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Original Faith No More Singer Resurfaces In New Band

Original Faith No More singer, Chuck Mosley, has resurfaced in a group called Vandals Against Illiteracy (V.U.A.). "The album we're working on and trying to finish is called 'Will Rap Over Hard Rock for Food'," Mosley tells Billboard.com. "It's more kind of my style -- more noisiness, but there's some rapping over hard rock. There's more screaming and singing -- some short punk rock songs, some harder ones, acoustic jammies."

Although the Mike Patton-led line up of Faith No More conquered the charts, it was the Chuck Mosley-led incarnation that made the group a college radio favorite during the mid to late 1980s. But apart from a pair of short-lived gigs -- fronting Bad Brains and '90s alt-rockers Cement -- Mosley has stayed largely out of the spotlight.

Joining Mosley in V.U.A. is Cobra Verde guitarist Tim Parnin, bassist Ed Stevens, and "A guy named Eric. I can't remember his last name, he plays drums -- he was in Pro-Pain," he says. In addition to handling vocals, Mosley also supplies some guitar.

With Mosley at the helm, Faith No More became one of the '80s' leading underground bands on the strength of 1985's "We Care a Lot" and 1987's "Introduce Yourself." Despite exiting the group in 1988 under less-than-friendly circumstances, the Ohio-based Mosley is now friendly with most of his former FNM bandmates. In fact, keyboardist Roddy Bottum appears on the new album's remake of the title track from "We Care a Lot."

"He put keyboards on it. We have the original going in the background, so you get the other guys on the chorus and Roddy's organ sound," Mosley says. "But we play it slower, so it's matched up to them, and we do our version over that. And all new lyrics -- way more updated."

Other tracks to appear on the album are are "Tractor," "Punk Rock Movie," "The Enabler" and "Sophie," named after Mosley's youngest daughter. "It's a 'baby ballad,'" he says.

V.U.A. has already played live gigs, but Mosley took the band off the road until the forthcoming debut is completed. "Hopefully it will be out this year," he says. Label and distribution deals are pending.

Source: Billboard.com