Mr. Bungle - Mr Bungle
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.54 You Save: $4.44 (44%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Mr Bungle
Free Music Review: You bet it's weird!
Hit: 5 Stars
What can be said about Mr. Bungle that hasn't been said already? Well, maybe nothing, but I'm going to say a few things anyway. This band combines talent, creativity, and a complete disregard for commercialism in a way few, if any, bands could even dream of. Genre conventions, traditional song structures, and common notions of good taste are all thrown right out the window here. And while the band's last two albums are good as well, I think this self-titled debut stands as the ultimate testament to Mr. Bungle's offbeat genius.If you're in the mood for some inspired weirdness, nothing, and I mean NOTHING that I've heard can beat this album. The first time I listened to it I was hooked, and my appreciation has only grown since. Some albums don't quite live up to their legendary status, but "Mr. Bungle" is not one of them. It's become a cult classic for a reason.
Fronted by now-legendary Faith No More main man Mike Patton, Mr. Bungle channeled an almost impossibly wide range of influences into one incredibly original sound. This album has sort of a bizarre mad-scientists-on-acid vibe about it, as the band races through genres with reckless abandon and dizzying virtuosity, topped off by Patton's singularly manic vocals. More than anything else, "Mr. Bungle" is proof of how much fun unpredictability can be. Unlike the vast majority of what you'll hear on the radio, it's impossible to listen to the first thirty seconds of these songs and then set your brain to "repeat." You have to actually pay attention from beginning to end (novel thought, huh?).
What's even more impressive, as a few others have noted, is that for all their seeming arbitrariness, the songs on this album "flow" very well. After listening a few times, I really began to appreciate the demented genius that was at work here. The myriad shifts between tempos and genres, so jarring upon first listen, eventually began to sound perfectly natural and logical, so much so that I began wondering why there aren't more bands that play such songs. To steal a quote from Shakespeare's "Hamlet:" "Though it be madness, yet there be method in it."
The circus music-derived opener "Quote Unquote," much like the cult classic film "Attack Of The Killer Klowns," scores points by playing off the creepiness of circuses and clowns. "Slowly Growing Deaf" starts out slowly before picking up speed and careening back and forth between funk and thrash, and some other stuff that I can't even describe in words. "Squeeze Me Macaroni" and "Carousel" each race through about five genres in their first minute or so, providing probably the album's best showcases for both Patton's vocal acrobatics and his bandmates' musical abilities. "My A** Is On Fire" would be enjoyable even if only for the title lyric, but the song itself, with its twisted combination of jazz and metal, is wildly infectious to boot. "Girls Of Porn," which may well be my new all-time favorite song, has a premise that's astoundingly brilliant in its sheer absurdity: Patton sings a hilarious tale of masturbation, backed up by the band's own version of porno music. If you think that idea sounds funny, wait until you hear the song; it's even funnier than you can imagine.
Based on everything I've written above, and what everyone below me has written, one might conclude that this band and album are not for normal, well-adjusted people. However, I disagree. Mr. Bungle's genre-rejecting style may seem intimidating at first, but they reconcile their sound's apparent contradictions so well that I think anyone with an open mind and a fully functioning sense of humor could enjoy it. Hell, even my fiance enjoyed a few of the songs on this album when I played them for her (or at least she said she did).
I'd try to write a concluding paragraph right now, but I'm kinda sick of typing and if you're not convinced by now after what I and a few dozen others have written on this site, you're not going to be. But if what you've read sounds good, please don't hesitate to pick up this album. It's an experience everyone should have at least once.
Free Music Review: Turn it on, tune it in and drop out of your sanity.
Hit: 5 Stars
I have been curious about this recording ever since I first heard about it around 1990 (?) or so. I was reluctact to try it because I had gotten word that the lead singer was Mike Patton, and the only thing I knew about him at the time was that he sang for Faith No More, and I didn't exactly consider Faith No More an artistically creative outlet (my respect for them has greatly increased since joining the mental Bungle circus train). Finally, I was persuaded to hear it at my local music store after reading the one comment here on Amazon that says "This may very well be the most sinister music I have ever heard in my life." Now I'm not necessarily into SINISTER music, but I love music that challenges and charges my emotions, and the idea of funk and metal mixed with circus music in oddly demonic ways intrigued me. I can't begin to tell you how much the cover of the CD still has the power to make me cringe. As for the contents, all the reviews in the world can't begin to prepare you for how frantic and fun this album really is. It swirled all about my head and filled my brain in a zonked hippy haze that kept me charged for days afterward. One thing I also want to point out here (no offense meant to anyone who said that these songs can't be called "songs", because I see exactly what you mean! :) is that if you know about musical structure and study these compositions REALLY close, they do have a strong, carefully thought out structure...a wild structure, sure, but these guys knew exactly what they were doing in assembling these songs right from the beginning. No mere novice out there could take bits and pieces of different music, slap them together, and come out with exactly this combination of elements. The really amazing thing here, as I'm sure all the other fans of this album here agree, is that this music was all done WITH NO EDITING! At ALL! They did NOT splice this stuff together, they are so talented that they have the natural ABILITY to switch musical gears in a split second to play something completely different! That is REAL talent, and never before would I have guessed what a musical genius Patton is or how varied his vocal skills are. It's no wonder they are now considered in the same league as Zorn (who co-produced this first one here) and now are respected as genuine musical ARTISTS and not just performers. I can't overpraise this album enough, I'll just say, hey, listen to everyone here who has said that you should try this album if you're sick of all the Top 10 stuff out there. Oh, and by the way, the album features a song (the closest one to sounding "traditionally structured" but still wildly different) which is a load of fun and one of the most delightfully catchy little pieces I've ever heard, "The Girls of Porn". I swear, I play that song and "Squeeze Me Macaroni" to DEATH in my van's stereo and the music is so delightfully goofy and fun (and the lyrics are often hilarious) that they put me in a great mood even when I'm feeling down in the dumps. Check it OUT, man...!Free Music Review: Mr. Bungle is LEGIT.
Hit: 5 Stars
I remember the first time I ever heard Mr. Bungle. I was hanging out in front of the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma California (they have probably played there more than any other venue) where some strange kind of circus-funk music was being blasted out of a car parked out front. It was so outrageous I could not help but take a special interest in it. I asked my friends who were not feeling it quite as much as I was if they knew what it was and they told me it was probably GWAR and not to pay any attention to it. I could not keep my attention off of it though. I dug deep into my bank of musical knowledge and figured out of any band it was probably Mr. Bungle. I had never actually heard Mr. Bungle but I knew of them from being a casual listener of Faith No More for a few years and recognized Mike Patton's voice. I had never given Mr. Bungle the time of day though. I always dismissed them as Mike Patton's other band with a weird name that I would probably never like. (...)
It was not until a few months later that I actually got around to buying the album though. I was in Amoeba in Berkeley and could not think of what to buy. I thought long and hard about what would be funky enough for my tastes and remembered the fateful day out in front of the Phoenix and picked the album up for $8. Eight dollars well spent. I was quite confused the first time I heard it though. The only thing I was concerned about was hearing the one song that said 666 and talked about masturbating. This song turned out to be "The Girls of Porn" which I took a liking to for being outrageously funky. A few more listens revealed the true genius of the album's entirety though. I soon became addicted to the album and was could not stop talking about how prowd I was to finally be a fan of Mr. Bungle. It is the kind of music that takes such deep thought to truely understand even though the subject matter shouldn't appeal to any one older than 10. The album is so raw at times, so funky in others, and at other times a little too strange to be true. I nearly lose my mind every time I hear the funky breakdowns in "Dead Goon" and I can not think of a better song to mosh your ass off to than "Quote Unquote". "My Ass is On Fire" blows my mind more than anything else on the album. It's like Primus from hell if that makes any sense. Bottom line is these guys are legit and they rock my world. The production alone is reason enough to buy this album. They may be weird and unaccessable but goddamn these guys are legit.
One last thing. If you have reviewed this album or any of the other fine Mr. Bungle recordings and gave it one star for being too out there, you should not have ever listened to this band to begin with. This band does not exist to be heard on the radio or seen on TV. Ive said it before and I will say it again, this band is legit, they are for real, they are not trying to appeal to anybody. So if you're the kind of person that does not want to put anything into your music and just wants the artist to give you what you want, Mr. Bungle is not for you. (...)
Free Music Review: Complete Aural Insanity On A 5-Inch CD For Your Convenience
Hit: 5 Stars
Unlike most people here, I did not pop this CD into my player and instantaneously pass out or begin having fits of ecstasy. I was also far too young and naive back in 1991 to even know this album existed, and therefore investigated it only recently due to glowing reviews and a personal love of Faith No More. I was surprised, to say the least.See, I expected a collage of nearly unlistenable, profane, garbage pieced together in an experimental, haphazard, or non-traditional manner, hailed as `progressive' by genuinely weird people looking to be different. Uh, no. Actually, what I found was a VERY listenable, VERY catchy, VERY unique, amalgam of musical styles, samples, and unusual lyrics resulting in an amazing work of musical genius. Boy, was I impressed.
Tracks begin and end in a random manner, usually ending with a sample or something, but not necessarily. Within each, the music might jump from piledriving metal to smooth jazz, to quiet electronica, raucous funk, or upbeat ska. Video game loops and random samples noodle in and out of the mix, as guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, saxophones, bells, whistles, and the manic vocal stylings of Vlad Drac(Mike Patton) burst out over top of it all. He does everything from growling, squealing, rapping, croaking, crooning, talking like a retard, barking like a dog, and more, all in his Real Thing-style vocal prime. Needless to say, this affected FNM to the point that Angel Dust came out a year after this with so much Bungle influence that it was a different style than The Real Thing.
Memorable moments? Look at these:
The keyboard-laden circus-styled riff jumping to laid-back jazz phrase in "Quote Unquote," a song about a man who has nothing but a nose,
The thrash riff and Defecation Man sample in "Slowly Growing Deaf,"
The fast-paced food orgy lyrics in "Squeeze Me Macaroni,"
The awesome ska and "Will WB put this record on the shelf?" lyric switch in "Carousel,"
The low-quality train-boarding sample and philosophical lyrics in "Egg,"
The waltz-to-polka intro in "Stubb (A Dub),"
The `redundant' line and title of "My Ass Is On Fire," a song about an ass on fire,
The crazy perverted lyrics and music of "Girls Of Porn," a song about porn girls,
The squealing sax and hardcore-shout chorus of "Love Is A Fist,"
And finally, the progressive circus music of "Dead Goon."
A true kaleidoscope of musical insanity and creativity, breaking the rules and making new ones on the way. It's not atonal by any means, with plenty of catchy goodness, sing-a-long passages, and memorable, wacky, and hilarious moments. It might take a few listens to digest, just don't force yourself. You'll come back to it eventually. It's a crowning achievement in music.
The album begins with 30 seconds of silence, and that's all the rest your senses really get...
Free Music Review: Manic brilliance.
Hit: 5 Stars
Usually when I tell people that this is one of my favorite albums ever by anyone, they usually raise their eyebrows and tell me I'm weird and that Mr. Bungle is stupid.But eh...what do they know? I can think of few albums that combine such far-reaching stylistic influences with this kind of deranged songwriting genius. Mr. Bungle's self-titled album combines every style under the sun, siphoning it through a dizzying kaleidoscope of demonic circus music. It's wild and seemingly out of control --- the first time I heard it I thought it was entertainingly comical but a mess in any case. Songs jump all over the place and leave the listener in the middle of nowhere without a map.
Mike Patton, known on this album as Vlad Drac, gives one of the most brilliantly insane vocal performances ever on this record. His singing styles run from lightning fast vocal riffs ("Squeeze Me Macaroni" still amazes me), bleeding-throat screams, sonorous croons, or anything else you can think of. A lot of people consider him the most remarkable vocalist in all of rock and...well, sometimes it's hard to disagree. The rest of the band is blessed with killer chops demanded of music this aggressively nuts.
If the album were all about stunning performances and craziness, it would be impressively amusing but not astonishing. What makes the album so enduring is the sheer polish behind the writing and arrangements. The album is far too much to put together in one listen, but everything is so incredibly well put together that before long one cannot deny the sick intelligence here. It hops from metal to jazz to doo wop to punk to circus music to Disney-like themes to funk to video game soundbytes to...well, you get the idea. These transitions between genre occur with no audible seam and even after listening to this record countless times I am amazed by how well this band ties it all together. And frankly, I think the lyrics are pure genius too -- "Squeeze Me Macaroni" fills the act of eating into something drenched with sexual metaphors. "Stubb (A Dub)" is the classically morbid story of a dying dog. "Egg" is philosophy a la Bungle. Even "The Girls of Porn" hard not to love -- it's absolutely dirty but Patton's whiny vocal makes it oddly endearing somehow.
This is no novelty disc that loses its thrills quickly. There is long term appeal to be found in this music. Too bad they only release albums every four years or so.