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Releasing a new song about a presidential candidate days before the election \u2013 and calling that song \u201cRacist Piece of Shit\u201d \u2013 is a surefire way to get noticed. But Fishbone has never really had any difficulty attracting attention. The band formed in Los Angeles in 1979 has made a career out of confounding those who would try to categorize its music, and the band\u2019s lyrics have never shied away from social commentary.<\/p>\n
When Fishbone came on the scene, there was no other band like them. An all-Black lineup of musicians playing a stylistic mashup of ska, punk and hardcore metal, Fishbone confused some but won the devotion of others. \u201cWe were just playing music that we liked,\u201d says Moore with a shrug. \u201cWe weren\u2019t really caring about what other people thought.\u201d Moore name-checks some of the artists who inspired Fishbone: \u201cFunkadelic, James Brown, Sly Stone, Louis Jordan, John Coltrane, [Charles] Mingus and Sun Ra,\u201d he says, implicitly challenging the notion that his group fits neatly into any one genre.<\/p>\n
Another hot band of the era, the BusBoys gave the group its first break. \u201cOur very first gig was at Madame Wong\u2019s,\u201d Moore says. The L.A. club was a hub for the city\u2019s punk, new wave and power pop scenes, and exposure there gave acts a foot in the door to bigger audiences. But an opening spot for the BusBoys was no guarantee of success. \u201cI felt like we had to win over a lot of the audience,\u201d Moore says, \u201cbecause the color of our skin didn\u2019t match with the stereotype.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore says that Fishbone impressed the concertgoers with their music. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have too much trouble winning over white people, because we were playing a lot of rock and fast-tempo stuff,\u201d he says. Paradoxically, with audiences of color it was a different story. \u201cWe weren\u2019t playing the kind of music Black people were used to hearing,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou\u2019ve got the whole Black rock scene \u2013 Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles \u2013 but it\u2019s small compared with the overall Black scene of r&b, funk, and hip hop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somehow, Fishbone found a way to earn fans across the musical and racial landscapes. Four of the group\u2019s albums made it onto the Billboard<\/i> 200 charts between 1988 and 1996, and two Fishbone singles \u2013 \u201cSunless Saturday\u201d and \u201cEveryday Sunshine,\u201d both from 1991 \u2013 reached the upper registers of the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart.<\/p>\n
Moore has remained quite busy inside and outside of Fishbone. Under his own name and\/or using his alter ego moniker Dr. MadVibe, he has released six albums since 2000; his latest was released just this year. Moore has also collaborated and\/or guested on numerous tracks by other artists, variously providing vocals, sax and Theremin for acts as diverse as Ugly Kid Joe, Avenged Sevenfold, Gwen Stefani and Bad Brains.<\/p>\n
But even those projects can\u2019t contain his creative impulses. Moore\u2019s Brand New Step project has three albums to its credit, and his description of the music makes it clear that his eclecticism knows few bounds. \u201cIt\u2019s electronic dance music on the poppy side,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve got guest rappers; we\u2019ve got all kinds of stuff on there. It\u2019s a whole \u2018nother world I\u2019ve created, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet Fishbone remains Moore\u2019s primary focus. Over the past decade-plus, Fishbone has continued to tour, but the group wasn\u2019t heard on record for some time. Fishbone\u2019s most recent studio album, Still Stuck in Your Throat<\/i>, was released more than 18 years ago. But the group hasn\u2019t taken the route of becoming a nostaliga act, touring on the strength of decades-old material. \u201cRacist Piece of Shit\u201d is merely the latest in a resurgent release schedule from Fishbone. In 2023 the group released a self-titled five-song EP, highlighted by \u201cEstranged Fruit,\u201d a collaboration with NOFX. Earlier this year, Fishbone debuted another collaborative release, the single \u201cGrowing Up Punk\u201d featuring MC Homeless.<\/p>\n
Those releases are the sound of Fishbone getting warmed up; at the time of our conversation, Moore is in the recording studio making final tweaks to the mixes of a clutch of new songs. Tentatively set for release in early 2025, the new material will take the form of not one but two Fishbone albums. \u201cWe\u2019re going to call it Son of Fishbone: The Stockholm Syndrome<\/i>,\u201d Moore says.<\/p>\n
Fishbone\u2019s major label era ended in the mid \u201890s, but the group pressed on with a constantly shifting lineup, taking on additional musical styles and continuing to earn critical praise. Today Moore and fellow founding member Christopher Dowd front a six-man lineup of younger players. The through-line that connects Fishbone\u2019s body of work is its social perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom where I\u2019m standing as a visionary and a creative, I make sure that [people] hear and see my opinion,\u201d Moore says. He tries to stay positive but observes that the United States is in an evil time; that\u2019s reflected in the lyrics of Fishbone\u2019s latest single, a song about a familiar orange-hued real-life character. \u201cWe all know that the Joker is funny, and he\u2019s colorful,\u201d Moore says. \u201cHe\u2019s one of my favorite characters in Batman<\/i>. But you don\u2019t vote for him for president!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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