Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks ‘em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you’re going to feel it afterwards.
“Everything’s Ruined”
Faith No More, 1992
The song is a classic. The video, not so much.
This is what it must be like inside Mike Patton’s brain: cliff diving. Airplanes. Some golfers. A bird crapping in reverse? Sure, why not. Also, some random, lip syncing children. There are definitely inspired moments, such as the (elbow?) surgery juxtaposed with the roast beef, and the aforementioned crapping bird. But, as with many things Patton-related, the best often sits flush with the worst, to the point that opinions can differ strongly on which is which (see: Mr. Bungle). Not that this video is all Mike’s fault. “Everything’s Ruined” is one of the better tracks on Angel Dust (an unimpeachable classic, in my opinion), but the video is a mess of missed opportunity. The band runs out of ideas around the 2:49 mark, when they pretend to get chased by a giant sea turtle. By the time Patton pantomimes a little-league pitch, the gag is exhausted. Still, when the baseball player cuts briefly to a sheep being sheared, I couldn’t help but think how much more subversive and weird (read: memorable) this could have been in the hands of a more inspired director.
Got a candidate for Video Hangover? Email tips at stereogum dot com.
 |
 |
Gawdammit, do I ever love this band.
The fact that Patton’s “best often sits flush with the worst” is one of the main reasons why I have been a fan for about 20 years now. Nobody has straddled that edge more consistently while maintaining a prolific yet interesting career. Also, “Everything’s Ruined” might be my favorite song on Angel Dust…and this video might be one of the worst videos ever made. Thank you for posting.
i think they were already tired of the commercialism thats is still rampant in the music indust. the video shows me that fnm did not care for videos and it was someone elses idea to do it. so make it as bad as you can. been there and done that before to prove a point. hats off to them for keeping the themselves as true as they could.
Sorry for the hijack but if you haven’t seen this before it’s worth a look. Mike Patton on Wolfmother. Pretty funny…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THV23g3z5qU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SwetH5x3Nvk
until i discovered peeping tom, i didn’t pay that much attention to patton.
loves it.
So what.
you just made my fucking day posting this. thanks Stereogum
Great song. . .