Peeping Tom (band)


Peeping Tom were an American electronic rock group, led by Mike Patton. To date, they have released one eponymous album and two singles on Ipecac Recordings. The band has featured a wide variety of well-known artists such as Massive Attack, Norah Jones and Kool Keith.
Peeping Tom has been called Mike Patton's most mainstream accessible work since his days with Faith No More.

History

Work began on Peeping Tom in 2000 and after six years of delays, caused by Patton's recording or touring work with Fantômas, Tomahawk, Lovage, General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners, Kaada/Patton, Rahzel and guest turns on Björk and Massive Attack records, two feature film scores, his film acting debut in Firecracker, videogame voice work in The Darkness and an ultimately "ridiculous" major label flirtation, the self-titled debut album, Peeping Tom, finally saw the light of day in 2006. It was released through Mike Patton's own label, Ipecac Recordings.
The entire album was written by Patton with a wishlist of collaborators in mind that he hoped would perform on the finished tracks; "It's an exotic way of working for someone accustomed to a band environment," Patton says. "It was charming, really. None of the usual Animal House stuff. Instead of swapping spit and underwear, we were swapping files." The finished album featured performances by artists such as Norah Jones, Kool Keith and Massive Attack. Referring to the fact that almost none of the artists recorded their parts with Patton there he said: "Plenty of people on the record are still complete strangers to me."
The first single from the album was Mojo. It was accompanied by a music video featuring appearances by Danny DeVito, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Rachel Hunter as well as song performers Dan the Automator and Rahzel. The video was created by music video director Matt McDermitt. The band made its worldwide live debut on the May 26, 2006 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Style

Describing the band's sound, Mike Patton said:
"I don't listen to the radio, but if I did, this is what I'd want it to sound like. This is my version of pop music. In a way, this is an exercise for me: taking all these things I've learned over the years and putting them into a pop format. I've worked with many people who have said to me, 'oh you have a pop record in you, eventually you'll find it,' and I always laughed at them. I guess I owe them an apology."

Collaborators

Studio albums

Singles

Music videos