Mushroomhead is a wide-ranging, highly theatrical metal band that grinds melodies into pulp. The eight members wear costumes that would fit right into Rockstar Games' Manhunt and put on live shows that bring to mind both Kiss and anime. They are aggro, hard-core, genre-crushing artists. They see music as an extreme sport.
But, alas, their heads are not actually made of mushrooms.
"I'm definitely leaning more and more straight edge all the time," says Mushroomhead monarch/drummer Skinny, who produced most of the tracks on the band's latest album, XIII.
"They are a lot of fun, but I haven't done them in a while," he says when I ask him about his hallucinogenic 'shroom expertise. "Unfortunately, we just don't do that anymore."
I decide to test Skinny's knowledge of mushrooms anyway. He correctly guesses that chanterelle mushrooms are food, but he incorrectly thinks that King Boletus and Hen o' the Woods mushrooms are psychotropic. He redeems himself a bit by determining that Liberty Caps, Golden Tops and Showy Flamecaps could make your bedroom ceiling start to pulse and then disgorge laughing, little Buddhas onto you as you melt.
"Any of those 'caps' sound like they're for sale in Holland," he says. "Really, I don't know shit about this."
Skinny's 'shroom savvy may be somewhat disappointing, but then again, he's not a kid anymore. Mushroomhead formed in Cleveland more than a decade ago, and Skinny (real name: Steve Felton) has been conceptualizing and reimagining the band ever since. Right now, they sound like a cross between Ministry and Faith No More.
Mushroomhead may be best known as the band that the one-trick, jumpsuit-wearing goobers in Slipknot may or may not have totally ripped off, but Skinny and his crew have risen above that by continually changing their sound and look. Of course, the sound has always been some kind of heavy metal, and the look has always been menacing and purposefully cartoonish.
"We're such a highly visual band," Skinny says. "For years, we wanted to do the theatrical-style rock thing. Acts like Kiss and Alice Cooper and the Residents and Devo had a huge impact on us."
Skinny's heard plenty of shit from critics who think Mushroomhead are "hiding behind masks because we can't play."
"Hearing the whole 'gimmick/shtick' thing is something we're very used to," Skinny says, but he adds that you'll never see Mushroomhead forsake their look. If anything, the band's long-time fixation with comic books and horror-movie-style apparel makes them sort of mainstream now. They are now, after all, something like a walking PlayStation 2 game.
"The times," Skinny says. "are catching up with us for a change."