Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#46: Faith No More “We Care A Lot”
Number of times a cat in a tutu flies across the screen in this video: twice. Just saying. Before Mike Patton joined Faith No More in 1988 and turned the San Francisco band into a prog/funk-metal household name, the group was fronted by Chuck Mosley. (And, before that, Faith No More’s singer was Courtney Love.) Mosley was allegedly dismissed from the band due to “erratic behavior,” but that’s kind of a puzzling idea for a band whose image doesn’t exactly scream “consummate professionals.” There are several versions of “We Care A Lot” dating back to 1985, but this particular take is from FNM’s 1987 major-label debut, Introduce Yourself. The late ’80s provided a limited window in which alt-rock bands really had the opportunity to take the air out of inflated pop stars, and “We Care A Lot”—a stab at Live Aid and other charity concerts/events put on by wealthy megastars—was an excellent cheap shot. The underhanded sarcasm on display here was so well-executed that it’s almost possible to forgive Faith No More for all the rap/metal it eventually inspired.
