Limp Bizkit: Encyclopedia II - Limp Bizkit - History

Limp Bizkit - History

Limp Bizkit - Early years

Contrary to popular belief, Limp Bizkit was not named for the fraternity game "limp biscuit". They were named after the way a friend of the band described his brain after getting high. The band was formed in 1994 by Durst, Rivers, Borland and Otto, touring in and around their hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. About this time, they became friends with rap music's House of Pain, which included DJ Lethal. Soon after House of Pain broke up, DJ Lethal joined the band. They were discovered by KoЯn's bassist Reginald Arvizu in 1995, backstage at a Jacksonville KoЯn concert. In 1996 they released a three song demo tape featuring the songs Pollution, Counterfeit, and Sour which Fred Durst gave to Ross Robinson who was at the time working with KoЯn.

Limp Bizkit - Three Dollar Bill Y'all

1997 saw the release of their first full-length album Three Dollar Bill Y'all. The album had a slow start, and it wasn't until Limp Bizkit made an association with the band KoЯn that they made major progress. Due largely to their association with KoЯn, they were able to promote their music with appearances on MTV, the Family Values Tour and Ozzfest, where Borland's outlandish makeup and costumes made a memorable impression on fans. Their break-out single was a cover of George Michael’s hit “Faith”. Limp Bizkit also began offering radio stations such as Portlands KUFO payola to play their music repeatedly. KUFO would be paid $5,000 if it played the new Limp Bizkit single "Counterfeit" 50 times over the course of five weeks. [4]

Limp Bizkit - Significant Other

In 1999, Limp Bizkit released their second album, Significant Other. The first single “Nookie,” was a runaway hit.

In the summer of 1999, Limp Bizkit played Woodstock '99. During their performance, fans begin to tear plywood from the walls of the stage and from the "tower" used by media outlets to cover the concert. There were also several rapes and sexual assaults during the group's performance. Tensions ran high and violence continued to occur, culminating in blazes and looting by the end of the show. Some concertgoers claim Durst had incited the violence, although Durst stated that none of the comments he made that day were intended to cause violence. The issue was later addressed in the video for the single "Rearranged", which features the band being judged and subsequently "executed" for the Woodstock debacle.

Controversy soon overshadowed their music. In that same year, Durst became involved in feuds with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, with the band Slipknot, and with rapper Eminem, whose single "Without Me" described 'N Sync member Chris Kirkpatrick as "worse than them little Limp Bizkit bastards". Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor mocked Fred Durst in the Nine Inch Nails music video for “Starfuckers, Inc.”.

Reznor later proclaimed "Limp Bizkit sucks and everyone knows it". Fred Durst stated that Reznor should be careful, as Durst was very influential at Interscope Records (Reznor also being contracted to Interscope Records). This comment caused an uproar, with many claiming Durst practiced mafia-style business tactics. These accusations became more frequent after an associate of the band Taproot released a threatening message that Durst had left on his answering machine. Durst claimed he was simply misunderstood and was not violent or negative. However, Durst later had a very bitter and almost violent feud with Scott Stapp of Creed.

Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water

2000 saw the release of Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. The first two singles “My Generation” and “Rollin’” were released at the same time. Durst claimed this tactic would generate a buzz for the album. His prediction was accurate, as both songs were hits. A remix of “Rollin’” featuring Method Man, Redman and DMX was a minor club hit. The album sold 1,055,256 copies in its first week, a record for a rock album. It has gone on to sell over 6,5 million copies.

The band supported the album with a headlining tour named "Back To Basics". The tour was touted as bringing the fans closer to the bands, as the only thing separating the stage from the fans was a tall metal fence. Moreover, the tour was sponsored by Napster, and fans received free admission.

The band again became mired in controversy in 2001 during a tour of Australia with the Big Day Out rock festival. At the Sydney concert, teenager Jessica Michalik suffered a heart attack when fans rushed the stage. It was claimed that Durst was urging the crowd on, or that he failed to attempt to calm the crowd. Jessica was apparently clinically dead when she was pulled out of the mosh by security guards, but regained consciousness after having air pumped into her lungs as well as an epinephrine shot to the heart from paramedics backstage. She was immediately rushed to Sydney's Concorde Hospital where she was pronounced dead a few hours later. Thirty additional fans were treated for minor injuries at the festival's medical tents.

Reports in the Australian press said that the inquest panel viewed footage of Durst telling a reporter for the American TV show Access Hollywood that he "visited the girl in hospital" and that he has kept in touch with her parents. However, the Sydney Daily Telegraph reports that according to Detective Inspector Gregory Bamford, the police officer leading the investigation into the tragedy, Durst made no such trip to Jessica's bedside [5]. Limp Bizkit's management denies this.

In an interview later that year, Borland, by now playing with his side project Big Dumb Face, expressed dissatisfaction with Limp Bizkit. He was tired of the constant feuding, and did not want to feud with or disparage Reznor, who Borland greatly admired. By the summer of 2001, Borland left the band. He told MTV news in an interview that Limp Bizkit was a "sell out band" and Durst had become an egomaniac. Borland's departure was seen as a major blow. He was often cited as a vital creative force in the group, due in part to his eclecticism.

With Borland's absence, Limp Bizkit held auditions for a new guitarist. The auditions were called "Put Your Guitar Where Your Mouth Is" [6]. Thousands of hopefuls lined up for hours at record and guitar shops for a chance to audition. All participating guitarists were required to sign waivers giving Limp Bizkit ownership of any riffs or interesting guitar parts performed by those auditioning. Each guitarist had only 50 seconds to show the management and band how good they were before being sent back to the queue, or simply sent home. Some locations were so packed that not everyone who arrived on time was able to audition.

Later that year, Fred Durst refused to fly to Australia to appear in court for the Jessica Michalik trial, stating that he was a "fearful flyer" and choosing instead to appear by video link. Lawyers for the concert promoter scoffed at the prospect of televised testimony, claiming witnesses "weren't bound by perjury laws when testifying". A band spokesperson reported that several of Limp Bizkit's tour managers had made written statements and would testify before the court, but Durst allegedly claimed that he couldn't fit the trip into his schedule.

When the day for the hearing arrived, Durst claimed that he told concert organizers of the potential dangers of having little security, even telling them that Limp Bizkit would pull out of the show if these faults were not addressed. He also testified that he voiced his concerns to the concert's promoter, Vivian Lees. During cross-examination, Big Day Out attorneys attempted to pin the blame on Limp Bizkit because the music didn't completely stop when the band was alerted to the incident. Although the guitars, drums and bass ceased, DJ Lethal played a quiet computer-generated loop. While admitting that Lethal took it upon himself to play the interlude, Durst claimed that the quiet melody did have a soothing effect on the crowd.

On August 10, 2002 Limp Bizkit were found not guilty. The security practices employed by festival organizers Creative Entertainment Australia bore the brunt of the blame. After viewing videotapes and hearing witness testimony, Milledge, the coroner, said it was evident that the density of the crowd was dangerous at the time Limp Bizkit took the stage. [7]

The court decided that "though Limp Bizkit weren't found to be at fault for the death of a teenager crushed at a concert last year, they could've been more helpful in efforts to aid the girl".

On March 7, 2003, Limp Bizkit announced it would perform live again for the first time in two years, at the upcoming WWE's WrestleMania XIX taking place on March 30[8]. Not only that, Limp Bizkit had signed up for some live tours, despite their lack of a guitarist. The guitarists for the Wrestlemania tour were later revealed when Durst wrote in a post on the official website: "We are playing Wrestlemania this weekend. On the guitars will be Head from KoЯn and Mike Smith from Snot. We've been working with Mike for a while. He's dope." Two days later, Durst confirmed via the band’s official website that Snot's Mike Smith would be the official replacement guitarist.

Mike Smith then went on to tour with the band and helped contribute to at least five songs on ‘’Results May Vary’’. Durst, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, and a sound engineer known as Elvis also played guitar on the record.

Limp Bizkit - Results May Vary

Results May Vary was released in October of 2003, with the group styling their name as limpbizkit, due to Mike Smith joining the band, and the changes in the band since Wes Borland's departure.

Although this album didn't match previous successes, it received platinum certification in the United States after about fourteen weeks on the charts. (In comparison, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water sold one million albums in its first week on the charts and debuted at number one on the Billboard Magazine charts.) The song "Build a Bridge" was the official theme song of WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view event in November 2003. Critical response for the album was almost universally negative, with one reviewer stating that the record "suffers from an utter lack of form and direction" [9] A cover version of The Who's Behind Blue Eyes was very successful on the radio charts, but was cited by DigitalDreamDoor.com as the worst cover song of all time. No video or CD single was ever released for "Almost Over" or "Build A Bridge" due to Mike Smith's departure, and no further singles were released from "Results May Vary", due to Wes Borland's return to the band.

Limp Bizkit - The Unquestionable Truth

During July of 2004 various rumours began circulating on the internet claiming Mike Smith had left Limp Bizkit, and that Wes Borland had been playing with the band. By July 8, theprp.com made an official report that Wes Borland was recording with the band in London although however this was still regarded only as a rumor until August 13, 2004.

No official statement was released, but Limp Bizkit's website went offline and was replaced by a webpage that displayed large photos of the band. Smith was absent, but Borland was there, depicted as playing with the band with the date written beneath.

On August 15, two days after showing Borland playing with the band on their official site, Durst announced Mike Smith's departure from the band in an exclusive interview with thearmpit.net. He said, "We are very content with Mike being gone. 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."

Two months prior to the release of their next album, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1), a homemade porn film featuring Fred Durst was leaked onto the internet. It was allegedly the work of the T mobile terrorist, although later Durst mentioned to MTV that it had been spotted by "a man who came to repair his computer" who then stole it and spread it about the net. [10] Later, Fred was approached by a company asking him if he wanted to sell his porn film as it "was going to be seen anyway". He declined and instead filed a lawsuit against the hacker.

With Borland back in the band, Limp Bizkit reverted to the old styling of their name. They then returned to the studio with producer Ross Robinson, who had worked with them on Three Dollar Bill Y'all, to create a seven track EP titled The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1). Drummer John Otto was only able to contribute to one track on the album due to personal matters, with Sammy Siegler providing percussion on the remaining tracks.

The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) was released internationally on May 3, 2005 with surprisingly little fanfare. The lack of media hype was said to have been a part of Durst's strategy, resulting in the extremely low first week sales figures of around 37,000 units [11].

Limp Bizkit - Greatest Hitz

Limp Bizkit's greatest hits album, titled Greatest Hitz, was released on November 8, 2005. A DVD, which featured music videos for most of their major hits, was released in conjunction with the CD. The album and DVD were heavily endorsed and promoted by their record label, even to the point where Durst said he was forced to do interviews because the record label was "making him promote Limp's new Greatest Hitz, a compilation he's not too excited about".[12]

The compilation album featured 3 previously unreleased songs. "Why" and "Lean On Me" were leftover unreleased material from Results May Vary. They were recorded before Mike Smith joined the band, but later dropped in turn for heavier songs. [13]

Limp Bizkit - Next album

Limp Bizkit has two new albums that are set to be released in the near future. Their next studio CD, believed to be called The Unquestionable Truth (Part 2), has no definite release date. Little is known about this CD, but Fred has said that it is completed, it's an EP and it is very different from The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1).

Their second unreleased new album also has no release date, and is currently untitled. It however has been stated by Fred Durst to be the first Limp Bizkit album recorded without an outside producer and like Part 2, little is known about this release. [14]

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki