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Faith No More Superhero release delayed

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News that there is a little delay on the release of Superhero has been released today via ipecac
It seems that crazy weather that hit the East coast the past few weeks, closed down the production plants for several days and delayed the Faith No More Superhero seven-inch just a bit. It will now be in stores on Monday March 23rd.
We truly appreciate your support and understanding!

Faith No More - The Tonight Show and Opening Act For First Three NA Shows announced

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Faith No More have been booked for a live performance on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon‘ and are scheduled for the Wednesday, May 13th episode of the late night talk show.
Via theprp.com


Meanwhile footage has at last surfaced of the guys playing new song 'Cone of Shame' at New Zealand's Westfest, warning...get your magnifying glass out!



And finally the band revealed the opening act for the first three North American shows last night via their facebook page. Christeene "Drag Terrorist" will open at the Vancouver, Seattle and Portland shows.

Faith No More Cover Stars

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Faith No More appear on the cover of the next issue of Revolver, which will hit newsstands on March 31 and is available for purchase online right now.
And Revolver Mag have published an excerpt from the cover story....here's an excerpt from the excerpt..

....“Honestly, ‘Matador’ felt so obvious,” says Bottum. “Not in a bad way, but like a comfortable shoe. It felt like somewhere we go typically as a band. We have this language among the four of us that’s sort of unique and inherent to people who sort of grow up together; we have a go-to language that we all relate to really well. So hearing it was like, ‘Oh yeah, that. I get it!’”

Inspired by the positive band (and audience) reception afforded “Matador,” Gould began working with Bordin and Hudson on additional demos for what would eventually become ‘Sol Invictus.’ “I was very shocked to hear that they’d been working on stuff,” laughs Patton. “One night a couple of years ago, I was hanging out with Bill, and he was like, ‘I was just working on some stuff. Do you want to hear it?’ He played me some stuff, and I was like, ‘This is fucking great!’ He was like, ‘Well, would you like to sing on it?’ ‘Well yeah, of course!’


“I didn’t even know that it was Faith No More music, at first,” Patton continues. “But then he told me, ‘No, this is stuff that I wrote for us!’ And I was a little taken aback… I didn’t know what to say. I was flattered, put it that way. I was like, ‘Damn! You wrote this shit thinking of me? Like us?’ Because my head wasn’t even near that space; I was somewhere else.

“Relationships are complicated—put it that way, okay? Maybe some lines of communication [between us] hadn’t been exactly open. But I was beside myself, like, ‘Oh my god, yeah! Of course! I know exactly what to do!’”


Koolarrow Special - Focus on FLATTBUSH

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With the announcement that Koolarrow Records very own FLATTBUSH will be opening for Faith No More at one of their North American shows I thought we would take a look at a band that really does have a message to tell via their hard hitting music, music that pushes the envelope of what's possible sonically, rhythmically, and politically



FLATTBUSH were founded by brothers Arman and Enrico Maniago in highschool, and were joined a few years later by Section 8 guitarist Bradley Walther.
Arman and Riko take up the story.....

Arman: Hey Riko, remember the worst days of our lives? -- high school. Goddamn, I hated every single day of it. And I thought having a band at that time will lift our morale to survive and counter our boredom. And man, even these days, being in a band blows. Well if our music doesn't have progressive messages it would totally blow and I cannot find myself pushing without it.
But we should have stuck with our initial goal. The initial goal was the sound and vibe of BeeGees, Abba and Sade. Fuck, I shouldn't have bought the expensive bass and gears. Buying that shit made us push the band. I thought we would get our investment back once we started playing at bowling alleys. I could have thrown in the towel a long time ago but the towel is red and the battle goes on.

Riko: Yeah, high school was a total isolation for me. I only had a couple of friends. When they got sick and didn't go to school I was all alone. Our common ground was listening to fucked up music and comic books. I think we're the only people in school who liked Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. The worst was dealing with Filipino-Americans and Filipino immigrants who made fun of our accent and grammar. They're the ones who made fun of us the most. They were more like Americans than Americans, seriously. The culture shock was just too much. You would expect that they would be more welcoming. But of course I have a different point of view now.
Hehehe…being in a band is expensive. Being in a political band is more expensive! You get your car beaten up once in a while for being radical or worse get physically beat up in the future. Hopefully, not. Hehehe…but yeah, I totally agree. If the content of our music was stuck on that artsy fartsy stuff, I would have left the band a long time ago. The content of Flattbush made me persistent.

Arman: And of course we cannot dissect our formula or our influences. People might say we are bunch of rip offs and posers. But you know what, fuck it, we are trying our best to steal from bands and artists. Bands like Faith No More started it all for us. During the 90's we only had access to magazines and MTV. Riko and I pretty much clipped all the FNM pictures from all existing magazines in this planet. We will pay attention to the rock shirts they would wear; Napalm Death, Mr Bungle, Carcass, Godflesh, Brujeria, Primus, Sepultura… Well, pretty much Bill Gould wore the coolest ones. Then we will go to Tower Records and check out those bands they were promoting.
And the band that really struck me was Brujeria. The "Matando Gueros" album. That was my high school soundtrack. It sounds so shitty, scary, funny at times; it has attitude... From what I can remember, it's one of the albums that gave us a blueprint.
And of course, Mr. Bungle gave us the artsy fartsy retarded edge. First time I saw Mr.Bungle, Melt Banana opened for them. And Mr.Bungle kicked my ass. I was blown away. And every time I hear people say that System of a Down is unique, I tell them, "Nah…their shit is remnants of Melt Banana's "Speak Squeak Creak" album period.

Riko: Even if we dissected and gave our formula out there, it's not going to be the same. We only pay attention to the riffs that are appropriate for Flattbush. But what the hell, I am going to give out the formula -- the formula is, we never had formal training. We made making music fun. Fun as in not fucking around but fun as in we are dedicated to spend a lot of time and invest in what we really like.
I definitely remember pasting Faith No More pictures on my high school folders. Actually I was doing some spring cleaning a couple of months ago and I found all these magazine clippings, posters, tapes, etc. I even found the maxi pad that Trey Spruance signed during the Mr.Bungle concert in the late 90's. We couldn't find any paper to get his autograph, so we ended up using our girl friend's maxi pad ( unused of course ). Trey got weirded out. I thought THEY were weird. Maybe all that crazy stuff is just performance. Something that people misinterpret all the time, you know, in music or in visual art. When they hear crazy music, they would have this assumption that the artist must be crazy as well. How about acting? But when you get to talk to them, they are humble. Well, maybe we haven't met or hung out with Axle Rose. I might change my opinion.

Riko and Bradley
I have to listen to Mr.Bungle a lot of times before I can totally appreciate the music. The second album "Caca Volante" is just too much. It's like a different puzzle but the pieces seem to fit anyway. But the rewarding part is that it opened my ears to any type of music. Melt Banana just sounded like a bunch of chickens getting raped in a small shoe box. But I had total respect for them when we got to hang out with them outside the venue and saw how they slept in a tour van. They had these bunks at the back of their van and they were all crammed up like sardines in there. I was like, dang.
Faith No More, on the other hand, had songs that sounded like each could have been played by a totally different band -- which seemed like what actually happened. The nu metal genre bands sounded like ripoffs of each of the FNM songs. Kind of like Korn, whose sound is like FNM's "Jizzlober," and Incubus and Linkin' Park sounded like "The Real Thing" album. But it's all good, what can you do?

What is crazy too is that most of the people who appreciated our music are from the punk scene. I never listened to punk music. I know The Dead Kennedy's but I was very ignorant about the scene and the roots. Later, I kind of dug up stuff about it and now I totally respect that genre because I found out that it's the most progressive.
I never liked Brujeria, but I was entertained by their scary CD covers and definitely by their attitude. The attitude of, "why do you have to sing in english or try hard to learn english?" And, you know, the decapitated head on the album cover and the title "Matando Gueros" really shocked me. What I did was passed it around to my classmates in high school and watched how they would react to the gruesome pictures. My classmates were just looking at me all weird. Hehehe…fuckers! Maybe that's the reason why I only had a couple of friends.

Then during our demo on the Smash the Octopus album I was sharing the stage with Juan Brujo singing Revolucion in some backyard show in L.A. sung in Tagalog and Spanish back and forth. I thought I was going to get stabbed when Juan Brujo pulled out his Machete screaming his lungs out, "Revolucion!" Brujo was also the guy who told me to shave my head and that wearing a rice hat on stage was badass.
On top of all the craziness is you get to hang out with the people who inspired you to make music. So, I guess, it is true that you should hold on to your dreams and always do your best with whatever you want to do in life. The only problem is that we are still broke



Guitarist Bradley Walther although not having the turbulent upbringing the Maniago's had totally got what the brothers were doing....

"When I first picked up a guitar in Junior High, I had already been playing saxophone for over 5 years, and was getting bored of honking my horn in orchestra and jazz band. I felt like I could express myself better through playing the guitar. I would watch the guitar player in my jazz class, and just be really jealous that he got to play such a cool instrument. When I finally got my first guitar, I learned a lot of Minor Threat, Misfits, and Nirvana songs, because they were easy to play. Deep down I wanted to play music like Slayer and Megadeth, but I still needed to practice my instrument more before I could play like that. I still can't play like that, but over the years I've developed my own style.

Like the Maniago's I was also a big Faith No More fan. I remember "Introduce Yourself" being a big influence on me. I loved the mixture of the heavy guitar layers with the beautiful keyboard and synth sounds. My first band did a lot of punk and ska stuff, but once I heard Mr. Bungle, it was all over.
My band in highschool (Section 8) would do a lot of shows at this local church called Rosewood Church. Although I was already staunchly atheist, it was a great place for exposure, hundreds of kids would show up every Wednesday to check out the bands playing, and the church would have their pastor preach fire and brimstone in between sets. It was really hilarious. A lot of kids would interrupt the preacher, and crack jokes, and he would get really pissed, and threaten to cancel the show, and tell them they had to listen because if they didn't they were going to burn in hell!

At that time their was a unique sound happening in the city of Lakewood. Bands like Fungus Mungus and The Shrooms, Jobnut, One Eye Open, Retarded Army, and Jokers Pickle Reaction, all had a little ska influence, but it was much darker and more twisted than the commercial crap we were hearing on the radio. They all kind of had this jaded sound that was similar, yet very unique. That was also a big influence on me. One night at Rosewood, I saw Flattbush for the first time.They covered a small piece of a noise that Faith No More did on MTV. I knew what it was right away, and when flattbush finished their set, I went right up to them and commented that they were ripping off Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. They couldn't believe that somebody else actually listened to Mr. Bungle. Needless to say, we hit it off right away, and our bands started to do a lot of shows together. Sometimes when venues would screw us over, we would form a super band called "Punk Rock All Stars" and just improv and make a bunch of noise until the venue would shut the power off.

My band Section 8 and Flattbush would hang out all the time. Whenever one band had a show, we would get the other band on the bill too. I think we were all kind of the nerdy, artsy outcasts at our highschools, so we had a lot in common. Nothing was shocking to us, because we would watch GG Allen videos, and the more twisted stuff was, the better. We would listen to a lot of Sound Track music too like Ennio Morricone, as well as other fucked up stuff like Diamanda Galas, and Naked City. Flattbush would help my band record our demos, and we'd always be hanging out when Flattbush was recording their demos. Years went by, and one day Arman and I were trying to start a side project, when he asked me if I wanted to try out for Flattbush, since their guitar player Eric was leaving to pursue a career as a firefighter. Me playing for Flattbush, just made sense. We had a lot of the same influences, and we were already good friends, and respected each others artistic visions. It wasn't just art or music, it was a "fuck you, we're doing what we want, and we don't care if you don't like it!" attitude we shared, and it was fun!
We did a lot of back yard shows in East LA, and tons of benefit shows in Santa Ana, as well as getting screwed over by the entire Sunset Strip, Whisky A Go Go, Roxy, Keyclub, bullshit scene. At this time Flattbush had already sent a demo to Bill Gould, and he was interested in recording Flattbush, and releasing our album on Kool Arrow Records. All of a sudden things were getting more serious, as we geared up to record our first full length album "Smash The Octopus". I remember Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn showing up to our show at The Coconut Teazer, and I couldn't believe they were there to see us! We gave them all our drink tickets, and in return they let us rape them with our cameras. It was a surreal time. Mike Patton, helping me carry my amp to my truck, we didn't even try to pretend like we weren't excited. When we recorded Smash, I was listening to a lot of Frank Zappa, Herbie Hancock, Fela Kuti, Igor Stravinsky, and tons of other stuff that most metal guitarists aren't interested in. Maybe because I've never really been a "metal" guitar player... Anywho, we finished the album, and did our first coast to coast tour. I was ready to die a happy man when we found out the first part of our tour, we were going to be opening for Mike Patton and Rahzel. Those first shows were epic, but the rest of the tour was an incredible struggle. I could write a book on our misadventures and crazy times, but for times sake, I will just say we did 34 shows in 37 days coast to coast in the middle of winter and we couldn't have survived if we weren't getting help from Kool Arrow.

We started writing "Seize The Time" before our tour for Smash even started. Once we got back, the plan was to finish writing the new album and try to tour Europe. Unfortunately our drummer Ray decided to leave the band, so we were forced into finding a new drummer. With Seize I had a bigger role in the writing process, and we spent a lot of time recording demos, and rewriting the songs in our garages. For me, recording that album was a nightmare. That being said, we eventually finished it, and did a couple more tours, one of them with Fear Factory.
By the time we finished touring for Seize, I was burnt out, and took some time off from FLATTBUSH to focus on some other projects that I had on the back burner for a while. I was already doing shows with my DEVO tribute band "Smart Patrol", mostly to make extra cash while having fun playing music. It's crazy how you can make more money in one night with a tribute band, than you can make in one month on tour with an original act.
During this time I also started a band called "Shrimp!" with long time friends and members of an older project called "Disposable Assassins". Shrimp recorded an EP titled "Gonzo Fishing Trip" and did 2 US tours. I've also been involved in an improv/noise project called White Trash Firecracker, we did 1 album titled "awkward music for awkward situations". There's probably 29 copies in existence, but there's tons of live clips on YouTube if anybody even cares to look it up.

(Bradley with Devo tribute band Smart Patrol)

Somewhere in the aftermath of all this insanity, after all the dust and molecular particles settled, I became a father. This was a game changer for me. All my projects kind of took a back seat for a while, with the exception of Smart Patrol, which is still going strong. Now that I've had time to settle down and reflect, so to speak I really missed writing and creating music, especially crazy music, that pushes the envelope of what's possible sonically, rhythmically, and politically. I know it's a cliche, but I came around full circled, ready to write and record music with FLATTBUSH once again.... It's different this time around, but it's also more exciting then ever. The creative juices are flowing, and every time we get together now it's a huge release for me from my daily grind, working my ass off to support and take care of my family.

Aswell as being the vocalist for Flattbush, Enrico Maniago is a serious artist with a huge love for comics, he and Espen J Jorgensen (The Sequential Art, Soundescapes) talk together about their love for art.........

Espen: Ok, so I started to read comics before I could read words, and studied the origin and evolution of comics and its aesthetics when I did The Sequential Art doc. So I guess you can say I've seen a lot, but when I saw the art you did for Flattbush "Seize the Time" album, I thought: I've never seen this before. How did you develop that style and big-teeth character design? And were there any artists or comics which inspired you in any way?
Seize The Time Artwork
Riko: Thanks for the compliment and I am glad you liked that style. I came up with the big-teeth character design when I was in highschool during my senior year; that was in 1997. My english teacher gave us a project to make our own children's book. I don't remember the exact story but I think it was a weird one. My classmates didn't understand the story and neither did I, but they liked the drawings. After that project, I set aside the big-teeth style. Then after I graduated from highschool, I would use the style occasionally for huge political murals, comic strips, etc. When I was recording the "Awit ng Pag-asa" ("Song of Hope" on the Seize the Time album), Bill Gould took notice of the Chairman Mao I painted on my guitar, with that big teeth style, and suggested that we should use that style on our album cover. If I am going to analyze where exactly I got the idea for the big teeth characters, I believe I unconsciously got them from watching too much Japanese super robots, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and playing a lot of Megaman video games. In comic books, my inspiration is vast and I still continue to fill up my bookshelves. The first batch of artists on my list would be Simon Bisley, Arthur Adams, Moebius, Kevin Eastman, John Romita Jr, etc. But the illustrator that really got me into buying comic books regularly would be Jim Lee's "Uncanny X-Men". I've seen a lot of illustrators in those days, but Jim Lee's style just blew me away and made me use my lunch money to buy and collect his works. A very expensive hobby and very difficult career to pursue, isn't it? Good thing I have Flattbush to express my frustration.
Sequential Art With Espen
Espen: Hehe.. Yes, breaking into comics is a tough one, I'm not sure there's so much to break into these days, but… Let's talk about tools and techniques. I know you love the brush, but you also vary your style and tools. What makes you use a specific tool for a specific project?

Riko: It depends on the urgency of the project which tools I am going to use. If I have a lot of time to work on a piece, I will use pencil. I use a .3 pencil on a 5.5 x 8.5-inch paper. My originals are very small. The traditional way of drawing a comic book is usually 11x17 inches. I tried that method before but I think its a waste of time, paper and lead. Well, I think digital tools made me stick on my small method. The final printing in comic books is small anyway, and you can always blow them up if you want to make a poster sizes. Of course commissions can change all that. This is also the method I use when I paint huge political murals. I draw small and then project the line drawing on a big canvas or wall. But, if there is little time because of the urgency of the issue or the lack of immediate tools and space, I can always draw the lines and paint freehand. Usually in political murals, I use acrylic paint because the paint dries quick and it is water proof.
International Solidarity Mural 2009
You can use oil paint on the canvas but that is impractical and expensive. Usually oil is reserved for museums. Not only does it take too long to dry, it can also be a waste of materials because the fascist pigs can always grab your stuff and throw them away. So in my experience, the approach in political murals has to be fast, cheap and as big as possible to get that heroic shocking awe vibe. It is the message that is important and it's genuinely not for sale. But, if somebody want to buy the pieces for collection's sake, why not? The money can be used by the artists in need, (namely me, damn it and I've been doing this for too long).

Espen: I know you skip pencils sometimes. You did this Ninja Turtles marker sketch which impressed Kevin Eastman. It must be somewhat liberating to just play with the marker instead of spending a day or two on a drawing with pencils, inks and so on.
TMNT Marker Sketch
Riko: Hehehe…there you go, you said it, IMPRESS. If you want to impress, use markers. There is no turning back when you use markers. You have to be precise and confident to pull off a nice drawing live in front of an audience. I will tell you the secret because I don't like bullshitting when it comes to "IMPRESSING" people -- art is what artists spend hundreds of hours on, so they better be good at it. It's their job, so if they mess up especially on drawing the hands and feet, don't expect compliments from me. I don't get impressed by an artist who draws a big rock in the foreground to cover up the feet or does a lot of rendering, which is oftentimes done to hide mistakes.
Riko and Kevin Eastman
Espen: And that Turtles sketch made Eastman ask if you wanted to do a mural at Meltdown comics, right? Why don't you walk us through the design of that piece, and a little about how you, Arman and Franz DG worked as a team on the mural.
TMNT Mural 3rd Panel
Riko: Well after Kevin Eastman saw my stuff, he asked me if I wanted to do three big panels for his exhibit. Of course being a fanboy I was blown away when he said, "You're hired," and gave his personal contact number. There are tons on good artists hanging around in that exhibit and somehow I got his attention. Maybe he felt sorry for me or maybe he found me annoying. But yeah, originally it was supposed to be a solo freestyle. I was also toying with the idea of asking Kevin if we could do a collaboration, but he got sick and couldn't get up for a day or two so I didn't want to push it. I also didn't want to end up not finishing the three panels, so I asked my brother Arman and Franz to help me do a mural I designed that was approved by Kevin himself via email. It was a fun project. I think it took us about nine hours or so to finish if I don't count the time we spent talking and eating in between. Basically, it's like a big coloring book. I sketched the lines on pencil and from there we started painting the piece. When everything is colored, I painted the final black outline for consistency of the style. We used the same method I use when I do murals. Kevin treated us with hospitality.
TMNT Mural 3rd Panel Arman
Espen: So, anything you haven't done yet that you want to try?

Riko: I haven't tried to be a sell out yet. Maybe I can try that, hehehe. Graffiti art is very popular right now but I don't want to jump on the trend. I think I will stick to my guns. Art always has its successful bandwagons. If he can do it, I can do it too, mentally, but in the end it is not going to be the same or as genuine as it was intended to be. I was playing with the idea of doing graffiti art in the middle of a busy highway. You know dodging the fast cars and trucks and running back and forth to finish a piece right in the middle of the road. Now, that's original and risky. Just an idea… DON'T do it okay, unless you have nine lives. Seriously, what I'd like is to produce a whole comic book with you and get it published and to work with anybody who wants to work with me towards publication, as long as I get respect and equal rights.


Tarantino and Faith No More

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Tarantino and Faith No More, a selection of Tarantino film clips put together with a selection of FNM live performance clips to 'Ugly in the Morning' in this new You Tube video....Bring out the gimp!


Happy Birthday Roddy Bottum

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I'm sure you will all join us in wishing Roddy Bottum a very happy birthday today as the FNM keyboardist turns 52.

Roddy talks Download and touring


Roddy:
“I play keyboards in Faith No More and have always believed that an instrument is very, very gay. You must yourself, to make a certain balance with the legs and the only thing that you have more or less free is the torso, then you contort yourself in a very theatrical form.”

Roddy at the ASCAP 2013 film and TV awards



"You know in the United States, there's a type of man, and what they like to do is take a gerbil, you know what a gerbil is? Its like a hamster, you know what a hamster is? They take a hamster and a plastic tube and stick it up their butt for sexual pleasure... And let the gerbil run up the tube... Up your butt."
- Roddy Bottum, 1992


"we weren't really the kind of band that did groupies, gay or straight, or played that field. it seemed a little beneath what we were trying to achieve. does that make sense? i'm not being all grand with this, it's just not something that really floated our collective boat." - Roddy on groupies



Faith No More - New Billy and Roddy Interviews

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Roddy Bottum has been speaking to Clash about FNM, returning to their roots and making 'Sol Invictus'
A few cuts follow:

On Motherfucker....“It seemed like a credo to establish at that point,” Bottum says of the latter. “We haven't been around in so long and it felt like putting a song out called 'Motherfucker' set the course to let people know that we weren't really into compromising or releasing something just for the sort of bang of making money. It was a direct, in your face expression. As well as the tone of the song was about where we were and where we come from. Accountability of the creative process.”

Motherfucker live in Detroit 2015


On returning to Faith No More's roots....“When we started doing it, it was honestly just a really crazy art project the three of us started together,” he says. “It was very goth and very simple and very repetitive and very stripped down. I think we intentionally went there, back to our absolute roots and started from there.”
“Not so much outward inspiration,” he says, “more us as a group – what got us off and what we liked doing. Which was just like this weird language that we share, this repetitive, simple, moody, brooding place that we used to go.”

On 'Sasquatch the Opera'...“It's pretty experimental and weird. I live in New York and those sort of artistic endeavours are encouraged!” he laughs. “I like the idea of taking something from the ground up and having a story and following it all the way through towards the presentation. And I like the idea of telling a story with song and I really like the theatrical sort of quality, the visual presentation of opera. It's really cool.”

On the reunion...“It was super emotional, it was a crazy place to be seeing as we'd broken up ten years prior, too. With really no intention of ever really coming back together,” he insists. “There were a lot of crazy resentments and burned bridges coming out of that, when we broke up. It was a really hesitant but comfortable and emotional place to re-visit. Going back into it in those first shows it was really super scary and very emotional.”



______________________________________

Billy Gould speaks to Finnish channel Kaaos TV

Billy talks about the making and recording of the new album 'Sol Invictus' gives his thoughts on the rock scene today....'We didn't tell anyone that we were doing it (sol Invictus) so if it was shitty we could just delete it and no one would ever know!' BG

Faith No More - New Tour Date - Costa Rica

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Faith No More in Costa Rica




Faith No More have been confirmed to play in Costa Rica for the first time according to nacion.com
FNM will play on the 15th September at Viva Park in Alajuela.

Tickets will go on pre sale on Wednesday July 8th 10:00am local time.
General sale will begin on Tuesday July 14th at 10am at eTicket.cr

VIDEOS - Faith No More - Dario Argentino - FNM and the fall of the Berlin Wall

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Following on from the Tarantino/Faith No More video, Testaroli on You Tube has now put together film cuts from legendary Italian director Dario Argento to Faith No More's classic "Smaller and Smaller"



Many of you may know that FNM played in Berlin the night the Wall came down, now former Faith No More Tour Manager Tim Dalton tells us the story in this You Tube video




Jon Hudson Billy Gould interviews

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Jon Hudson has been talking with music radar about the new album 'Sol Invictus', how he came to join the band and more. Here are a few selections from the interview...

There’s never been a clear explanation of how you came to join the band in the first place - care to tell our readers the full story?
“I was in a band in San Francisco called Systems Collapse, and the keyboard player knew Bill and the other guys, so I met Bill when Faith No More was out touring The Real Thing. It was becoming apparent that things weren’t working out with Jim after the Angel Dust tours, so I wasn’t surprised when they agreed to part ways.
"You have to be in the right place at the right time - you have to consider yourself very fortunate when an opportunity comes up"
“Later, Bill sent me some of the demo stuff for King For A Day. I recorded some ideas and sent them in. They were auditioning different guitar players at the time, and they obviously decided to work with Trey, which I think was a good call; he was perfect for that record.
“I was pretty familiar with the band and Bill’s sense of direction in terms of songwriting and his approach with guitars. So, by the time he called me in early 1996, and said, ‘We’re in the middle of coming up with material for this next record - we were wondering if you’d give it another shot?’, that was the perfect opportunity for me.
“You have to be in the right place at the right time - you have to consider yourself very fortunate when an opportunity comes up. People can say, ‘You have to have talent.’ Sure, that’s important, but there’s no shortage of very talented people. You have to remember that if you do have these opportunities, you’re lucky.”
Do you ever want to change up your predecessors Jim Martin and Trey Spruance’s parts?
"I don’t see any benefit in trying to change all the guitar parts"
“I’ve always liked the guitar parts on the other records - I’ve admired those records and their playing. I’ve never had any need to do it differently to the way it was recorded. I’m a fan of both of those guys, which is lucky, because I’m playing their stuff all night!
“But I like playing what’s on the record; I have no problem with that. If I go to see somebody else play, I pretty much would like to hear it the way it is on the record, so I don’t see any benefit in trying to change all the guitar parts.”
Matador has a very melodic, rather than flashy, lead at its conclusion. What’s your approach to solos?
“Just to put in whatever’s necessary. That’s not to say a flashy part here and there isn’t, because sometimes that’s exactly what’s called for. It’s just a matter of being open to throwing out any ideas for music, just to see what sticks or what works with it, and then refining it from there. If there are solos, or there are spots for the guitar to stand out, hopefully the guitar makes its own little statement. If it doesn’t, it’s probably unnecessary, right? I would rather try to say something with fewer notes than to try to fill up space or overwhelm people with a bunch of notes that don’t seem to matter.”

Billy Gould meanwhile has been speaking with Toazted about FNM getting back together and 'Sol Invictus'
'we ended up with 10, it was as least two or three times that'Billy Gould on how much material was written.



Faith No More in Session at Maida Vale

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Faith No More's Maida Vale session will feature on BBC Radio One's rock show with Daniel P Carter today Sunday 12th July at 7pm UK time. You can listen to the set which will be streamed here.
The set was also filmed and will be available to view on the BBC iPlayer, although outside of the UK you will need to use a VPN service to access it.

Check out the previous Maida Vale sessions below....

Faith No More - Maida Vale Studios, London, England - December, 1992 - Angel Dust Tour

00:00 Everything's Ruined
04:42 Epic
09:25 Midlife Crisis
13:06 RV



1995-12-04 - Maida Vale Studios, UK

Digging The Grave 
I Started A Joke 03:06
Ricochet 05:45
Evidence 10:05
Get Out 14:51
What A Day 17:06



Faith No More - Maida Vale Studios, London, England - 22nd April 1997 - Album Of The Year Tour

00:00 Ashes To Ashes
03:40 Midlife Crisis
07:06 Interview
08:22 Last Cup of Sorrow
11:58 The Gentle Art of Making Enemies

First performance with Jon Hudson as their official guitarist.

Faith No More at Maida Vale - Video

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Last night Faith No More's latest Maida Vale session aired on BBC Radio 1's Rock Show.
This would be the bands fourth session at the legendary studios in London, and one that has certainly got the fans buzzing with excitement.
The guys recorded 5 songs on the 16th June, Superhero, Sunny Side Up, Seperation Anxiety, Matador and the Burt Bacharach classic This Guys In Love With You.
The recording and mix itself is of superb quality as one would expect from a session at Maida Vale.
The video of the set is below so you guys can judge for yourself.
Just a heads up, for some reason Matador doesn't appear on this video, nor did it appear on the BBC i player broadcast.

Faith No More at BBC Radio 1, Maida Vale, London, UK - 2015.06.16

-Introduction w/host, Daniel P. Carter- 
-Superhero
-Interview- 
-Sunny Side Up 
-Interview- 
-This Guy’s in Love with You (Burt Bacharach cover) 
-Interview- 
-Separation Anxiety

Faith No More - Interviews

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Roddy Interview with Antigravity



Roddy Bottum has been speaking to New Orleans based magazine 'Antigravity' about the reformation of Faith No More and new album 'Sol Invictus', here follow a few cuts from the interview.

How has the newfound freedom changed the band dynamic, if at all? Has it impacted the songwriting process?
Just given the fact that we’ve all matured some 17 years apart from each other, we tend to give each other more space these days. That provides for a more well-balanced output. We used to only know how to scream over the others to be heard, to give our opinions. Now we’re all better listeners. That’s changed the songwriting.
How much did you contribute to the songwriting on Sol Invictus? Which of the songs  did you write on this one?
We all kind of added our parts. I contributed a bulk of songs to the process but only two made the cut on the final product, “Rise of the Fall” and “Motherfucker.” There was a cool dance one that sounded like Daft Punk and another rhythmic song with strings that sounded like “Kashmir” that I really liked.


Whats the deal with the matching white attire and the floral stage set? Whose idea was that?
We all kind of came together on that one. It was a statement that kind of went against the grain of all-black rock look that was prevalent in the realms  that we were associated with. I think  the first time it happened was at a French festival. We were aware of all of the “rock” acts and all of their black attire and skulls, and it made sense for us to go the other direction and go bold in white. The flowers suggested a hippy cult thing that we were keen on exploring as a visual.


In your time off from FNM, there have been major advancements in the acceptance of and rights granted  the LGBT community. There was a lot of confusion over the true  motivation behind  the disparaging remarks people were making over the picture you posted of yourself with Rob Halford,  and whether they may have been “gay-bashing ” or not. Other than that incident, have you found people more supportive or encouraging this time,  or are you still, in 2015, faced with ignorance and adversity?
People are constantly surprising with their support and encouragement. And that Rob Halford photo incident got blown out of proportion. There  were some comments that regarded his “health” or “look” in the photo as unsavory. It wasn’t necessarily anti-gay and it’s funny to me that people seemed  to assume that that was the issue. It wasn’t really. It was just mean-spirited comments. Just because said photo was of two gay men, it doesn’t mean that the talked-about unsavory banter was homophobic. It was just plain mean and I didn’t want to put it out there. That man is a legend. People in general, though, yes, way more supportive and encouraging. It’s funny to hear people kind of nostalgic for a time when oppression still stung. It was a lot more dramatically charged, coming out in the ‘90s. It’s become sort of a non-issue, which is what we all aim for, but it’s created a flat line of drama.

Jon Hudson Interview with Gibson


Jon recently spoke with Anne Erickson at Gibson.com about 'Sol Invictus and his beloved Gibson Les Paul's. Here follows a few cuts from the interview

It’s been about 18 years since the release of your last studio album, Album of the Year. What was the catalyst for Faith No More to put out this latest set, Sol Invictus ?
There were a couple of decisions. I would say the first was just to get back together and play the music again and all the existing material. That was six years ago. I think everybody had to go their separate directions and figure out what it was they wanted to do on the new album. After 1997 or 1998, the band needed a break, and it made sense for the band to call it quits. They had to get everything else out of their system before coming back to play again. That was a sound decision in that there wasn’t any external pressure to go out and play again. We wanted to do it. For recording, it was the same idea. We would work on stuff if we wanted to, but not because we had to. After playing the old songs for years, we started asking ourselves, “What’s next?”
What are your go-to guitars on the road?
I’m traveling with four right now, which to me seems crazy, because growing up, I wouldn’t have imagined owning that many guitars. With this band and the way we have to travel, sometimes it’s not feasible to have a couple of guitars, because we have to fly our gear around. I have three Les Paul Standards, pretty much stock. Then, I have an older Les Paul Custom, as well, that I bring with me. I’m totally set at that point. But I rarely play more than one guitar in a set. I might swap one out for one or two songs, but I use a main Standard throughout the set.
What draws you to the Les Paul design?
It’s the construction and sound of it. With this material, the wood and neck construction and scale length really yields a different sound all together, and I just gravitate towards that. I pretty much get everything I want with it, so I’m very satisfied.

Billy and Mike B Interview

EMP Rockinvasion caught up with Billy and Mike for a chat about Sol Invictus

Faith No More - Miscellaneous

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TREY SPRUANCE [Mr. Bungle Faith No More Secret Chiefs 3 guitarist]: Excerpt from Greg Prato's new book 'Survival of the Fittest' Metal in the 90's...

I may be a product of that era, because in the '80s, when Mr. Bungle was playing death metal, I was like, total shred - shredding the hell out of all this atonal, kind of Schoenberg-ian, serialistic kind of stuff. And I just stopped. But for me, the focus became music theory, so I don't know if it really relates to the giving up on guitar solos in metal in the '90s, but I definitely gave up on guitar solos. Or just stopped caring about the guitar in general, and started writing more for other instruments. Trying to concentrate on the broader scope of the musical ideas, rather than writing from the instrument. And I actually stopped writing for the guitar as an instrument - pretty much completely - by '94 or something.

Survival of the Fittest Heavy Metal in the 90's is available at Amazon
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Two albums from Faith No More which were last pressed in Europe in 2013, are now being treated to deluxe reissues in the United States. Both The Real Thing and Angel Dust are being pressed in 180-gram black double vinyl sets, with bonus discs included.

You can see the tracklisting for each set, below. Both will be released on August 28th.

The Real Thing
LP 1 – Original 1989 Album:
Side A:
1. From Out Of Nowhere
2. Epic
3. Falling To Pieces
4. Surprise! You’re Dead!
5. Zombie Eaters
Side B:
1. The Real Thing
2. Underwater Love
3. The Morning After
4. Woodpecker From Mars


LP 2
Side C – Studio Non-LP tracks
1. War Pigs (studio)
2. Edge of the World
3. Sweet Emotion
4. Falling To Pieces (Matt Wallace Remix)

Side D – Live Bonus Tracks
1. War Pigs (Live in Berlin 1989)
2. Surprise! You’re Dead! (Live in Sheffield 1990)
3. Chinese Arithmetic (Live in Sheffield 1990)
4. Underwater Love (Live at Brixton 1990)
5. As The Worm Turns (Live at Brixton 1990)

Angel Dust
LP 1 – Original 1992 Album:
Side A
1. Land Of Sunshine
2. Caffeine
3. Midlife Crisis
4. RV
5. Everything’s Ruined
6. Malpractice
Side B
1. Kindergarten
2. Be Aggressive
3. A Small Victory
4. Jizzlobber
5. Smaller And Smaller

LP 2
Side C:
1. Easy
2. Midnight Cowboy
3. Crack Hitler
4. Midlife Crisis (The Scream Mix) Remixed by Matt Wallace
5. The World Is Yours (Angel Dust outtake)
Side D:
1. As The Worm Turns (Mike Patton vocal / Japan bonus track)
2. Das Schutzenfest (German version)
3. Let’s Lynch The Landlord (B-Side)
4. Be Aggressive (Live in Munich 9th November 1992)
5. Kindergarten (Live in Munich 9th November 1992)
6. We Care A Lot (Live in Munich 9th November 1992)

Meanwhile PopMatters have a good indepth review of the reissues...
Quote:
There are a whopping 10 different live tracks on the disc as well, encompassing everything from “Easy” to “We Care a Lot” and even another Mosley outlier, “Mark Bowen”, as well as the expected Angel Dust songs. The recording quality is listenable but not great; certainly not good enough for an official live album. But the variety is nice. The disc ends with “The World is Yours”, a legitimate Angel Dust outtake. It feels exactly like the sort of song that wouldn’t have made the album at the time, and it’s a meaty and interesting artifact.
One imagines that if Matt Wallace or the band had been involved the remasters would have been a bit better on the two albums. Additionally, more effort may have been made, especially on The Real Thing, to assemble all of the material and better quality live tracks to fill out the bonus discs. There is some effort being put into these releases, but they just aren’t quite as good as they could’ve been. Still, the original albums are amongst the best of the era and worth checking out for those who weren’t around or missed them when they originally came out.

Faith No More - Mike Patton and Billy Gould talk Sol Invictus Tour

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Billy Gould and Mike Patton have spoken to the Wall Street Journal about the demands of touring and how playing the new material live is feeling



“The way we’ve scheduled this year of touring is actually pretty humane,” Patton told Speakeasy in a telephone interview last week. “We’ll do a few weeks, in this case it was actually a month, or a little longer, and then we’ll have a few weeks off.”

Patton on making  tweaks because it wasn’t possible to capture the full studio-record sound live. 
 “It’s a matter of choosing. Hey, you’ve got this three- or four- or five-part harmony, we can’t do them all, Let’s figure out an instrumentation or an arrangement where we can still make it work in a live setting. That’s challenging. It’s also really fun.”

Billy on playing the new songs live.
“They’re starting to get comfortable, familiar to our bodies now, and that’s really important, We’re playing music and not just playing songs.”




Patton on the demands on his voice.
 “The one thing that’s different now is I go through more peaks and valleys, I’m older so it’s tougher. I’ll start out fine, then I’ll hit a valley. And then I’ll be great for a while, and then all of a sudden, hey, if you blink or stay out too late one night or don’t take care of yourself, then it can step up and bite you in the ass.”

Patton on the 'wait and see' approach.
“The one constant has been, and it’s a comforting constant: let’s not plan too far ahead, let’s not make any commitments that are going to compromise us in the future, Hey, let’s take it step by step, and we’ll see how we feel after this year of touring. God only knows.”

FNM Sol Invictus Tour...The Fillmore

Faith No More - Billy, Mike P and Roddy talk with The Guardian

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British rag The Guardian interviewed Mike P, Billy and Roddy during the bands stay in London for the Roundhouse gigs and published a well rounded look at Faith No More's career yesterday...

Billy Gould: “We had a night off in Guam and we went to some military bar, There were big-screen TVs showing hardcore porn and they started playing I Started a Joke on karaoke. It was like God speaking to us: ‘You have to do this song.’”



Bill and Mike on Angel Dust:
BG “We wanted to make the most of it by putting something interesting out there while we had people’s ears,” 
MP “It didn’t totally click, I remember the label saying ‘commercial suicide’.”
BG “The classic line was: ‘I hope you didn’t just buy houses,'"
Roddy and Mike on touring with GnR:
RB “We were smart-alec obnoxious people, We shit all over that camp. We had to prove that we weren’t that.”
MP “It makes you examine yourself,” Patton ‘Is this who we are now? This isn’t my deal.’ You overdo it sometimes. There I am, peeing on [Axl Rose’s] teleprompter. I didn’t really have to do that.”
Roddy on new material:
“To hear anything one of us does at this point is fascinating, I think I know these guys and then they’ll do something that’s like: ‘Wow, that is really fucking weird.’ I think we accomplished what we need to accomplish. If we all died today I think we would have done a good job.”

Read the full piece here

Koolarrow Updates

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Koolarrow bands are continuing to work hard as hell, none more so than Dubioza Kolektiv. The Happy Machine Tour continues with another 27 scheduled shows that will take the band to 58 shows this year! Be sure to catch them if they are in a city near you!

Tour Dates:
24.07 Kasarne / Kulturpark, KOŠICE, SK
30.07 Zaječarska gitarijada, ZAJEČAR, RS
31.07 Arena, PULA, HR
14.08 Evènement, PAU (64), FR
15.08 Boomtown Fair / The Jolly Dodger, WINCHESTER, UK
15.08 Boomtown Fair / Town Centre Stage, WINCHESTER, UK
30.08 Špancirfest, VARAŽDIN, HR
10.10 Gasometer / Planet.tt, WIEN, AT
23.10 Stage Live, BILBAO, ES
24.10 Sala Penélope, MADRID, ES
30.10 Sala Apolo, BARCELONA, ES
20.11 The 100 club, LONDON, UK
21.11 The 100 club, LONDON, UK
16.12 Pitstop, KOLDING, DK
17.12 Musikhuset Posten, ODENSE, DK
18.12 Loppen, COPENHAGEN, DK

Dubioza Kolektiv performing on the Trefpunt stage at the Gentse Feesten city festival (Ghent, Belgium, July 21 2015).



_________________________________________________


Meanwhile the super hardcore band Flattbush have three shows coming up this summer including what is sure to be a great night at Alex's Bar when the guys will be playing the same bill as Melt Banana!

Tour Dates:
Jul 30 Alex's Bar, Long Beach, CA
Aug 07 The Regal Inn, Lakewood, CA
Aug 08 Loaded, Hollywood, CA

In other Flattbush news, the band have wetted fans appetite for new music with a status they published on their facebook page....
"Sisters and Brothers, writing for the next Flattbush album has begun. Stay tuned!"
We will be staying tuned!

____________________________________________


The Mexican Dubwiser has two shows in CA coming up this month. July 28 he will be playing Federal Bar in NoHo and on July 30 at Fed Underground, in Long Beach.

___________________________________________

Check out this awesome version of the Kultur Shock classic 'ZUMBUL' covered by WOMBO Orchestra and symphonic orchestra JOSEM.

Article - Taking Over Soundtrack Duties from Billy Gould

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Taking over Soundtrack Duties for FAITH NO MORE´s Billy Gould



 Gould and Espen J Jörgensen have collaborated on the Fugly EP as well as the soundtrack for Jörgensen´s comic book documentary The Sequential Art.
Gould did the soundtrack for the zombie game Rebuild 2, but Espen is responsible for the soundtrack on the 3rd game.
The Rebuild Game Designer Talks about Billy Gould of Faith No More, Espen Rupert.
We spoke briefly with Sarah Northway, the producer of the Rebuild - a zombi game series, who just released the third game “Gangs of Deadsville” on PC/MAC.
 Northway Games used music from Gould´s Talking Book for their second game. For the thirds instalment Billy Gould´s collaborator (Espen J Jörgensen) on the Fugly EP took over the soundtrack gig.
 When you and Espen first spoke, the Fugly EP he and Bill did was on the table, so why did you choose to go for Espen and Rupert Lally's music instead?

 Espen got in touch with me when he and Bill first released the Fugly EP, and since I'd used Bill's music in an earlier game it seemed like a possibility. There was one track - I believe it was the Rupert Lally remix - that really caught my ear and fit the style I wanted for Rebuild 3. So when I heard that Espen and Rupert had other work with a similar sound (the two Stillium albums and Postcards from A Used Future) I was pretty excited. I still wasn't sure there was enough music to fill a full 1-hour soundtrack until they released This is Art. That sealed it. In the end I think I didn't include Fugly because it was a bit more upbeat than the rest and I wanted to keep things simple.
 Can you say a little about how the scores in Rebuild 2 and 3 differ?
 The Rebuild 2 soundtrack was taken from an album called The Talking Book by Bill and Jared Blum (of Gigante Sound). It's full of atmospheric soundscapes: drones, dissonant tones and layered samples that evoke the desolate, post-apocalyptic feel I wanted for Rebuild 2. I saw them perform it in concert at Thee Parkside in SF and I just kept closing my eyes and imagined playing Rebuild 2, thinking of the abandoned cities in the game and a slowly disintegrating world. I knew it'd be perfect. For Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville, I wanted something with more energy and rhythm, with a bit more of an industrial edge that hints at the madness of a zombie apocalypse. I was lucky that Espen contacted me through our mutual connection with Bill.
The new soundtrack by Espen and Rupert Lally features layers of grungy noise and moody beats.
It's less like a standard game soundtrack and more of a compilation album. I'm really proud of how it turned out.
 Rebuild 3 trailer: https://youtu.be/jxByczsUZ0w
 More on The Talking Book: http://koolarrow.com/the-talking-book/ 
 Free Streaming of the Rebuild 3 Soundtrack: https://rupertlallyespenjjrgensen.bandcamp.com/album/rebuild-gangs-of-deadsville-o-s-t 
 Listen to Fugly Here: http://espenjjorgensen.bandcamp.com/
 More on the Rebuild games here: http://rebuildgame.com
 PARADISE ONCE will be released on the 17th of August - Pre-Order now: www.rupertandespen.com

Faith No More - Austin Texas, SETLIST and pictures

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The Faith No More Sol Invictus Tour Resumed a few hours ago with the band wowing the crowd in Austin, Texas with a blistering 18 song set, and also had grind core legends Napalm Death opening for them!

SETLIST:
July 26 Austin Music Hall 
set list:
1) Motherfucker
2) Be Aggressive
3) Caffeine
4) Evidence
5) Epic
6) Black Friday
7) Everything's Ruined
8) Midlife Crisis (w/Lowdown, Boz Scaggs)
9) Gentile Art of Making Enemies
10) Easy
11) Separation Anxiety
12) Spirit
13) King For A Day
14) Ashes To Ashes
15) Superhero
First Encore
16) Matador
17) We Care A Lot
Second Encore
18) This Guy's In Love With You





Faith No More enjoy writing there own rules - Billy Gould Interview

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The Houston Press have interviewed FNM bassist Billy Gould before the bands show there tomorrow night.
here are a few highlights...

On playing the Lone Star State 
“The funny thing about it is, in the beginning when we started getting back together and doing shows again around 2009-10, there weren’t that many offers coming from the States,” Gould says. “It’s a big country, and routing-wise, it just didn’t make sense at the time to just go to one place that’s so far from another place. So, that’s kind of why it didn’t work out.

“Once we announced the new material and that we were putting out a new record, there really came a lot of interest from those areas that I think maybe promoters weren’t aware of,” the bassist continues. “We haven’t been to Texas in such a long time, and I’ve got friends there. We used to play there a lot back in the day. It’s going to be cool to reconnect.”


On incorparating the new material into the setlist:
“It’s a ten-song record, and we’re doing five of those songs per show — sometimes more than that,” he says. “That’s definitely where our heads are at right now: the new stuff. All the songs we’re playing in our set, we like. Because when we get tired of them, we stop playing them!”

On the future:
“We’re in tour mode right now,” Gould says. “We’ve got touring set up all the way to October, and I think that’s when we all kind of check in with each other and see where we’re at. Anything is cool with me, as long as the whole band is behind it.

“I think that’s one of the great things about being in this group now is that we can kind of write our own rules,” he added. “It makes for a much happier environment for us.”

Faith No More plays South side Ballroom, Dallas July 27 and Bayou Music Center Tuesday, July 28 with special guests Napalm Death. Doors open at 8 p.m.
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