For the uninitiated, it would seem Fred Durst and his cohorts in Limp Bizkit were caught in a tme warp at last fall's Family Values tour. Prior to their set, the five musicians stepped on stage in front of a wrecked flying saucer, which could have come out of an Ed Wood or any other '50s B-reated sci-fi flick. From inside the UFO, a giant fetal-like alien peered out of its window. At least a few of its occupants lookd strange. For one, guitarist Wes Borland was appropriately attired with bloated, rabbit-like eyes, black spiky hair and gorilla-type suit.
But once the band, consisting of rapper/singer/frontman Fred Durst, guitarist Wes Borland, bassist Sam Rivers, drummer John Otto and DJ Lethal, started cranking at volume 11, the masses related quite well. Throughout their nearly 45-minute long set, Durst insisted that the audience "make some noise" and to tear the place apart. In return, the band generated a metallic sound that combined the raw, flowing sounds of hip hop and rap, with the thumping, angry grind of the new wave of rock. Some three agile breakdancers (here's the '80s-era reference) on-stage and the band's fans bounced uncontrollably to the tunes' grooves. The aliens had invaded, and thousands were happy to be caught in their spell.
Of course, Limp Bizkit aren't refugees from teh Red Planet. Rather, they're from Jacksonville, Florida, where their crossover sound was once considered foreign by their more traditional metal-learning peers. Thier determination to make it big, combined with sales of their 1997 debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$, their indelible connection to '98's godfathers of new metal,Korn, and stretches of endless touring, helped elevate them behond a cult-level caliber to become one of 1999's most promising artists.
The Band even generated news headlines, when their single "Counterfeit" was teh focus of a New York Times cover story where record companies pay for radio airplay. Now they're potential headliners or the '99 "Family Values" tour, which was one of the highest-grossing treks last year. Their follow-up album will be released in April.
Though the bands overall character contributed to their success, Durst was a major force for the band's followers since the beginning. Durst has the magic touch with his fans; the former sponsored skateboarder could walk through an audience and have fans make a path, rather than a crowd, around him. At a time when mosshing at big star concerts has become taboo, he throws himself into the more-than-welcome hands of the energetic crowds. This is also the man who, during last summer's OzzFest, chatted up fans and autographed tour programs, inside the general admission area without a phalanx of bodyguards present.
The quintet, whose name was coined to describe the brain of a burned-out drub addict has over the last year brought their formula of catchy raps, sawing solos and riffs, and jazzy drumming into the mainstream. In addition to opening for Faith No More and performing on the Warped Tour in 1996, they kicked off the 'Ladies Night In Cambodia" tour which earned good publicity when women were allowed in free.
Aside from traveling on the road with top hard rock acts Primus, Deftones and Sevendust (many of whom made cameos of LB's "Faith" video), the band earned a prominent slot on the OzzFest '98 bill, and co-headlined with fellow "new metal" leaders, Korn, on the latter's critically-lauded Family Values tour. Thanks to their offbeat cover of George Michael's "Faith," their debut has ganed a second wind on the album charts. At presstime, it's been inching towards the top of Billboard's album chart.
With an out-of-this-world, weird image embodied by street-savvy rock, Limp Bizkit are hard to resist. A victory of sorts for the band was their much-promoted appearence on MTV's New Years Eve. When the ball in New York's Times Square dropped on New Year's Eve 1998, right after the strocke of midnight, Limp Bizkit ruled the MTV airwaves with a blazing set of original tunes and their notoriously fun covers, including a rare take or Prince's overplayed end-of-millennium anthem, "1999".
Durst, wearing his crimson Yankees cap backwards, matching jeans and, of all things, and N-Sync T-shirt with the Kiss makeup outlines scrawled on each of the boys' faces, alternately paced briskly across the studio, like a hyperactive baby and pumped his neck frantically to the rhythm. In addition to Borland's eerie guise, Rivers, with his sole red contact, was as eye-catching as he invariantly looked frozen and animated. The other two, Otto and Lethal, threw their energy whole-heartedly into the band's musical cauldron of rock, funk and rap.
Like all drecible MC's, Durst makes sure he's down-to-earth. In such tunes as "Counterfeit," Durst as teh band's lyricist rags on the posers, while tunes like "Stuck" and "Clunk" are more pointed diatribes at various targets. Based on a saying his mother used a lot, "Nobody Loves Me" depicts the self-hatred of their rebellious teenage male fans. The crewcut-shorn singer, like a convincing televangelist, ropes in his loyal congregations about various issues that disturb him, especially the state of Christianity as he sees it. "Pollution, you preach the noise about the words that you don't wanna hear," he shouts in the opening of Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$.
Durst was raised in North Carolina, just down the block from televangelist Jim Bakker. In fact with a background that would make a gripping Sunday night movie, Dirst's upbringing was troubled. When growing up, he was very confrontational with his mother and stepfather. "I grew up as a rebellious kid who was always locked up in his room," Durst explained in 1997. "When I got out, I wasn't bad, I just didn't know what was right or wrong." His marriage was dismal; when he was 20 and living in Sav Francisco, he had a violent argument with his wife and her lover, and reportedly ended up staying in jail for about a month. Once release, Durst, who says he now prays three times a day, vowed to change around his life, so he moved to Jacksonville in 1992. He took on some artistically-inclined odd jobs and did some tattooing on the side, but his dream was to form a band that reflected all his musical tastes.
Durst decided early that he didn't want to play in any run-of-the-mill band. he took up scratching and MC'ing in some local outfits, but he searched for more. What churned in his mind was the theatrical outrageousness of Kiss, the kickin' old school rap of Wu Tang Cland and the crunching, monstrous roar of Suicidal Tendencies --all combined in a single musicle outfit.
Formed in late 1994, LB became an institution in their upper eastern Florida area. Durst has admitted feely that he has stole the best musicians from other local bands. "I came to Jacksonville, but there were none of those flavors," says Durst, referring to rap and hip hop. "So I go around and get a whole bunch of people from different bands to form a group with me."
As companions, Durst and Rivers were the first to solidify the band and Rivers suggested his cousin Otto, who joined them. Lastly, there were Borland and his brother Scott (who played keyboards on three tracks on the debut album), and finally Lethal. The music scene in Jacksonville didn't take this ambitious group seriously at first, but of course, things changed.
"All these bands that were metal but didn't like us started dogging on us, and theyre totally stiff dorks with tight jeans, red-necking metal bands," says Durst. "As soon as we get popular, all of the bands start to look like us and dress like us. They're rappin' and doing all these things to be lik us." Later on, more customers were filing into the band's veteran hangout, Jacksonville's Milk Bar.
As the story goes, Limp Bizkit's first big break crystallized when the singer met up with the members of Korn, who were playing their first-ever gigs in Jacksonville. Guitarist Brian "Head" Welch was the one who met Durst, and he and bassist Reggie "Fieldy" Arvizu visited his tattooinbg parlor. Though Durst's tattooing skills were far from refined )he inadvertently stenciled "horn", rather than Korn on Head's back), his customers' fascination with LB's sound was luckily strong.
Once Korn returned to the Sunshine State, they took an interest in the band's three-track demo (consisting of "Pollution," "Counterfeit," and "Stuck") and pased it on to producer extraordinaire, Ross Robinson, who helped mold Korn's distinct sound. Whne they signed to Flip Records (a prestigious indie whose various projects are picked up by the major labels), their debut was recorded in a quick six days by Robinson. The album, which was distributed by Interscope, had the distinction of being mised by Andy Wallace of Nirvana's Nevermind frame.
As much as Durst represents the classic MC mold, the others stem from other parts of the musical spectrum. Indeed, the band's range of influendes are wider and more versatile than Korn's. Borland, who, along with Scott, hails from Nashville, is an enthusiastic fan of everything, form industrial (Ministry) and glame (Bowie) to death metal (Carcass, and Testament). DJ Lethal, formerly the turntable man for House of Pain, was weaned on hip hop and classic rock and his father is a guitarist with a wide record collection. Rivers was very keen on grunge and metal. And of course, Grandmaster Durst's range of influences include Kiss, hard-core, rap and modern rock.
Even prior to the release of their first album, Korn and Limp Bizkit were inextricably linked. The two bands share the same management, and LB have been supporting the former on tour wince early 1997. On Korns lates, Billboard-peaking abulm Follow the Leader, Durst and Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis traded insults on the irreverent "All In The Family." Plus, the band's moniker is even featured prominently in the album booklet.
Nevertheless, LB have become their own talent scouts; on the first album, they solicited demo tapes from bands across the country. Durst discovered for Flip Records a new band called Staind, whose album is being produced by Terry Date (Deftones, Soundgarden) and to be released on Elektra. For extra duties, Lethal and Durst guested on the song "Bleed" from Soulfly's debut album, and both are said to be producing a Michigane rap-metal outfit called Taproot. DJ and Borland are reported to have side projects of their own.
With heightened success, it's not surprising that their upcoming full-length endeaveor is eagerly expected. Currently being produced by Date, the as-yet-untitled ablum is slated to contain the live staple "F**k." Other tunes were written while the band were on the road for the Family Values tour and some even earlier. "It's everything you like about Limp Bizkit, only to another level," he predicted to Circus Magazine recently. "It will be more hip hop, more heavy, more alternative and have more melody. Just more of what we are."
An all-covers album is also in the works - a smart marketing move, seeing as how every remake they tackle turns to gold. Combined witht heir high-profile touring slots and powerful radio and video airplay, the Jacksonville bunch are set to comquer airwaves everywhere this spring. For loyal hard rock devotees, this should be the year of Limp Bizkit.
