Wes Borland Sees The Black Light, Says No More Bizkit For Him | News
By archive-Chris-Harris
April 25, 2007 / 2:50 PM
Fred Durst misses Limp Bizkit, and he misses Wes Borland — a lot.
A few weeks back, LB’s red-baseball-cap-sporting frontman updated the band’s MySpace blog with an honest and seemingly heartfelt plea to his nü metal brethren to revive the Bizkit and tour the world. «I would love to do a tour with the original [lineup],» he wrote. «The feeling we have on stage as Limp Bizkit is like no other feeling I have ever had, and no other feeling has been so rewarding.»
But of course, there’s been years of publicly spilled bad blood between Durst — who has been focusing on filmmaking in recent years (see [article]»Fred Durst: The Next Martin Scorsese?»[/article]) — and Borland (see [article]»Durst Attacks Wes Borland In Song, Blogs Over Bizkit Talk»[/article]). The guitarist has since cut ties with Limp to go out on his own (see [article]»Bye Bye Bizkit? Wes Borland Says Limp Are Pretty Much Done»[/article]). His band, Black Light Burns, will issue their debut LP, Cruel Melody, on June 5.
«Imagine that me and Wes could work things out together and be a band again,» Durst wrote. «We had so many wonderful times … [and] I am proud to say that I have learned so much from my mistakes and it has taken a long time to evolve to this place where I finally let myself be healed. Without Wes, I wouldn’t know what it is like to work with the best.»
Well, it looks like Durst is just going to have to settle for a different guitarist if he’s truly interested in making a comeback with the Bizkit, because for Borland, there is only Black Light Burns.
«I am in this for the long haul,» Borland said during a recent interview with MTV News. «The whole Limp thing is absolutely, offensively impossible. I’ve been through that several times now, and it’s always the same thing. It’s very predictable how that group of people, when they come together, what happens. Him calling me out and saying that he’s different and wants the band back together .
.. I mean, I’ve seen it three times before. And what happens is, I go, ‘OK, let’s make it work,’ and three months later, we completely hate each other. It’s nothing against Fred — that’s just how it works. I understand that the intentions are good, and that he means what he said, but I can’t waste any of my time trying to make that happen, because it’s a scenario that just doesn’t work out.»
While Borland’s thankful for the times he did have with Limp — or at least the times he says it worked well — «I am just ready to do something I believe in more, and something that makes me happier,» he said. «I’m too old to be farting around with stuff that isn’t precisely what I want to do. This is my focus now, whether it blows up quick or it flunks. Either way, I don’t really care. I just want to be back in the world, doing music and meeting people — doing my thing.»
Borland said Black Light Burns plan to spend much of this year and next touring. He’s compiled a touring band that features drummer Marshall Kilpatric, who some may remember from the Esoteric and Today Is the Day.
His band will head out with Chevelle for a tour that kicks off in Chicago on April 30 and wraps May 23 in Clifton Park, New York. After that, Borland said they’ll head out on their own headlining run, and at some point early next year, he said he plans to begin working on Cruel Melody‘s follow-up. He’s been working with Kilpatric on several new tunes.
«I don’t want to take as long to do the next record as this one took, because this one was sort of about finding my own way, and now I know how it works, so it’ll be a lot easier,» he said. (Borland spent more than three years working on Cruel Melody.) «The band’s built, and now I just have to crank out a bunch of songs.»
Borland said he plans to work on new material from his bus, over the course of the next few months of touring. And in just a few weeks, the first video from Black Light, for the track «Lie,» will be making its TV debut. In the clip, Borland is killed off by the members of From First to Last — a band he did a brief stint with (see [article]»From First To Last Are Done With Wes Borland, Target Rob Zombie»[/article]) — who are all dressed in masks and robes.
His body is dragged off to a party by a gaggle of go-go dancers, and Wes parties his undead ass off. During the video’s shooting, Borland nearly lost a tooth.
«We were performing, and there was all this water on the floor,» he explained. «I slipped a few times and busted my lip open. And I also chipped my tooth on my microphone.»
Making Cruel Melody — which Borland recorded with ex-Nine Inch Nails multi-instrumentalist Danny Lohner, drumming hired gun Josh Freese, and Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv fame, and features guest spots by former From First to Last frontman Sonny Moore, Limp bassist Sam Rivers, British singer Carina Round and Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano — was a liberating experience for Borland, as he’s transitioned from musician to vocalist with ease. And really, he doesn’t know what sort of reaction he’ll get from fans.
«All I want is for it to grow, and I just hope that it continues to reach people and sustain us so that we can tour a lot,» he explained.
«I feel like people don’t know what to expect, because it’s, like, the dude with the black contacts that was, like, Fred’s sidekick — that’s probably what most people are thinking. And it’s fine, because I don’t expect anyone to welcome this with open arms, because it is different from other things I’ve done. But it’s the most real I’ve ever been before — it’s the most pure me. So if you don’t like this, you don’t like me as an artist.»
Limp Bizkit — Electronic Features
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Fred Durst Sam Rivers John Otto Wes Borland Limp Bizkit is an American nu metal band. Formed in 1994, Limp Bizkit became popular playing in the Jacksonville, Florida underground music scene in the late 1990s, and signed with Flip Records, a subsidiary of Interscope, which released their début album, Three Dollar Bill, Yall (1997). The band achieved mainstream success with their second and third studio albums, Significant Other (1999) and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000), although this success was marred by a series of controversies surrounding their performances at Woodstock ’99 and the 2001 Big Day Out festival. Borland left the group in 2001, but Durst, Rivers, Otto and Lethal continued to record and tour with guitarist Mike Smith. Following the release of their album, Results May Vary (2003), Borland rejoined the band and recorded The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) (2005) with Durst, Rivers, Lethal and drummer Sammy Siegler before entering a hiatus. In 2009, the band’s original lineup reunited and began touring, culminating with the recording of the album Gold Cobra (2011), after which they left Interscope and later signed with Cash Money Records, but DJ Lethal was asked to leave the band soon after. They are currently recording their seventh studio album, Stampede of the Disco Elephants. Formation and early years (1994–1996) Fred Durst grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina, where he took an interest in breakdancing, hip hop, punk rock and heavy metal. He began to rap, skate, beatbox and deejay. While mowing lawns and working as a tattoo artist, he developed an idea for a band that combined elements of rock and hip hop. Durst named the band Limp Bizkit, because he wanted a name that would repel listeners. According to Durst, «The name is there to turn people’s heads away. A lot of people pick up the disc and go, ‘Limp Bizkit. Oh, they must suck.’ Those are the people that we don’t even want listening to out music.» Other names that were considered by Durst included Gimp Disco, Split Dickslit, Bitch Piglet, and Blood Fart. Every record label that showed an interest in the band pressured its members to change its name. Durst unsuccessfully tried to attract attention from A&R representatives at various labels by pretending to be the band’s manager. Three Dollar Bill, Yall’ (1997–1998) After their performance opening for Korn at the Dragonfly in Hollywood was well received, Limp Bizkit signed with Mojo, a subsidiary of MCA Records. Despite the success of live performances of the band’s cover of the song «Faith», Robinson was opposed to recording it, and tried to persuade the band not to play it on the album. However, the final recording, which incorporated heavier guitar playing and drumming, as well as DJ scratching, impressed him. Continuing the band’s policy of using names that would repulse potential listeners, the band named the album by using part of the phrase «queer as a three dollar bill» and adding the word «Y’all» for Florida flavor, naming the album, Three Dollar Bill, Yall. The completed album featured an abrasive, angry sound which Limp Bizkit used to attract listeners to their music. After the band completed recording, they toured with Korn and Helmet. Critics reacted unfavorably to performances of Korn and Limp Bizkit; Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel music critic Jon M. Interscope proposed to the band that the label pay $5,000 to guarantee that a Portland, Oregon radio station play the song «Counterfeit» fifty times, preceded and concluded with an announcement that the air time was paid for by Interscope. The paid air time was criticized by the media, who saw it as «payola». The band’s manager Jeff Kwatinetz later termed the plan as a «brilliant marketing move». Durst stated, «It worked, but it’s not that cool of a thing.» Following the release of «Counterfeit» as a single, Three Dollar Bill, Yall was released on July 1, 1997, and was met with minimal response. Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote, «They might not have many original ideas but they do the sound well. They have a powerful rhythm section and memorable hooks, most of which make up for the uneven songwriting. Limp Bizkit joined the Warped Tour, performing alongside the bands Pennywise, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sick of It All, Lagwagon and Blink-182. Preceding their first tour with DJ Lethal, Otto became familiar with Lethal’s contributions to collaborate with him better on stage. In addition to touring with Primus and Deftones, Limp Bizkit headlined the Ladies Night in Cambodia club tour, which was intended to diversify the band’s fanbase, which was largely male, by offering free tickets to female attendees. This plan successfully increased the band’s female fanbase. In 1998, Limp Bizkit toured with Soulfly and Cold on Soulfly’s first European tour. Touring consistently increased Limp Bizkit’s success, and the second single from Three Dollar Bill, Yall, «Faith», became a radio hit, leading to a slot on Ozzfest, a tour organized by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. After completing Ozzfest, Limp Bizkit took a break from performing, and later performed on Korn’s Family Values Tour. Durst also directed a music video for the band’s single «Faith» in promotion for its appearance in the film Very Bad Things, but was unsatisfied with it, and directed a second video which paid tribute to tourmates like Primus, Deftones and Mötley Crüe, who appeared in the video. Borland stated in an interview that George Michael, the writer of the song, hated the cover and «hates us for doing it». Significant Other (1999–2000) Following the radio success of «Faith», the band was determined to record the follow-up to their first album in order to show that they weren’t a Korn ripoff or a cover band; the band began writing an album which dealt with issues deriving from their newfound fame Terry Date, who had produced albums for Pantera, White Zombie and Deftones, was chosen to produce the album. Significant Other saw Limp Bizkit reaching a new level of commercial success; the band was featured on the covers of popular music magazines, including Spin, and now found themselves repeatedly mobbed for autographs; the band was allowed to interact directly with their fans on a website established by Dike 99. Durst also moved from Jacksonville to Los Angeles. Significant Other was seen as an improvement over their debut, and was generally well received by critics with mixed to positive reviews. The band promoted the album by playing unannounced concerts in Detroit and Chicago, as radio stations received a strong amount of requests for the album’s first single, «Nookie». Significant Other climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 643,874 copies in its first week of release. In its second week of release, the album sold an additional 335,000 copies. On the opening night of the band’s Limptropolis tour with Kid Rock, Sam Rivers smashed his bass in frustration over the venue’s poor sound, cutting his hand. After his hand was stitched up at a hospital, Rivers returned to finish the set. On July 12, Durst allegedly kicked a security guard in the head during a performance in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was later arrested on assault charges. In the summer of 1999, Limp Bizkit played at the highly anticipated Woodstock ’99 show in front of approximately 200,000 people. Violent action sprang up during and after their performance, including fans tearing plywood from the walls during a performance of the song «Break Stuff». Several sexual assaults were reported in the aftermath of the concert. Durst stated during the concert, «People are getting hurt. Don’t let anybody get hurt. Durst saw the band as being scapegoated for the event’s controversy, and reflected on the criticisms surrounding the band in his music video for the single «Re-Arranged», which depicted the band members receiving death sentences for their participation in the concerts. The video ended with angry witnesses watching as the band drowned in milk while performing the song. Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000–2001) In 2000, Durst announced that the band’s third studio album would be titled Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. The press thought he was joking about this title. The album title is intended to sound like a fictional band; the phrase «Chocolate Starfish» refers to the human anus, and Durst himself, who has been frequently been called an «asshole». Borland contributed the other half of the album’s title when the band was standing around at a truck stop, looking at bottles of flavored water, and Borland joked that the truck stop didn’t have hot dog or meat-flavored water. In June 2000, Limp Bizkit performed at the WXRK Dysfunctional Family Picnic, but showed up an hour late for their set. An Interscope spokesman stated that there was confusion over the band’s set time. During the band’s performance, Durst criticized Creed singer Scott Stapp, calling him «an egomaniac». Creed’s representatives later presented Durst with an autographed anger management manual during an appearance on Total Request Live. In the summer, Limp Bizkit’s tour was sponsored by the controversial file sharing service Napster, doing free shows with a metal cage as the only thing separating them from the audience. Durst was an outspoken advocate of file sharing. They also did a «Guerrilla Tour» which involved the band setting up illegally and impromptu public gigs on rooftops and alleyways, some being shut-down by the police. During the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Durst performed «Livin’ It Up», a song from the upcoming album, as a duet with Christina Aguilera. In response to the performance, Filter frontman Richard Patrick called Durst a «pop-lovin’ piece of frozen dog shit» and claimed that «Fred getting onstage with Christina Aguilera embarrassed us all. Released on October 17, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water set a record for highest first-week sales for a rock album with over one million copies sold in the US in its first week of release. 400,000 of those sales happened during the first day, making it the fastest-selling rock album ever, breaking the record held for 7 years by Pearl Jam’s Vs. Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water was certified Gold, Platinum and six times Multi-Platinum. The album received mixed reviews, with Allmusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine writing, «Durst’s self-pitying and the monotonous music give away that the band bashed Chocolate Starfish out very quickly – it’s the sound of a band determined to deliver a sequel in a finite amount of time.» Entertainment Weekly writer David Browne named it as the worst album title of 2000. During a 2001 tour of Australia at the Big Day Out festival in Sydney, fans rushed the stage in the mosh pit, and teenager Jessica Michalik died of asphyxiation. In court, Durst testified he had warned the concert’s organizers Aaron Jackson, Will Pearce and Amar Tailor and promoter Vivian Lees of the potential dangers of such minimal security. After viewing videotapes and hearing witness testimony, however, the coroner said it was evident that the density of the crowd was dangerous at the time Limp Bizkit took the stage, stating that Fred Durst should have acted more responsibly when the problem became apparent.Durst stated that he was «emotionally scarred» because of the teenager’s death. Later in 2001, numerous hip-hop artists including P. Diddy, Timbaland, Bubba Sparxxx and Everlast remixed famous songs from the band into hip-hop versions adding their own styles and modifications. The album was called New Old Songs. Departure of Borland, Mike Smith and Results May Vary (2001–2003) In October 2001, Durst released a statement on their website stating that «Limp Bizkit and Wes Borland have amicable decided to part ways. After holding a nationwide audition for a new guitarist, called «Put Your Guitar Where Your Mouth Is», the band recorded with Snot guitarist Mike Smith, but later scrapped their recording sessions with Smith. Durst told a fan site that he had a falling out with Smith, saying «We are the type of people that stay true to our family and our instincts and at any moment will act on intuition as a whole. Mike wasn’t the guy. We had fun playing with him but always knew, in the back of our minds, that he wasn’t where we needed him to be mentally.» After recording another album without Smith, the band scrapped the new sessions and assembled a new album combining songs from different sessions. During the album’s production, the working title changed from Bipolar to Panty Sniffer, and was completed under the title Results May Vary. In the Summer of 2003, Limp Bizkit participated on the Summer Sanitarium Tour, headlined by Metallica. At the tour’s stop in Chicago, IL, attendees of the concert threw items and heckled Durst from the moment he walked on stage. With the crowd chanting «Fuck Fred Durst» and continuing their assault on him, Durst threw the mic down after six songs and walked off stage, but not before heckling the crowd back. An article in the Sun-Times stated that the hostility was started by radio personality Mancow. Results May Vary was released on September 23, 2003, and received largely unfavorable reviews. Allmusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine panned the album, writing, «the music has no melody, hooks, or energy, [and] all attention is focused on the clown jumping up and down and screaming in front, and long before the record is over, you’re left wondering, how the hell did he ever get to put this mess out?» The Guardian reviewer Caroline Sullivan wrote, «At least Limp Bizkit can’t be accused of festering in the rap-rock ghetto But Durst’s problems are ever-present – and does anybody still care?» Despite criticisms of the album, it was a commercial success, peaking at No. Borland’s return,The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) and hiatus (2004–2008) In August 2004, Borland rejoined Limp Bizkit, which began recording another album, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1). In May, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) was released. Sammy Siegler took over drumming duties for the band for much of the album, which featured a more experimental sound, described by Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine as «neo-prog alt-metal». At Durst’s insistence, the album was released as an underground album, without any advertising or promotion. Borland disagreed with the decision, suggesting that it was «self-sabotage»: «Maybe he was already unhappy with the music, and he didn’t really want to put it out there.» The album received mixed reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the music, calling it «a step in the right direction – it’s more ambitious, dramatic, and aggressive, built on pummeling verses and stop-start choruses. The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide, peaking at No. 24 on the Billboard 200. Following the release of the band’s Greatest Hitz album, the band went on hiatus. Borland stated that it was unlikely that a sequel to The Unquestionable Truth would be produced and that «As of right now, none of my future plans include Limp Bizkit.» Reunion,Gold Cobra and departure from Interscope (2009–2011) In 2009, the original lineup of Limp Bizkit reunited and launched the Unicorns N’ Rainbows Tour. Durst announced that they had begun to record a new album, which Borland titled Gold Cobra. Borland said that the title does not have any meaning, and that it was chosen because it fit the style of music the band was writing for the album. Gold Cobra was released on June 28 and received mixed to positive reviews. Allmusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it «a return to the full-throttled attack of Three Dollar Bill Y’All.[45] IGN writer Chad Grischow wrote, «Though far from their best work, Limp Bizkit’s latest at least proves that their 2005 Greatest Hitz album may have been premature. Cash Money signing,Stampede of the Disco Elephants and DJ Lethal’s departure (2012–present) n February 2012, the band returned to Australia for the first time in 11 years, to perform at the Soundwave festival. Durst dedicated the shows to Jessica Michalik, who died during the Limp Bizkit performance at Big Day Out 2001. On February 24, Limp Bizkit signed with Cash Money Records, and revealed plans to release a new single, «Ready to Go», a full-length album, Stampede of the Disco Elephants, and an EP, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 2). Fred Durst was featured in the song «Champions» by Kevin Rudolf, used as theme for WWE’s Night of Champions PPV. The song debuted on WWE Raw televised event on 3 September 2012. This is the first time Limp Bizkit has worked with WWE since 2003. On October 11, 2012, DJ Lethal posted an apology to the band on twitter, and despite being accepted back into the band, he was fired shortly after. It was announced on October 26, 2012 on Fred Durst’s official Twitter account that a video for the first Cash Money single with Lil Wayne, «Ready to Go» was currently being filmed. Limp Bizkit also «leaked» a new song on the web called «Lightz (City of Angels)» via YouTube. The band is currently recording their seventh studio album, Stampede of the Disco Elephants with producer Ross Robinson, who has also produced the band’s debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Yall, and their 2005 album The Unquestionable Truth Part 1. On March 24, 2013, the first single from the album, «Ready to Go» (Featuring Lil Wayne) was released on limpbizkit.com In April 2013, the band announced 34 tour dates, 25 being in the U.S. Their touring schedule included Welcome to Rockville, the Carolina Rebellion, Rock Am Ring in Germany, and Rome. The «Ready to Go» music video was released on July 22nd. Music and lyricsDurst wanted Limp Bizkit to be a «megaband» which could cross over into as many different styles of music as possible. Limp Bizkit’s music has predominately been described as nu metal and rap metal. Their music is noted for its «kinetic, frenzied energy». Otto is adept in drumming in a variety of styles ranging from Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music to bebop and funk. DJ Lethal functions as a sound designer for the band, shaping their sound. According to Lethal, «I try and bring new sounds, not just the regular chirping scratching sounds. Borland’s guitar playing is experimental and nontraditional, and he is noted for his creative use of six and seven-string guitars. Three Dollar Bill, Yall features him playing without a guitar pick, performing with two hands, one playing meldic notes, and the other playing chord progressions. His guitar playing has made use of octave shapes, and choppy, eighth-note rhythms, sometimes accompanied by muting his strings with his left hand, creating a percussive sound. Borland has also made use of unevenly accented syncopated sixteenth notes to create a disorienting effect, and hypnotic, droning licks. The song «Stuck» uses a sustain pedal in the first bar, and muted riffs in the second bar. Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that their album, Significant Other, contains «flourishes of neo-psychedelia on pummeling metal numbers» and «swirls of strings, even crooning, at the most unexpected background». Awards and recognition Limp Bizkit has been nominated for and won several awards. Limp Bizkit has been nominated for 3 Grammy Awards including Best Hard Rock Performance («Nookie»), Best Rock Album (Significant Other), and Best Hard Rock Performance («Take A Look Around»). Limp Bizkit has been nominated for 3 American Music Awards for Favorite Alternative Artist winning one of them in 2002. Richard Cheese performed a lounge rendition of the songs «Nookie» and «Break Stuff» on his debut album, Lounge Against the Machine. «Weird Al» Yankovic’s «Angry White Boy Polka» medley included Limp Bizkit’s song «My Way». The Vitamin String Quartet recorded a tribute album called The String Quartet Tribute to Limp Bizkit: Break Stuff, which contains reinterpretations of the band’s songs performed by a violinist backed by cellos, synthesizers, and keyboard percussion. Live performancesBorland is known for performing in costumes and body paint during concerts, appearing in bunny and kung fu suits, and painted as a skeleton and what he describes as a «burnt match». Describing the character, he stated, «I go onstage wearing almost nothing. I have underwear and my boots on, and I paint my whole head black—from the neck up—and I have the black contacts. All you can see is these glowing teeth.» Borland’s black contacts were customized for him by a company noted for making contacts for the science fiction TV series Babylon 5. In addition to Borland’s visual appearance, the band has also used elaborate stage setups in their performances. Their Ladies Night in Cambodia club tour visually paid tribute to the film Apocalypse Now, with an elaborate stage setup which featured an empty Jeep, camouflage mesh and palm trees. During the band’s sets at Ozzfest, audience members at the tour heckled Limp Bizkit, leading the band to use a 30 foot toilet as a stage prop, which they would emerge from during each performance; the band punctuated their sets by «flushing» cardboard cutouts of pop stars like Hanson and the Spice Girls. During their appearance at the first Family Values Tour, Limp Bizkit performed on a set which the Los Angeles Times described as «a mix of The War of the Worlds and Mars Attacks». |
Its original lineup consisted of Fred Durst (vocals), Wes Borland (guitars), Sam Rivers (bass), John Otto (drums) and DJ Lethal (turntables, samples and programming). Their work is marked by Durst’s abrasive, angry lyrics and Borland’s sonic experimentation and elaborate visual appearance, which includes face and body paint, masks and uniforms, as well as the band’s elaborate live shows. The band has been nominated for 3 Grammy Awards and have sold over 40 million records worldwide.
Durst played with three other bands, Split 26, Malachi Sage, which were unsuccessful, and 10 Foot Shindig, which Durst left to form a new band. Durst told Sam Rivers, the bassist for Malachi Sage, «You need to quit this band and start a band with me that’s like this: rappin’ and rockin’.» Rivers suggested that his cousin, John Otto, who was studying jazz drumming at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and playing in local avant garde bands, become their drummer. Durst, Rivers and Otto jammed and wrote three songs together, and Wes Borland later joined as a guitarist.
Limp Bizkit developed a cult following in the underground music scene, particularly at the Milk Bar, an underground punk club in Florida. The band’s local popularity was such that Sugar Ray, who had a major label contract, opened for a then-unsigned Limp Bizkit at this club. The club’s owner, Danny Wimmer, stated that Limp Bizkit «had the biggest draw for a local band. They went from playing [for] ten people to eight hundred within months. Fred […] was always marketing the band. He would go to record stores and get people involved, he was in touch with high schools.» However, the band knew that to achieve national success, they would have to distinguish themselves in their live performances. Attracting crowds by word of mouth, the band gave energetic live performances, covering George Michael’s «Faith» and Paula Abdul’s «Straight Up», and featuring Borland in bizarre costumes. Borland’s theatrical rock style was the primary attraction for many concert attendees.
Later, when Korn performed in town as the opening act for Sick of It All, Durst invited Korn to drink apple juice and tattoo them. Although Durst’s tattoos were unimpressive, he was able to persuade Reginald «Fieldy» Arvizu to listen to a demo, consisting of the songs «Pollution», «Counterfeit» and «Stuck». Korn added a then-unsigned Limp Bizkit to two tours, which exposed the band to a new audience. The band attempted to expand their sound by auditioning an additional guitarist, but Borland soon determined that another guitarist was not the answer, and DJ Lethal, formerly of the hip hop group House of Pain, joined the band as a turntablist after a successful practice performance. Joining the band gave Lethal an opportunity to experiment with his turntable technique in ways that hip hop had not allowed him to do, helping shape the band’s style. However, Borland left the band due to creative differences.
While heading to California to record their first album, the band wrecked their van. As a result of the near death experience, Durst made amends with Borland, who rejoined the band. After a dispute with Mojo, Limp Bizkit signed with Flip, a subsidiary of Interscope Records. Arvizu persuaded Ross Robinson to listen to the demo. Robinson neglected to listen to it until it was appraised by his girlfriend. Impressed by the band’s motivation and sound, Robinson produced Limp Bizkit’s debut, which was recorded at Indigo Ranch. Durst’s problems with his girlfriend inspired him to write the song «Sour». The mood and tone set by Robinson in the studio allowed the band to improvise; a recording of the band improvising appeared as the last track on the album, «Everything».
Robinson also bonded with Borland, who he perceived as not taking the band seriously. The progressive metal band Tool provided a strong influence in shaping the album’s sound, particularly in the song «Nobody Loves Me», which contains a breakdown in which Durst imitated the singing style of Maynard James Keenan. Durst was also inspired by Church of Realities, an EP by the punk band Hed PE, which he listened to during the production of Limp Bizkit’s debut.
Gilbertson criticized Durst’s performance, stating «The one attention-grabbing moment of Limp Bizkit’s rap/thrash show was when the lead singer expressed a desire for gay men to be ‘stomped’. Which isn’t remotely rebellious. It’s just puerile.»
» However, Robert Christgau panned the album. Despite the minimal response to his band’s album, Durst was appointed Senior Vice President of A&R at Interscope.
In July, Snot singer Lynn Strait was arrested after he emerged nude from Limp Bizkit’s prop toilet, and was charged with indecent exposure. Because Limp Bizkit’s fans would often break through the barricades, the band was almost kicked off the tour after two days.[In August, John Otto spent the night in jail in Auburn Hills, Michigan, on a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon, after allegedly firing a BB gun and being arrested for carrying a switchblade.
The band allowed Durst and Lethal to explore their hip hop origins by recording a song with Method Man. The song was originally titled «Shut the Fuck Up», but was retitled «N 2 Gether Now» for marketing purposes. Durst also recorded with Eminem, but the collaboration, «Turn Me Loose», was left off the album. The album also featured guest appearances by Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland, Korn’s Jonathan Davis and Staind singer Aaron Lewis, and interludes by Les Claypool and Matt Pinfield.
However, the band also continued to be criticized by the media; an article profiling the band in Spin and discussing Significant Other claimed that «Limp Bizkit had yet to write a good song», and musicians Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor criticized the band.
Further criticisms of the band appeared in Rolling Stone and The New York Times. New York Times writer Ann Powers wrote, «DJ Lethal used his turntables as a metal guitar, riffing expansively and going for effects instead of rhythm. John Otto on drums and Sam Rivers on bass never even tried to get funky, instead steering hip-hop’s break-beat-based structure into a backbone for power chords. This makes for a hybrid that would be more interesting if the band did not constantly mire itself in boring tempos, and if Mr. Durst had any talent as a singer».
But I don’t think you should mellow out. That’s what Alanis Morissette had you motherfuckers do. If someone falls, pick ’em up. We already let the negative energy out. Now we wanna let out the positive energy». Durst later stated in an interview, «I didn’t see anybody getting hurt. You don’t see that. When you’re looking out on a sea of people and the stage is twenty feet in the air and you’re performing, and you’re feeling your music, how do they expect us to see something bad going on?» Les Claypool told the San Francisco Examiner, «Woodstock was just Durst being Durst. His attitude is ‘no press is bad press’, so he brings it on himself. He wallows in it. Still, he’s a great guy.»
Durst later stated that the promoters of Woodstock ’99 were at fault for booking his band, due to their reputation for raucous performances. Despite this controversy, Significant Other remained at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, and the band headlined the year’s Family Values Tour. Durst directed a music video for «N 2 Gether Now» which featured Method Man and Pauly Shore, and was inspired by Inspector Clouseau’s fights with his butler, Cato Fong, in the Pink Panther film series.
» In response to the negative reactions to the performance, Durst remarked, «I already told you guys before, I did it all for the nookie, man.» In response to Durst’s remark, Aguilera commented, «He got no nookie.»
Both Limp Bizkit and Borland will continue to pursue their respective musical careers. Both wish each other the best of luck in all future endeavors.» Durst also stated that the band would «comb the world for the illest guitar player known to man» to replace Borland.
Under Durst’s sole leadership, the album encompassed a variety of styles, and featured a cover of The Who’s «Behind Blue Eyes», which differed from the original’s arrangement in its inclusion of a Speak & Spell during the song’s bridge.
3 on the Billboard 200.
» However, he felt that the band was being «held back» by Durst, who he called «the most singularly unpleasant, absurd frontman in rock.» IGN writer Spence D. similarly gave it a mixed review, as he felt that the album lacked direction, but that showed potential for the band’s musical growth.
The band recorded a spoken intro written by Durst and performed by Kiss member Gene Simmons for the album, but it was left off the completed album. The band also recorded additional «non-album» tracks, including «Combat Jazz», which featured rapper Raekwon and «Middle Finger», featuring Paul Wall. «Shotgun» was released as a single on May 17, 2011. The song is noted for featuring a guitar solo by Borland, something that the band is not known for. «Shotgun» received favorable reviews, with Artistdirect writing, «[‘Shotgun’] feels like Bizkit approached the signature style on Three Dollar Bill Y’All and Significant Other with another decade-plus of instrumental experience and virtuosity, carving out a banger that could get asses moving in the club or fists flying in the mosh pit.»
» Metal Hammer writer Terry Bezer appraised the album, writing «Aside from the odd duff moment, Gold Cobra throws out the hot shit that’ll make you bounce in the mosh pit over and over again.» The band launched the Gold Cobra Tour in support of the album. A music video for the title track was released. Gold Cobra has sold nearly 80,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200; however, the band left Interscope after the album’s release.
Following a dispute between Durst and bandmates Lethal and Otto about alleged chronic drug and alcohol use, DJ Lethal resigned from the band with strong animosity.
The album is scheduled for a January 2014 release.
It’s all different stuff that you haven’t heard before. I’m trying to be like another guitar player.»
The band did not employ solos until Gold Cobra, however, during the recording of Significant Other, drummer John Otto performed an extended solo in the middle of the song «Nobody Like You». Durst’s lyrics are often profane, scatological or angry. Much of Durst’s lyrical inspiration came from growing up and his personal life. The song «Sour», from the album Three Dollar Bill, Yall, was inspired by Durst’s problems with his girlfriend. His breakup with her inspired the Significant Other songs «Nookie» and «Re-Arranged». The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) focuses on darker lyrical subject matter, including Catholic sex abuse cases, terrorism and fame.
In 1999, the band won the Maximum Vision Award at the Billboard Music Video Awards for their music video «Nookie». At the 2000 and 2001 Blockbuster Awards, the band won the Favorite Group (Rock) award. That year also saw the band winning a MuchMusic Award for Best International Video, honoring their video for the song «Break Stuff». At the 2001 ECHO Awards, the band won the Best International Metal Band award. At the 2009 Kerrang! Awards, the band won the Hall of Fame award. Further expanding upon the group’s achievements and popularity, they were also the first group inducted into MTV’s Total Request Live «Hall of Fame» on May 26, 2001.
Girl Talk sampled «Nookie» and «Break Stuff» in the song «Friends-4-Ever», which appears on his album Secret Diary. The Blackout covered «My Generation» for the compilation Higher Voltage!: Another Brief History of Rock.
During the band’s tour with Primus, Limp Bizkit took inspiration from Primus’ trademark self-deprecatory slogan «Primus sucks»: Durst, Borland, Rivers, Otto and Lethal took the stage with middle fingers raised. According to Borland, «they finger us back—and you know what that means to us—that they love us. It’s kind of like saying something is bad when you really mean good. Les Claypool came out the first night of the tour and got a big kick out of it. We figured it was the right idea. It makes hecklers go ‘huh.'»
The band emerged from a spaceship during the tour, and Borland continued to experiment with visual appearances. During the band’s Halloween performance on the tour, each of the band’s members dressed as Elvis Presley at various stages in his career.Wes Borland
Name: Wesley Louden Borland
Birthdate: February 07, 1975
Born: Nashville, Tennessee
Favorites: Yellow, pasta, coffee, Star Wars, truck stops, Ween.
Family: Father (Presbyterian minister), Mother, Brother-Scott (keyboards; Vanilla Ice band member), Wife-Heather McMillan.
Background Information: Wes has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, for which he used to take the drug Dexadrine for. He had taken it for years until recently, «It’s a narcotic. It’s basically like I was on speed for six years. I found out later on that one of the side effects is dry mouth. So I’ve had to have five root canals, just from being on that.
Every single tooth in my mouth had to get a filling.»
Wes started playing guitar at the age of 12, although he originally wanted to play the drums. After being rejected by his parents, he took up guitar lessons. Given the choice of blues lessons or classical, Wes didn’t hesitate to pick the one that wasn’t classical.
Brought up by good parents, his father a Presbyterian Minister, Wes developed interest in a book owned by a friend. He commented, «I remember in junior high, some kid had a copy of this occult book called The Necronomicon, which at that age was a really evil, exciting, weird thing to know about. And the kid was telling all these stories about it, all the weird things that he heard. So I went home and said, ‘I want to get this book.’ And my dad went, ‘Okay, let’s go get it.’ We went to the book store and we got this horrible, evil thing, with a pentagram on the front. He said, ‘When you’re done with it, let me have a look at it.’ And it was not a big thing.
It was just research. When I said I wanted to go see Judas Priest and Megadeth and Testament, he took me to the concert. He said he had a great time, and laughed about somebody passing a joint to him.»
These childhood experiences have made Borland a wise man, who believes «Parents these days let kids do whatever they want. Actual family values — disregarding the tour — have gone down the drain in this country. I’m by no means an expert on this, but I think parents need to get a lot more involved in their kids’ lives.»
Later on, Wes played in numerous bands, including Pythis (at the age of 17), and Krank (pronounced «cronk») with his brother Scott Borland. Also, throughout his high school years, Wes, Scott, and friend Kyle Weeks had a band called Goatslayer, which would eventually evolve into Big Dumb Face years later. «Ever since we were very young, we always stayed up late at night and drank or smoked pot in my bedroom. And we would do Goatslayer.
That’s what we called it. The three of us would bring keyboards and guitars and make up all sorts of dumb songs. Big Dumb Face got started when I moved away and couldn’t do Goatslayer anymore. Big Dumb Face is kind of a more put-together Goatslayer that I do by myself.»
Soon after that, Wes spent three years taking jazz lessons at a performing arts university, where he met John Otto. Working at a local coffee shop in Jacksonville, Florida, Wes eventually met the founding members of Limp Bizkit and was asked to try out. He got the job, but was soon kicked out of the band, since the band thought he was an «asshole». Wes and Fred constantly argued. This was because Fred is very bullheaded, and Wes’s medication was begining to have negative effects on his mood and personality. It began to make constantly agitated and moody. Fortunately, over the next few years Wes weaned himself off of the medication which was a narcotic, aka legal speed. While Wes was gone, Rob Waters temporarily took Borland’s place in the band, but it was an obvious step backwards, so Durst pleaded with the rest of the band to have Wes come back.
It took more pleading, this time to Borland, to get him back in the band, and he finally agreed, and the final pieces of Limp Bizkit were set with the addition of DJ Lethal.
In those early days, Wes had already developed a penchant for bizarre on-stage costumes, dressing as a girl, to «piss off the crowd». Apparently, it also pissed off Durst, who thought the whole idea was ridiculous, but eventually allowed Borland creative freedom. He no longer dresses as a female, yet he does have extraordinarily creative costumes every show, which he makes himself on an antique sewing machine.
After playing shows relentlessly, Fred Durst got to meet the members of Korn, for whom he gave tattoos to Head. Asked to engrave the Korn logo on his back, the drunken Durst instead tattooed «Horn», after lying that he had been doing this for years. Eventually, the bands struck up a friendship, Korn helping Limp Bizkit sign a record deal, Munky and Head of Korn hooking Wes up with free Ibanez 7-string guitars, and several tours together, including the Family Values Tour.
With the tours came new costumes, including: «Burnt Match», a recurring persona during the Family Values Tour of 1998. The costume consisted of underwear, boots, and a ton of face paint. With the final touch of his over-sized black contacts, which cost $400 per pair, it is, to say the least, creepy. His everyday Halloween life isn’t always a walk in the park, as the contacts tend to hurt after a mere two hours in the eye.
On April 10, 1998, Wes married high school sweetheart Heather McMillen. At the ceremony, Wes sported his infamous black contacts. Afterward, their honeymoon was a road trip across the country to different amusement parks, a delightful change of pace from the standard.
In 2000, Borland and wife moved to Los Angeles, in a big home in Griffith Park, home of RHCP’s Flea and No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani. In the home, Wes spends his time painting cartoon characters on the walls, working on music with his computer, doing computer graphics, and putting toys all over the house.
Also, in 2000, Wes made a change from Ibanez 7 string guitars to Paul Reed Smith 6 strings, a change that was made because he «got bored» with playing the 7 string. He claims that he wasn’t good enough to play the 7 string how it should be played, and that if you can’t burn on 6, why play 7? Since the extra string was just a drone, he can still play all Limp Bizkit songs on a 6 string, and even plays some on his 4 string guitars.
Looking ahead, Wes’ solo album will be released around March 6th of 2001. The project is titled «Big Dumb Face» and the album will be titled «Duke Lion Fights The Terror». After the record’s release, Wes plans on touring in support of the album, with an extravagant show planned, and his own band.
Wes Borland Cut Off My Head and Made Me an Artist
He smeared paint over his face, the contacts had already gone in and an aide was spiking his hair up. The character formed in the mirror, red eyed and of no human color.
More paint is slapped onto his back. Like the Tin-Man from the Wizard of Oz, he is completely covered up by costume and paint. He rises, and waits for the show to begin.
I first learned about the band Limp Bizkit as a child when I found a heavily scratched up copy of their album “The Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water” in a parking lot. My parents let me keep it, since it was the censored version, and it was the first CD I owned that wasn’t the Beatles or Classical music. The album was almost unintelligible lyrically, as the censoring and scratches removed so many of the words it was very hard to follow. Here’s a good example of some of the lyrics of one of the songs as censored”
“Its a ___ world in a ___ place/ everybody’s judged by their ___ face. ____ Dreams. ___ Lives. ____ Kids with some ____ Knives.” -Hot Dog, Limp bizkit.
Now subtract maybe 10% of the words out of that from CD scratches and you have the strange art album I listened to over and over.
I had no idea what the missing words were— what was the meaning of the songs? It was only later that I learned what they were, and was massively disappointed. The songs weren’t quite as deep as I’d hoped, or imagined. Even so, Limp Bizkit held a weirdly special place in my heart: despite the lyrics being inane, there was something brutally honest about them. Like reading the first draft of a poem where someone has left all the emotion and honesty on the page without bothering to cut out the badly worded bits yet. It was raw and honest in a ways that more polished and dare I venture “good” music wasn’t. I was fascinated.
Under all of that though was some sheer musical brilliance. The drummer, John Otto provided a solid core, and the mixer/sampler DJ Lethal gave the band a fresh electronic edge. The band’s guitarist, Wes Borland, created clever and creative melodies under the lyrics, and the band’s bassist Sam Rivers played hard running and catchy baselines that carried the music forward in perpetuity.
Sam Rivers seems a decent guy, I actually talked with him on the phone for a few minutes once (more on that later) but it was Wes Borland who really captured my imagination. He performed in costume, slathering body paint on himself, making his body look ethereal and strange. Where other metal bands focused on looking either mega-dark or casual-cool, Borland looked completely different from anyone, even his own band. He changed up his own look constantly, finding amazing new visuals and abandoning them as soon as he’d mastered them. He was cross-breed chameleon peacock, ever changing and ever shifting to new forms. I was mesmerized. And then he did something that changed my artistic vision.
He left the band.
It wasn’t just that he left Limp Bizkit, though getting out of it certainly changed things, but it was what he did outside the band that really shifted my gaze. Instead of making the same things, Borland’s projects veered creatively into whatever the heck he wanted to do.
There was “Duke Lion Fights the Terror” a comedy music album that told a loose and ridiculous story about a knight going on a quest to defeat foes like “the Blood Red Head on Fire”, and there was “Black Light Burns” his industrial music project that produced two strong studio albums, an album of covers and instrumentals, and then an album that plays as an alternate soundtrack to an art film. He also painted, producing some amazing works (my favorite is “This Guy’s Going to Eat Me Cause I Just Chopped My Head off” which is both playful and dark, while being artistically beautiful.) The sheer variety was wondrous. There had been this block in my head up to that point that an artist does one thing for the most part, that they were blocked into a genre. You wrote sci-fi. You painted and sculpted realistic figures. You wrote popular fiction. You drew comic art. You played rock. You played classical.
“Why stay in one spot?” his art whispered to me, “Just do all of it.”
So I have. The urge to try new things, to veer wildly, has stuck inside me.
After my first big success, “An Eloquence of Time and Space”, a Doctor Who poetry book, there was a lot of pressure to just become a poet who wrote books where I wrote poems about every episode of TV shows. Financially, I probably should have. I should have sucked it up and crapped out books that I didn’t care about and raked in the cash. But I created “Eloquence” because I had a deep urge to, and creatively pushed myself for a year to complete it. When it was done, I’d learned all I could from it. Every now and then I consider doing another one (a Star Trek one might still happen in a reduced form someday), but I needed to do something different. So I started trying to really refine my prose writing, and began work on the project which has become 10,000 Dawns.
I am restless, but I finish my work. I want to create. I want to try new things.
And that came from Wes Borland.
Most people I know would assume that love came from David Bowie, but I only really got into Bowie after I was already deep into Borland’s work.
Bowie’s self-reinventions and recreations were a strong source of inspiration for me as well, and have continually pushed me forward, but it wasn’t where it started. It started with a guitarist in a band largly regarded to be terrible.
When Wes Borland left Limp Bizkit, the band carried on and made an album called “Results May Vary” with a new guitarist. The album is the most cohesive thing Limp Bizkit ever made: the songs have a consistent tone and flow throughout them, and the lead singer Fred Durst’s bare-faced poetry lyrics take center stage. But at the same time, the album pulls back too much, putting forth the worst sin of the band: their eye-rolling machismo.
Limp Bizkit’s lyrics are often notably sexist in that, “I’m a nice guy, women should like me, and I’d be nicer if it wasn’t for all those %$3@ing women” way that plagues a lot of music from the early 90’s. “Results May Vary” ends up taking this to a new level with a lead single about stalking a girl. Not that the albums before it were paragons.
As time goes on, the lyrics have aged worse and worse. The songs bring back fond nostalgic memories, but also a there’s a cringe-worthy undertone I didn’t notice as a teenage boy. You can’t go home again. Or at least you can’t unsee sexism. Or at least I can’t.
The aesthetic lines their music videos throughout their history: scantily clad backing dancers wearing Durst’s trademark backwards baseball cap pop in and out, ornamentation gilding the dandelion.
Borland rejoined Limp Bizkit later on, and they produced music pretty similar to their old catalog on their last release “Gold Cobra”. The lead off video from the album has an older, grayer, Fred Durst dancing in front of a group of young women in sports bras, athletic shorts, backwards baseball caps, and ski-goggles. A man skateboards up some concrete. A woman in a bikini and boxing gloves jumps up and down, letting parts of her body jiggle in front of the camera. Durst points at a woman’s butt as she dances. My eyes roll far into my head.
I see my synapses. They’re somehow managing to roll their own figurative eyes. These aren’t young men anymore, and its hard to watch as they replay the aesthetics of their youth with utter sincerity, even as they film the video in noticeably cheaper filming locals than the ones in the videos they’re trying to mimic. You have to wonder how much reflection there was on the past, on what was and what will be, or if they simply stepped out of a time capsule doe eyed and blinking into the harsh light of the 2010’s.
There are simply too many reasons to cringe.
They have been working on a new album together since 2012. It hasn’t been released yet, and there is no launch in sight.
Meanwhile, Wes Borland, after a birth and a divorce, left Los Angeles and moved to Detroit with his new girlfriend Queen Kwong, who is the lead singer of her own band. Together they record and tour, and restore the house they bought in that city. He seems happy. Good for him.
Not long ago, he put out a new album made by no one but himself.
There are no lyrics, and none of his trademark guitars. Its purely instrumental, with the concept that its the soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist, and its wonderful. Playful, experimental, different. Unique. Its what I love about art, the new and the weird. Something unsafe that can fail massively and burn to the ground. Something new.
I hope to make art like that. I hope to lead a fulfilling and moral life. I’ve never done anything as popular as the music Limp Bizkit made. I doubt any of my books have sold as well as the least of Borland’s solo work (though well, “Eloquence,” maybe). When I talk about how influential Borland was on me, I think people misunderstand that it was simply an influence on me when I was an angry young man hopped up on hormones an unable to grasp my own sense of the world, listening to angry music to temper my internal rage. Its hard to explain in short passing how he was such an influence on me as a writer. But he was.
I’ve wondered what he’d think of my poetry, prose, or plays.
He might think they’re shit, honestly. I have no idea if I met him if we’d get along at all. I’ve felt in his art a kindred spirit, but a spirit isn’t a personality. I have no pretensions he’d like me. I got to meet another writer with a big influence on me, Garrison Keilor, a few years ago and I was very annoying I’m sure. Still, if there’s any living artist I’d want to meet, it would be him. Even so, I have no idea what I would say.
When Borland rejoined the band, Limp Bizkit bought a pre-paid phone and let die-hard fans call it. Different members would pick up and talk to fans for a few minutes. It was a great little treat for people who had stuck with them through thick and thin. I talked to Sam Rivers, the band’s bassist. I told him I’d never seen one of their shows. He said I should, naturally. I still haven’t. Time ticks on by, and where we end up changes. I’ve moved to Indianapolis, Borland is in Detroit. There are passing phone calls, and dreams of meeting our idols someday.
But time drags the memories of our past work out in front of us. Lines we regret writing, things we didn’t understand in the past that make us cringe and moan. Being an artist means being a living breathing person who changes and is reborn, while stepping though concrete and leaving a trail of your footprints that you’re unable to wipe away. The worst you can do is be a timecapusule, to stand in the footprints you left and let your shoes sink into them.
Time may judge us, our work may fail us, but if we keep making art, there is always the hope we’ll be judged by the future rather than the past. I had one big success with “Eloquence”, and I’ll work for another one. Even if what I make is awful, I’ll keep marching forward. Time is chasing us all, so like Wes Borland, I’ll throw new paint on my back and take up a new song. I’ll toil and work, and craft, and write. Something will come of it. Something new.
That’s what being an artist is all about.
Limp Bizkit — An American rap rock band
Limp Bizkit is from Jacksonville, Florida, an American rap rock band.
Fred Durst (lead vocals), Sam Rivers (bass, backing vocals), John Otto (drums, percussion), DJ Lethal (turntables), and Wes Borland make up the band’s lineup (guitars, vocals). Durst’s aggressive vocal delivery and Borland’s sonic experiments distinguish the band’s music.
LIMP BIZKIT
Limp Bizkit’s live shows feature Borland’s extensive visual look, which includes face and body paint, masks, and uniforms. The band has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, has sold over 40 million albums worldwide, and has received numerous additional honors.
Limp Bizkit was formed in 1994 and grew to prominence in the late 1990s in the Jacksonville underground music scene, eventually signing with Interscope’s Flip Records and releasing their debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y’all in 1997. Durst, Rivers, Otto, and Lethal continued to record and tour with guitarist Mike Smith after Borland quit the group in 2001.
LIMP BIZKIT
Borland rejoined the band after the release of Results May Vary (2003) and recorded The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) in 2005 with Durst, Rivers, Lethal, and drummer Sammy Siegler before taking a break.
The band reformed in 2009, with Borland on guitar, and began touring, culminating in the recording of Gold Cobra (2011), after which it left Interscope and joined with Cash Money Records; DJ Lethal departed the band soon after but returned in 2018. Stampede of the Disco Elephants, the band’s sixth studio album, was still being recorded in 2021.
Table of Contents
Limp Bizkit – History
Fred Durst was interested in breakdancing, hip hop, punk music, and heavy metal as a kid in Gastonia, North Carolina. He started rapping, skating, beatboxing, and DJing. He came up with the idea for a band that merged parts of rock and hip hop while mowing lawns and working as a tattoo artist.
Durst was a member of three other bands: Split 26, Malachi Sage, and 10 Foot Shindig, all of which were unsuccessful before Durst left to establish his own. “You need to quit this band and establish a band with me that’s like this: rappin’ and rockin’,” Durst urged Malachi Sage bassist Sam Rivers.
Rivers recommended that the band’s drummer by his cousin, John Otto, who was studying jazz drumming at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and performing in local avant-garde ensembles. Wes Borland eventually joined as a guitarist after Durst, Rivers, and Otto jammed and recorded three songs together.
LIMP BIZKIT
Durst chose the name Limp Bizkit for the band because he wanted it to be offensive to listeners. Gimp Disco, Split Dickslit, Bitch Piglet, and Blood Fart were among the names Durst explored. Every record label that expressed interest in the band put pressure on the band’s members to change their name.
After a good rehearsal performance, the band attempted to broaden its sound by auditioning an additional guitarist, but Borland quickly realized that another guitarist was not the answer, and DJ Lethal, previously of the hip hop group House of Pain, joined the band as a turntablist.
Lethal’s addition to the band allowed him to explore with his turntable expertise in ways that hip hop had not permitted him to, allowing him to contribute to the band’s style.
Borland departed the band at this point due to artistic issues.
Limp Bizkit – Live performances
Borland is known for wearing costumes and body paint at concerts, including bunny and kung fu suits, as well as being painted as a skeleton and a “burnt match.” “I go on stage wearing virtually nothing,” he said while describing the character. I’m wearing my underpants and boots, and I’ve painted my entire head black—from the neck up—and am wearing black contacts while performing.
LIMP BIZKIT
Only these dazzling teeth are visible.” A business is known for producing contacts for the science fiction TV series Babylon 5 tailored Borland’s black contacts for him.
Borland has also utilized extensive-stage setups in their performances, in addition to their visual appearance. With an extravagant stage design that included an empty Jeep, camouflage mesh, and palm trees, their Ladies Night in Cambodia club tour paid visual reference to the film Apocalypse Now.
Limp Bizkit – Awards, nominations
Limp Bizkit has received numerous nominations and awards.
Limp Bizkit has received three Grammy nominations for Best Hard Rock Performance (“Nookie”), Best Rock Album (“Significant Other”), and Best Hard Rock Performance (“Nookie”) (“Take A Look Around”). Limp Bizkit has been nominated for three American Music Awards, winning one in 2002 for Favorite Alternative Artist.
The band got the Maximum Vision Award for their music video “Nookie” at the Billboard Music Video Awards in 1999. The band won Favorite Group (Rock) at the Blockbuster Awards in 2000 and 2001. The band also won a MuchMusic Award for Best International Video for their video for the song “Break Stuff” that year.
The band was named Best International Metal Band at the 2001 ECHO Awards. The band was awarded the Hall of Fame honor at the 2009 Kerrang! Awards. They were also the first group admitted into MTV’s Total Request Live “Hall of Fame” on May 26, 2001, adding to the group’s achievements and popularity.
LIMP BIZKIT
On his debut album, Lounge Against the Machine, Richard Cheese performed a lounge version of the songs “Nookie” and “Break Stuff.
” Limp Bizkit’s “My Way” was included in “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Angry White Boy Polka” mashup.
The Vitamin String Quartet released a tribute CD called The String Quartet Tribute to Limp Bizkit: Break Stuff, which features a violinist accompanied by cellos, synthesizers, and keyboard percussion performing reinterpretations of the band’s songs. In his album Secret Diary, Girl Talk sampled “Nookie” and “Break Stuff” in the song “Friends-4-Ever.”
For the compilation Higher Voltage!: Another Brief History of Rock, The Blackout covered “My Generation.” [142] Proyecto Eskhata, a progressive metal band, has cited Limp Bizkit as an influence on their sound. [143]
While Limp Bizkit’s popularity has decreased in the United States since the mid-2000s, the band is still very popular in Russia, according to reports.
Limp Bizkit is an American rock band that was founded in 1994 in Jacksonville, Florida. The band has sold over 40 million albums throughout the world.
To date, they’ve released five studio albums. Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water, released in 2000, sold 1.05 million copies in its first week.
LIMP BIZKIT
The band’s debut was a cover of George Michael. Their debut album included a song of George Michael’s “Faith,” which was released as their first single. They achieved two # one albums in the United States, but no Top 40 singles.
Despite their popularity, the band was neglected by radio stations, as evidenced by this split between chart success and album sales (airplay is a criterion for the Billboard Hot 100).
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Backwash | Music | Denver | Denver Westword
A couple of days before Limp Bizkit and its muscle-bound posse arrived in the parking lot of the Arvada Guitar Center, where one of 23 dates on the band’s current and highly publicized search for a new guitarist was scheduled last week, a teenage boy in Portland, Oregon, greeted frontman Fred Durst with a cream pie to the face; according to photos available on buddyhead.
com, the point of impact was somewhere above Dursty’s right ear, with little splotches scattered around his normally red-baseball-capped and curiously large head. Despite the fact that the Colorado auditions were held in very close proximity to many pies of all flavors (there’s a Perkin’s just across the parking lot from the Arvada Guitar Center), no one who turned up this past frigid Friday morning thrust anything Fred’s way except for autograph books, homemade demo tapes and hopeful little faces.
When the 189 guitarists finally did make their way, one by one, into a small, airless room where Danny Wimmer, head of A&R for the Durst-owned Flawless Records, was presiding over the first round of auditions, they were told to plug in and jam out their best original music — for exactly one minute each. For many, that original music consisted of a screeching death-metal riff played with maximum distortion at highest volume. When Wimmer invited select players to fill an extra minute with something melodic that they’d written, he was routinely greeted by blank stares.
«You know, a melody. Like a song. A verse going into a chorus,» he explained. In many cases, the auditionee responded by offering an elongated version of a screeching death-metal riff played with maximum distortion at highest volume.
For a guy who spends most of his time in the company of someone as famously simian as Durst, Wimmer was surprisingly polite and encouraging. Only occasionally did he lament the fact that, while he paced in the audition room for eight hours at a time, his tourmates sat in a warm tour bus, pulled bongs and mingled with good-looking girls who just wanted to say hello. It was Wimmer’s job to select up to ten players who’d be invited to play with the full band later in the day. In Denver, however, only two made the cut: Brandon Martinez, a nineteen-year-old from Fort Collins, and Robert Coyne, who, Wimmer proudly pointed out, was «a black guy.» (Wimmer also noted that while 99.9 percent of the applicants were male, the few ladies had «totally smoked.
» Limp Bizkit, he added, thought it would be completely «bomb» to find a «chick guitarist,» perhaps to push out those unpleasant memories of young women stripped naked and abused during the band’s set at Woodstock ’99, or of the teenage girl who died during the Bizkit’s Big Day Out event in Australia last year.)
It was also Wimmer’s job to appease those who suspected the band was in the midst of a cross-country PR stunt, one that would falsely raise the hopes of thousands of players who’d been led to believe that they might actually have a shot at instant rock stardom courtesy of father Fred. («Ever Wanted To Be In a Rock Band? Do you Play Guitar? Do You Like To Travel and Meet People? LIMP BIZKIT WANTS YOU!!» read the ads that appeared in publications all over the country, including Westword.) Wimmer swore that Limp’s search was nothing like that of the Red Hot Chili Peppers a few years back; that band held a cattle-call audition before enlisting Dave Navarro, a guitarist whose only prior credential was doing time in an obscure Los Angeles outfit called Jane’s Addiction.
Rather, the goal was not only to recruit a replacement for departed Bizkit member Wes Borland — the guy with those creepy black contacts — but also to scout talent for Flawless. Indeed, many of the aspiring ax men who looked at Wimmer with puppy-dog eyes once their minute had passed were given a business card and an invitation to send in demos.
«Call me,» Wimmer said, telling one young hopeful that he didn’t even need to see a photo of his band. «It’s all about the music, man. What you look like is not the least bit important to me.» (Never mind that Wimmer didn’t actually include his name or telephone number on the cards he handed out; for the record, the complete listing is Danny Wimmer, 2200 Colorado Avenue, 4th Floor, Santa Monica, CA, 310-865-1000.)
In the crowded gallery of the Guitar Center floor, however, Limp’s lackeys were slightly less inclined to adopt a family-of-man approach to their quest. As the line moved slowly forward, the band’s production manager, a tattoo-sleeved fellow named Yeti, passed the time by making fun of those who’d shown up to play.
«I was hopeful at first that we would find somebody this way,» he said. «But this whole process is so painful. It’s becoming less and less likely that this is going to work. It takes about thirty seconds for it to be painfully clear that they suck.
«Look at some of these people,» he added. «We’ve had all kinds. Long-hair dudes, old people, full-on rocker types. Guys with mullets. I guess we might consider a guy with a mullet, but we’d have to tell him right away, ‘Dude, we’re going to have to cut your hair.’ Bust out the Interscope imaging department.»
So what an applicant looked like might, in fact, be somewhat important to a headhunter like Wimmer?
«Yeah, I mean, duh,» Yeti replied. «The guys in this band are young. So first of all, they’re not going to want to jam with some old dude. And the band is known for a certain look. They have to look cool, they have to look sort of, you know, tough. They have to look good on the CD jacket. Limp Bizkit can’t work with some guy who is going to look stupid on MTV.
»
Funny, we thought that looking stupid on MTV was part of the job description.
Over the past couple of years, Andy Monley discovered that two bands were not enough to absorb all of his energy as a songwriter. While working full-time with both the Czars and, until recently, Jux County, Monley also found time to write and record an album’s worth of solo material, which will be officially unveiled this week. We know it’s only the third week of January, but this may well be the best local CD of the year. Appropriately titled Denver, the expansive, eleven-song offering features a dizzying number of local artists, including guitar phenom Janet Feder, the Czars’ Chris Pearson and John Grant, Elan‘s Mike Serviolo, and Monkey Siren‘s Glenn Taylor and Mark Harris, among others. Many of those musicians will be on hand when Monley appears at the Bluebird Theater on Wednesday, January 30; the Kalamath Brothers open the show.
For those who crave a sampling of what some of the city’s most accomplished and daring players are up to, Denver is an excellent place to start.
10 Albums That Changed Wes Borland’s Life — Radio ULTRA
In 2016 Metal Hammer magazine asked Wes Borland about albums that have played a special meaning in his life. For those who know Borland not only as the guitarist of Limp Bizkit, but also as the artist and frontman of sometimes rather experimental side projects, for example, the industrial rock band Black Light Burns or the comedy metal band Big Dumb Face, the genre spread in the resulting selection won’t come as a surprise. For those who have not been deeply immersed in the musician’s third-party activities, his choice may be very surprising.
The first album I bought…
Various Artists – Miami Vice: Official Soundtrack (1985)
I think I was in third grade. When the Miami Vice pilot came out, there was a moment where Phil Collins’ «In The Air Tonight» is playing and the character is racing in his Ferrari, a spectacular shot of spinning wheels and all.
.. for me, as a kid, that’s was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
My favorite album of all time..
Pink Floyd − Dark Side of The Moon (1973)
Well, the oldest album I listen to and refer to all the time, especially when it comes to working in the studio, is Dark Side of The Moon. Just because of the influence he had on albums like Nine Inch Nails’ «The Downward Spiral» and the idea of making a record where the tracks come together and seem to flow into each other instead of being just a sequence of songs.
If a kid asks me what kind of music is metal, I’ll give him…
Metallica — Kill ‘Em All (1983)
Kill ‘Em All was the album that pushed me away from hardcore -punk into the world of metal, because it was not just fast and aggressive music, it was fast music built on powerful guitar riffs.
Best Sex Album…
The Cure − Disintegration (1989)
Disintegration is the biggest sex album of my life.
As soon as I heard it, I thought that I want to make love to someone with this music. And yes, he made that wish come true.
An album that makes you go as fast as you can…
Carcass – Descanting The Insalubrious (1991)
This is one band that still holds my interest. I don’t listen to that much metal anymore, but Carcass and Death have been with me through all these years. I saw Carcass at the House of Blues in LA and usually no one moves or slams at shows, but that night the crowd went wild.
The album I’m painting for…
Fever Ray − Fever Ray (2009)
For painting I need music without vocals or with lyrics in a language I don’t understand. As soon as the vocals come in, the music becomes distracting because the part of my brain responsible for logical thinking starts working, and I feel that this distracts me from working on the picture.
The only project with vocals that I can paint to is Fever Ray by Karin Dreyer Andersson, a member of the Swedish duo The Knife.
The album that shouldn’t have been…
Metallica − Load (1996)
My heart was broken listening to Load. I think for most this record was a disappointment. It just wasn’t Metallica anymore. The Black Album took them into a commercial sound, but it still felt like new work from Metallica. The riffs were in place and the band looked recognizable, and then all of a sudden this happened…
The album with the best artwork…
Roxy Music – Country Life (1974)
I love the covers of several Godspeed You albums! Black Emperor for their darkness, but Roxy Music’s «Country Life» has the best album. There are such cool hot chicks on the cover, which I once fantasized about dozens of times. This is a choice that I made with my member.
The album that broke my heart.
..
Portishead − Portishead (1997)
Portishead is my breakup album. A feeling of melancholy in its purest form, raised to the point where you start to fall in love with your own depression. Complete indulgence in your sadness.
I want to be remembered for this album…
Black Light Burns – The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall (2012)
I really like The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall. I feel like I put a lot of effort into it, I feel like the sound of this album is the true sound of Black Light Burns. And it seemed to me that this record really divided those who were just our fans by inertia, and those who really understood this album. And, of course, I want to be remembered for this disc. But I still don’t think we’ve made a record that will be our equivalent of OK Computer.
Vyacheslav Tumalanov
Limp Bizkit — «Take a look around» — Describe to me