A Kind O' Music!: Mr. Bungle - Mr. Bungle (1991)

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So the band decides to open up the album with thirty seconds of silence before the sound of smashing glass breaks up the tension. Any band who is just off kilter enough to try something like that is obviously going to be making some left field music and believe me, Mr. Bungle did precisely that in 1991. As we all know, Mr. Bungle is the original band of vocalist Mike Patton, who was a bit better known - especially in 1991 - for fronting some band called Faith No More. Mr. Bungle had actually been around for a long, long time but it wasn't until 1991 that they finally got a full album together to unleash on an unsuspecting public.

Those expecting The Real Thing II were probably quivering in fear by this disc's end.

I admit that when I first heard this album back in '91 or '92, maybe a few months after it came out, it annoyed the living hell out of me. The inclusion of so many sound effects, samples, sadistic sax (courtesy of producer John Zorn, who really made this album's sound sizzle), vocal tangents and unfathomable song structures made this self-titled nightmare an extrememly difficult listen. At first. It took the insanity that is "Stubb (a Dub)" to hook me and then start exploring the album a bit more thoroughly to extract the savant genius within.

Given that a lot of the lyrics here come across as blatently juvenile locker room sex talk, it's not hard to be put off at first. "The Girls of Porn" and "Squeeze Me Macaroni" are both pretty silly, but especially the latter have some pretty hilarious moments. "The Girls of Porn" is actually an extremely catchy number, if such a thing exists on this album. "Carousel" is a warped circus-ska-metal diversion that is sure to terrify. The aforementioned "Stubb (a Dub)" really shakes out all the musical lint and attacks any sort of convention with a twisted ire seldom seen in any sort of "extreme" music. And it's about the family dog. Perhaps the only truly unlistenable track is "My Ass is on Fire" that deconstructs into utterly intolerable noise and Patton screaming, "Redundant" over and over. (Yes, this was surely intentional.)

Mr. Bungle hasn't sat still over the years, though only reappearing sporadically. This self-titled album will probably always remain a nostalgic favorite given the set of memories attached to it during my college days. It definitely redefined a lot of expectations about music for me and is sure to attack any sort of paradigms that might exist in your head.

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Tracks Listing
1. Quote Unquote (6:56)
2. Slowly Growing Deaf (6:59)
3. Squeeze Me Macaroni (5:38)
4. Carousel (5:13)
5. Egg (10:38)
6. Stubb (7:19)
7. My Ass Is on Fire (7:47)
8. The Girls of Porn (6:42)
9. Love Is a Fist (6:01)
10. Dead Goon (10:02)

Members
Vlad Drac (a.k.a. Mike Patton) - lead vocals
Bär McKinnon - tenor sax
Theobald Brooks Lengyel - alto & bäri intonisation
Scummy - guitar
Trevor Roy Dunn - bass
Danny Heifetz - drums

Additional musicians:
David Shea - turntables
Yeesus Krist, Maximum Bob, Kahli & Jennifer - backing vocals

Produced by John Zorn.

EAC LOG

LOSSLESS (Img.Ape+LOG+Cue)

PASSWORD:
marm@Duk3

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: My ass is one fire kicks ass. Sorry you can't appreciate "heavier" music. The guys from bungle and faith no more all come from heavy metal, death metal backgrounds, but of course they are very diverse and original. So, the kid from that "epic" video who was headbanging, jumping around, and shouting, wasn't really Mike from Faith No More. He was the crazy kid from Mr. Bungle. Ears are ringing!; December 25, 2010 at 1:01 PM