Friday, August 23, 2013

Mr. Bungle by Mr. Bungle (1991, Warner Bros)




WHY I NEVER GOT AROUND TO LISTENING TO THIS ARTIST/ALBUM
  • It should be made known here and now that “experimental” music – especially those based on jazz, metal, and funk – is a very touchy subject with me. I'll just say that I don't really get it. The Theme park/Jazz Odyssey scene from the 1983 rockmentary spoof This is Spinal Tap pretty much summarizes the silliness of the concept. Call me simple, call me closed-minded, whatever you'd like, but you probably will not be able to change my stance on that. 

  • During the mid-to-late-1980s, while I was in high school, my older brother Rod's girlfriend at the time, Dominque Pepin, would make these mixed cassette tapes for my brothers and me to listen. She would intricately design the outside portion of the j-sleeves, using brightly-coloured paints, making each cover a unique piece of art. She would then scribble the song titles and the band names on the back of the sleeves. That is, of course, if she actually knew the song titles or band names. She would leave a blank space in the listing, in place of where the unknown song titles would go, and we were left to listening without ever knowing what the piece was called or who performed it. Remember, this was two decades before we could point our mobile device at the speaker and use the Shazam app to identify the song. Those Dominique tapes exposed me to many different types of music, as they contained songs from punk, glam rock, post-punk, thrash, and funk bands – mostly from the U.K and the American west coast – with, what seemed like at the time, very obscure names and whacked-out sounds. While some eventually made it to my own collection (Minutemen, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slack, Butthole Surfers, Gang of Four), much of the music – which I considered too weird, self-indulgent, or just plain out-there for my tastes – were long-forgotten. In retrospect, some of those disregarded songs from Dominique's cassettes may have been Mr. Bungle tracks, probably from their independently releases Bowel of Chiley (1987) and/or Goddammit I Love America! (1988).
WHAT I KNEW ABOUT THIS ALBUM BEFORE THIS PROJECT
  • A girl that went to York University with my twin brother Andrew was the first person to ever mention Mr. Bungle and Mr Bungle to me, in about 1992 or 93. I can not remember her name, but she did have big hair and wore combat boots. I always think about those attributes when someone mentions Mr. Bungle.

  • The band's lead vocalist Mike Patton was able to secure a deal with Warner Bros in 1991 based on the success of Faith No More, the group Patton joined in 1989.

  • The fact that the record was co- produced by avant-garde jazz musician John Zorn was enough for me to stay away.
AFTER A WEEK OF DIGESTING THIS ALBUM
  • Whether using heavy guitar and keyboard riffs, funk bass, ska rhythms, carnival melodies, or jazz chords, this record is intense. But at the same time, it was a rather fun record to spend a week with. Along with the good-time-all-the-time knucklehead-ness, Mr. Bungle has a charm that I was not expecting.

  • In the late-1990's, Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis reportedly started a feud with Mr. Bungle, apparently accusing Mike Patton of ripping off his vocal style. Granted, there are moments on Mr. Bungle, specifically the funky/rap portions of “Squeeze Me Macaroni”, “Girls of Porn” and “Carousel”, that may sound similar to Kiedis , but it is quite clear after listening to "Quote Unquote", “Slowly Growing Deaf”, “Egg”, “My Ass is on Fire”and “Love is a Fist”, Patton has a more versatile vocal range than just that shtick.

  • Like many of its funk-jazz-metal contemporaries, Mr. Bungle has not aged very gracefully. And while I have some issues with this album, I can see the attraction to this record at the time of its release in 1991. If you take into consideration how safe popular music was at the time, I would say this album was a kick to the mouth of the mainstream. And I'm sure the 19 year-old in me would've certainly approved.
Previous Entries:


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)