California - Mr. Bungle

Advantages: Different, varied, experimental
Disadvantages: Weird!

...grunge if I’m honest, but California (fronted by Mike Patton/Faith No More) was a refreshing new sound, unlike anything I’d ever heard before. Be prepared to give your ears a brand new listening experience, if you’ve never tried Mr Bungle before, you could be very pleasantly surprised! On the other hand, you may just wanna head for the hills right now! The whole album is a mixture of abstract and absurd that actually works! Expect ...
...Boys’, Wurlitzer, grasshoppers in mass frenzy (!?), and tribal chanting. Sounds weird huh? Yep it is, but dig deeper, there are some masterfully crafted sounds going on here… To the tracks themselves then….. Sweet Charity This relatively mellow track (by Bungle standards at least, expect complete mayhem later!!) opens with the sound of Hawaiian steel guitars against a background of screaming seagulls and gently breaking waves. ... Read review

Advantages: Everything about it is great
Disadvantages: Nothing, even it being a shortish album just means that the great songs come round more often!

...Musical Therapy series. The effect California has on you (Or at least on me) is just to make you more positive. Whether you need firing up to get started on some work, just need waking up or just want to smile. Even the song about suicide has you crooning along smiling! I say poorly though because it’s more than a ‘therapy’ album (But then so was Six but I’ll conveniently ignore that for the moment). It is in fact the best ...
...start off an unbiased opinion, but again I’ll gloss over that and head onto a brief description of just what the hell Mr Bungle are – or at least what they are on this album. Mr Bungle are always unexpected and that is in it self, the only thing you can expect from them. After vocalist Mike Patton’s debuted with Faith No More on The Real Thing and it sold quite a lot, Faith No More fans jumped at the chance for more Patton when ... Read review

Advantages: Brilliant!
Disadvantages: Mad! (Or is that still an advantage?)

Oh yes he did, ladies and gentlemen. He tortured me, he cajoled me, he enticed me, he tempted me, he convinced me that what I was doing was right. But it wasn’t. It was wrong. Very wrong. It was Mr. Bungle. It was, as it turned out, also completely and utterly brilliant! One of the great things about Ciao is "meeting" new people, learning their likes and dislikes, sharing things in common, and arguing (politely!) about differences. I don’t ...
...of the title, it may well have been over a Faith No More (FNM) op, but I’m very glad I did. After teasing him about his ‘strange’ choice of music (mad! manic! mayhem!) I decided to trust him. We were both fans of FNM and I had always been interested in their lead singer’s ‘other’ band, Mr. Bungle. I had been put off by comments that their lyrics were absolutely filthy, full of bad language and that the music was ... Read review

Advantages: Different
Disadvantages: Weird

...me quite a lot. California is the third album from Mr. Bungle, after their self-titled album and Disco Volante. It’s probably the most normal of the three, but quite frankly, by Bungle standards, very very weird is as close to normal as we’re going to get. It's hard to place Bungle in a genre really, it's a sound all of it's own - the stop/start structure of most of the songs is a Bungle trademark. The best tracks are 'Sweet Charity', ...
...normal 'Retrovertigo'. The song feature a combination of complex guitar riffs and drum sequences, as well as a good amount of vocal jiggerypokery in there too. The album as a whole is very good - it flows from song to song well, and starts and ends with some of the best tracks as all good albums should (Track 1 - Sweet Charity, Last Track - Goodbye Sober Day). I could say that the lyrics are innovative - but that’d be an understatement! The ... Read review

Advantages: Well, at least they tried
Disadvantages: They shouldn't have

...of the Fantômas album? Well - it's random, it has little or no musical merit, and, well - I can discern more musical qualities from the white noise between radio stations. I hate being quite so scalding about an album, but there's not much nice I can say about this - there simply aren't any good parts. I admire Patton for his adventurousness, but this is an album I don't think should ever have been made - another California (Mr. Bungle) would have been much more appreciated. Thanks, but no thanks.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: A step closer to California levels of genius
Disadvantages: At times still a hop, skip and jump away plus don't be expecting Mike Patton levels of vocal talent.

...Tubring are another band I stumbled across whilst blundering my way around mp3.com. But not only do Tub Ring have a slightly Mr Bungle touch to their music but their most recent album (That’s this one fact fans) was produced by Mr Bungle/Secret Chiefs 3 guitarist Trey Spruance! With credentials like that how could I not check the band out? The Drake Equation is in many ways to Tub Ring what California was to Mr Bungle – they’re bothering less about being self consciously weird and more about pumping out a quantity of good tunes. Moving on from previous Tub Ring albums such as 1995’s “…And The Mashed Potato Mountain Etiquette” and 1997’s “Super Sci-Fi Samurai Rockstar Ultra Turbo II (ver. 3.6)”, The Drake Equation sees Tub Ring continue to mix the sounds of Frank Zappa, Mr... Read review

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Advantages: Fishbone meets Faith No More in a train crash
Disadvantages: not everyones taste because it is quite schizophrenic

...Mr Bungle is possibly a band you have never heard of, but don’t feel ashamed. Mr. Bungle formed in 1985 in Eureka California. They took their name from a short educational program about a boy who was unhygienic and generally not nice to be around, the school clown. It was pointed out to them later that Mr. Bungle was the name of a character in a porn movie. The original lineup of the band consisted of Mike Patton (Vocals), Trevor Dunn (Bass), Trey Spruance (Guitar) and Jed Watts (Drums). The first demo was Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny (1986), consisting of eight tracks of death / thrash metal that shows the bands musical capability, but not their uniqueness. The next demo, Bowel Of Chiley (1987) really shows the uniqueness of Mr. Bungle, mixing ska, funk, punk and metal. Sounding more like Fishbone now, the band released... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful