic types who still own something that will play a CD. In the meantime here's a track-by-track rundown:

Hope there's something amongst that lot for you to enjoy. While you're sifting through that I'll be drinking in the new Faith No More album and the new Clive Barker book simultaneously. If Alex Kingston can drop by and re-enact Moll Flanders in the corner then my trifecta of mid-nineties nostalgia will be complete.

You had me at "I'd like to peel your skin off"

Today's reason to be rock-back-and-forth-giggling-and-crying happy comes in the form of Faith No More's latest album Sol Invictus being available to stream a week ahead of its physical release. I've been fighting the urge to listen to badly-compressed leaked versions of the album and as such it feels like I'm literally the only FNM fan in the world who hadn't heard it until today. But by Christ it was worth the wait. Every molecule of doubt that it wouldn't be up to their previous standard was jettisoned the moment I heard the first chorus of the opening title track. It'll need a few hundred listens for me to get a proper sense of it as right now listening to it is more of an emotional experience (I have emotions! Who knew?) than anything else, but in the meantime why not join me and treat yourselves?
It feels a bit limp and embarrassing to bring up my own music on the heels of such excellence, but in anticipation of the digital release of my latest Struwwelpeter album The Birdcage I've put up another new song, one that's fairly representative of the strangely upbeat, folksy/poppy feel of the LP as a whole. I imagine if I played this to myself as a teenager he'd screw his fat face up in confusion.

Also want to say thanks again to James of CineMe for having me on his show Short Cuts, talking animation, UWE, Bristol, Skwigly and my now-very-old short The Naughty List. The episode aired at the exact time last week's exit polls were causing the nation to collectively scream into a pillow so if you missed the broadcast you can watch it online here.

Upcomings & Outgoings

I've made the somewhat douchey decision to self-set the release date of The Birdcage, my first LP in a good while, as the week of May 18th. I say 'douchey' because this is also the week both Faith No More's new album Sol Invictus and Clive Barker's Hellraiser swansong The Scarlet Gospels - two projects I've been hotly anticipating to say the least - both come out. There's no real connection, it just generally helps to have a deadline to work to when I'm in the last stretch of anything, plus I reckon my album's pretty much cooked at this point. I have to say I like how it's turned out - it's the quiet, folksy death rattle of a would-be-rocker-turned-production-music-scribe giving in to a secret, guilty urge to be melodic and quaint rather than edgy or avant garde. I expect I'll release it digitally on Bandcamp to begin with and then see what new options there now are for a physical release in the 4.5 years since my last LP.

This will pave the way for another upcoming release, the final installment of my lingering graphic novel series Throat. I'm still finalising the bonus content but the proposed release date is August 3rd. As with Book 1 and Book 2 it should be available to buy in US retailers and on Amazon for the UK and elsewhere.

On the Skwigly pile this week, the Lightbox series I've been producing has resumed with a video interview from mine and Laura-Beth's encounter with the talented and dapper Luc Chamberland, whose OIAF-winning NFB documentary Seth's Dominion (an exploration of the life and work of Canadian comic artist Seth) is playing at Toronto's Hot Docs at the moment.

Also on the site I chat once again to auld acquaintances Seb and Joe from Rumpus, whose game The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle is now available on PC via Steam as well as it's original App Store release for iOS. This interview is the first in a series of Skwigly profiles on South West-based studios/artists in association with the South West Animation Network, an organisation put together by Becalelis Brodskis and Susannah Shaw. Keep an eye out for more Skwigly/SWANraderie and if you're a South Westerner yourself check them out at swanimationnetwork.co.uk

Bringing it back to my own ephemeral output, as is my egomaniacal wont, I'll be appearing on the TV show Short Cuts hosted by James Ewen of CineMe, who's been a much-appreciated supporter of my work in the past. I'm not sure what'll get included in the final edit but I expect the focus will be on my old seasonal short The Naughty List. It'll be broadcast on Made In Bristol (Freeview 8/Sky 117/Virgin Media 159) May 5th at 8:30pm, so tune in if your receivers are suitably receptive.

The World is Yours

I hope you're all geared up for a weekend of eggy chocolate Jesus zombie antics. I myself am rebuilding myself emotionally from an intense end-of-March deadline while cracking on with what's proving to be a rather therapeutic day-job. I don't think I can talk about it until it's done but I'll just say it involves lots of wavy lines that have proved to have quite a calming effect. Right this second I'm waiting on a bit of client feedback to come through so I'll take the opportunity to do a li'l update post.

I have two new interviews up on the site I hope you'll all enjoy. The first is with directorial duo Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano who made Love in the Time of March Madness, one of my favourite films from last year. It's essentially a docu-memoir about Melissa's own romantic misadventures as a uniquely tall athlete, with Robertino putting together a host of truly impressive visual interpretations that really showcase how much more effective animation can be when it comes to communicating abstract concepts within non-fiction. Have a read here.

Speaking of abstract concepts, Don Hertzfeldt released his new film this week. It's called World of Tomorrow and is more than worth the price of admission; You can stream it for a month for a paltry rental fee on Vimeo, and I can't recommend doing so enough. Like most of his recent work, such as the graphic novel The End of The World and his independent feature It's Such a Beautiful Day, it solicits a huge gamut of emotional response and, primarily, is goddamn hysterical. Gladly I also got an interview with Hertzfeldt himself, something I've been angling for really since day one. Good times indeed.
Also I've noticed that Shaun in the City, the arts project that will see a whole gaggle of oversized Shaun the Sheeps dotted about London (similar to the Gromit Unleashed project in Bristol a couple years back) is now in effect. So there's no harm in putting up some of my own submissions, all of which were sensibly rejected:

Counterclockwise from top-left: Shaun as a Blue Meanie, Shaun as Wallace, Shaun as an old-timey cartoon and Shaun that'd go great with a side of mint jelly

I can appreciate 'Blue Shaunie' may have been a bit thorny, rights-wise, and while I assume 'ShaunWallace' wouldn't have been as big an issue it's a bit on-the-nose (see, he's Shaun, but he's all coloured in and dressed like Wallace geddit? Teeheehoho etc). That being said I quite liked 'Rubberhose Shaun' on the bottom right and, my personal favourite, 'Mrs. Bleaton's Cookbook', top right. Like all truly great artists I'm sure the genius of them all will be more appreciated after I'm dead. It's a fine cause so check out the Shaun in the City site to find out more.
Completely changing the subject, this wonderful new item of vinyl Faith No More-ery is now in my possession:

It's been a month since the song debuted and I still can't fully convey in words how goddamn in love with it I am. It's worth mentioning that the vinyl version sounds better, and I don't mean that in that douchey way vinyl enthusiasts insist upon; It's actually a different, less 'produced' mix that feels more traditionally FNM to my ears. Adrian at newfaithnomore.com put up a little comparison analysis I made (which you can also listen to here).
Let it not be said that I don't give back to my community.

Blessed Days

First things first - Radio 1 debuted Faith No More's new single 'Superhero' last night. This is the one I've been most vocal about being on tenterhooks to hear - having been at its first ever live performance last year - and it's so unbelievably goddamn great the English language frankly comes up pathetically short when it comes to existing adjectives that might describe how utterly elated I am.

Their new LP Sol Invictus (their first since 1997) isn't out until mid-May, so fingers crossed my skull doesn't pop in anticipation before then.
Another reason to be cheerful was discovering my animation had made an unexpected appearance on The Anthony Cumia Show when my old O&A/Jim Norton short (the dancing chicken one) recently got played by accident. To my relief it got a good response, have a watch here my friends:

Post by Ben Mitchell - Creative Offal.

While I'm still typing things I'll point you in the direction of Skwigly where fellow cartoon-making personage Matt Walker has done this month's site banner:

Matt Walker

Also worth mentioning the other two excellent 2015 banners, Rumpus for January and Tony Johnson for February. Talented bunch we're amongst, us Skwigly lot:

Rumpus

Tony Johnson

Merry Christmas to Me

Thought I'd treat myself to a little early Christmas present:

The physical copies of this one are very limited Record Store Day 'Black Friday' exclusives that didn't make it to UK stores. Luckily I managed to snag one kindly listed on the 'Bay without being horribly extorted. It's probably not a surprise that I'd be an avid Faith No More collector. In truth I don't think I've ever brought up the extent of it on here because it's sorta kinda sorta maybe a bit of a mental illness. To give a bit of a Jack-Torrence's-wife-reading-his-manuscript-for-the-first-time peek, this is an outdated photograph of how many copies of this album I own (but look carefully, they all have slight differences! Slight! Differences!):

So what was I gonna do, not find a way of getting my hands on the first vinyl 7" single they've released since 1992 (I am, of course, not counting promo releases and their 7x7" special extended edition of King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime, because that would be daft)?

As these panels from Throat indicate, I know I'm sick. BUT I NEVER WANNA GET BETTER.

So go, be with your brothers. They've been waiting 22 years.

The remix is pretty damn good, too.

Leaders of Men

Last Skwigly Animation Podcast of 2014!
No holiday play this year but I'm sure some of your Christmasses won't be completely ruined as a consequence. What more than makes up for it are the fantastic guests we have, and this episode's line-up is very esteemed indeed. In fact I think we all got time with a personal hero: Katie Steed talks to Glen Keane about his pre-Duet Disney career with some fantastic insight into the artistic theory and skill applied to his iconic characters such as the Beast, Aladdin, Tarzan, Pocahontas and Ariel; Steve Henderson brings Aardman's Peter Lord back (he was, if you recall, our very first major guest which really gave us credibility right out of the gate) to discuss the modern revival of his own iconic creation Morph; and I talk to indie genius PES about his fantastic stop-mo/pixilation creations, from Roof Sex to Submarine Sandwich (his latest, concluding the 'Food Trilogy' after Western Spaghetti and Fresh Guacamole).
I say this about a lot of them but this episode was another massive pleasure to put together. Stringing it all together Steve and I discuss upcoming features, Oscar predictions, animation 'celebrities', the oh-so-obvious Morph/South Park connection and we learn about Steve's 'incident' with Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
Download or stream over three hours of animation verbosity to stuff in your stocking! Don't say we don't spoil ya. For more goodness and to catch up on earlier episodes you can also of course subscribe on iTunes.
On a subject that could not be more unrelated if it tried, here's a clearer audio recording of one of Faith No More's new tracks, from a spontaneous live show they held at Amoeba Records on Record Store Day.

I am chomping at the goddamn bit to hear the studio version. Spontaneous Christmas EP, chaps?
What? You never know, they might be reading this.

And then, terrifyingly, it was already December...

So...yeah...another month kind of slipped through my fingers there. Apologies.
But it's all for the greater good, as I'm sure you'll all come to realise...a year and a half from now. Christ, it just hit me: Before Project Group Hug is done, the world will have seen both a new Faith No More album and a new season of Twin Peaks.
(Apologies again, it appears a blog post can't go by without mentioning one or the other these days)
SO, what's been happening? Aside from the book I've had my toe back in the waters of production music - who knows, you may hear one of my compositional masterworks next time you're flicking through your Freeview or being forced to wait on hold by some ungodly customer service department - whilst also doing a bit of visual stuff for Bristol upstarts Rumpus Animation. Incidentally their first adventure game Betram Fiddle: A Dreadly Business comes out for iOS tomorrow, have a look at the trailer:

I might have had some involvement in that one as well. Just be wary of this lot:

Skwigly news - check out the latest Lightbox episodes, starting with Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, director of Monkey Love Experiments which recently won itself a Scottish BAFTA.

After this one I took a bit of a break from the series to rethink our approach; Frankly I don't feel it's 'landed' and there may be a better direction to go with it. We shall see, but either way it's back as of today with none other than legendary Disney character designer/animator Glen Keane. Have a watch of Julia Young's excellent interview, the extended version of which will go up next week to launch Lightbox+.

As with previous years we're running our daily advent calendar through to the 25th, with a new artist each day. Here's a smattering:

Greg (of the Brothers) McLeod

Bianca Ansems

Robert Grieves

Katie Steed

Laura-Beth Cowley

On the interview front I was absolutely delighted to get some more time with Aardman's Peter Lord (who I previously interviewed in 2012 for his film The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists) as well as Nick Park, the man behind Wallace and Gromit which makes him a bit of a goddamn rockstar.
The interview went up on Monday in anticipation of tonight's Bristol Encounters event Lip Synch: A 25 Year Celebration which looks back at some of the studio's early work, including their first Oscar winner in Nick Park's Creature Comforts.

This era of their formative creativity represents my fondest memories of their work (well, on a par with The Wrong Trousers) so it was a real treat to get some time to natter about it. Incidentally I had also previously chatted with Richard 'Golly' Starzak, director of Ident, in episode 11 of the podcast which you can download here). Special thanks to Kieran from Encounters for helping set up the interview, if you fancy swinging by the event you can book tickets here.

This had to be the most rewound VHS I ever owned. Well, next to Moll Flanders and Video Croissant.

On a musical note, I've been working on a special holiday sampler package as well as polishing a new album for Spring 2015. Supplementing this have been some 'practice' live shows where I've indulged my fondness for covers. Here's a stab at Mr. Bungle's 'Quote Unquote' (AKA 'Travolta'):
And keeping in the pale-Patton-imitation vein, last Saturday I closed my set with FNM throatripper 'Cuckoo For Caca'. If you make it all the way through it's followed by Danny Elfman's 'La Canzone di Sally' from Nightmare Before Christmas, for those who've ever harboured the desire to know what I sound like singing a Disney love song in Italian. Which I can only logically assume is everyone.

Red Letter Day

Xmas in November, it seems. Bloody lovely stuff:

Given that of the three new songs they've played live this was my least favourite and it sounds this goddamn great, I have high hopes. Welcome back, boys.

Also, greatest band photo in the history of band photos (by Dustin Rabin)

Absolutely Goddamn Giddy

Life Is Beautiful

No words.

Group Hug, Everybody!

Two very lovely occurrences worth bringing up have...uh...occurred this week. The first is the news that, after several months of development, pitches and meetings I haven't been in the room for, Project Group-Hug appears to be going ahead! Hurrah! Of course, naturally this means I can tell you what it's all going to be about. But I'm not gonna.

What I will say is it's all set to come together toward the end of 2015 and be out in the world sometime the following year, so try to stay awake until then.
Far more important news came in the form of this tweet which went up the other day:

OH SNAP, SON!
Regrettably I'd say this removes the foolish hope that Faith No More would have snuck out a surprise new LP before my birthday in October, but it's still a potentially brilliant development nonetheless. In the meantime I'll have to keep myself satisfied with this lovely video by Vincent Forcier for Mr. Patton's other band Tomahawk:

Puppet Patton is the shiz, yo.