b o b

When this album first came out, a lot of people were saying it was even better than Disco Volante, and since that's one of my all-time favorite albums, I raced out and bought California. Maybe the high expectations set me up for a fall, but I don't like this disc quite as much as Disco. It has the band's trademark shifting and bending of musical genres (usually several times in each song), and the dark lyrics and frequently twisted vocals. But where the previous album mixed metal with all sorts of other styles of music and tried to see how "out there" they could get it, this one seems to be primarily a mix of metal with surf rock and Beach Boys-style pop. Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of other influences and surprises, but the surf thing kind of puts me off. I've never been much of a fan of the Beach Boys, and Mr. Bungle just shouldn't sound this... accessible. That said, California is still worth picking up. There are parts of the album that stay in my head for hours, like the chorus of "Sweet Charity" and the extreme stereo panning of "Air-Conditioned Nightmare". "Ars Moriendi" is another good track, sounding like a Hamster Theater album played at 78 speed - it would have been right at home on Disco Volante. Then there's "Pink Cigarette", which is probably the most conventional sounding song on the album, until you realize it's not really a love song, it's a suicide note. The closer, "Goodbye Sober Day" seems like a bouncy drinking song at first ("Goodbye sober day, hello milky way"), but then the music goes berserk and a closer inspection of the lyrics reveals what could be an anti-drug message. If you've never heard any Bungle and want to ease your way into their music, this might be a good place to start. But I'd recommend diving in head first with Disco Volante. Either way, get those two before the band's self-titled first album. review by Bob Eichler — 5-4-04 —

n i c k

Through out the course of their three major label releases, Mr. Bungle’s aesthetic has been to not do the same thing twice. There was a jarring shift in tone and atmosphere between Mr. Bungle’s first major label release, and their second album, Disco Volante. With this major shift in sound, Mr. Bungle lost many of the fans it had gained through Mike Patton’s association with Faith No More. With California, Mr Bungle seemed to have had the desire to shed their Downtown New York/Avant Rock crowd that they gained through their association with John Zorn. However, before you experimental rock fans run screaming for cover, just remember that like Frank Zappa before them, Mr. Bungle has sought only to make music on their terms. Perhaps California could best be described as Mr Bungle’s vision of classic California pop sound and of California herself. Anyone familiar with Mr Bungle would, and should not expect anything typical from them, and California is no exception. Just as wildly experimental as Disco Volante, California applies the former’s sense of rambunctious experimentalism to more concise song formats. California is also one of the last big analog recording projects done in rock music as it was recorded with two synced 24 track tape recorders. This obviously lends the album a sprawling, warm sound, capturing the California vibe perfectly. Throughout the album, Mr. Bungle manage to simultaneously pay tribute and parody classic popsters like Burt Bacharach and Brian Wilson. It’s one of those fine lines that only a group as talented as Mr. Bungle could walk. Of course, this being Mr. Bungle, there are about a million other musical influences under the sun to be heard on California; everything from funk, metal, eastern Mediterranean melodies, to kecak. California kicks off with “Sweet Charity”, one of the more affecting songs on the album. This track, the most obvious nod to Bacharach displays once again Mr. Bungle’s talent for combining two seemingly contradictory elements. “Sweet Charity” sounds by turns ironic and heartfelt. The song is punctuated by many abrupt changes in rhythm and production, however, instead of rendering the tune hard to follow, these changes add to the drama and emotional dynamic of the song. “None of Them Knew They Were Robots” is Satanic rockabilly. The track is marked by some killer rockabilly style guitar licks, and the cartoon sound explosions we’ve come to expect from Mr. Bungle. Making literary and theological references, “Robots” lyrics compare religious dogma to scientific reductionism and how both can cloud our understanding of the universe. “Retrovertigo” is perhaps one of the more simple songs of the Mr. Bungle catalog, however, in this case simple doesn’t mean boring, as this parody/tribute to power ballads still contains a number of Mr. Bungle’s oddball harmonies. “Air Conditioned Nightmare” runs the gamut of California surf music from metallicized Dick Dale to Smile-era Beach Boys styled balladry, all in the course of a four minute song. Other highlights of California include “The Holy Filament” (dealing with much the same subject matter as “None of Them Knew”) and “Goodbye Sober Day.” While not every track lives up to the exacting standards of those I’ve just named, there is not a dud in the whole bunch. California is an album by a band who refuse to be constrained by style and expectations. review by Nick Paluzzi — 4-27-04 —

b r a n d o n

Mike Patton is one fucked-up dude. With Faith No More as a notable (and only partial, really) exception, every little bit of his musical output has been, for lack of a better term, totally wack. Even better, he's been able to get his weirdness out into the public eye - if not quite the mainstream - thanks, in fact, to the very success of Faith No More. It's a wonder that Mr. Bungle, in all its eclectic, disturbing, insane glory, is as well-recognized a band as it is. What's amazing about California - and what sets it apart from the previous two Mr. Bungle albums - is that despite its utter refusal to conform to expectations, it still manages to be surprisingly accessible. California is, in fact, nothing if not consistently melodic; and even more, its melodies are hardly foreign or even particularly weird. Instead, it's the juxtaposition of entirely dissimilar musical styles (and the melodies that go with said styles) that gives California its edgy weirdness. Any given song on this album may vacillate spastically between doo-wop, 50s crooning, heavy metal, surf, big-band, lounge, prog, video game music, gamelan... sometimes in the space of just a few measures. The only exception is "Retrovertigo", which is weirdly straightforward. Take "Ars Moriendi", for example: its starts with some Eastern melodies punctuated by intermitted metal riffing, then swings into a goofy big-band section interspersed with accordion soloing. Before long it disintegrates into thrash-metal alternated with (or filtered through) circus music, and continues in that vein for the rest of the song, transitioning constantly between styles to create a nervous, spastic, and, uh, clinically insane feel. The gem has to be the closer, though - "Goodbye Sober Day" is a truly brilliant amalgam of a song, mixing metal, surf, gamelan, and various uncategorizable things into a masterful finale. Its bouncy keyboard melody gives way to Middle-Eastern chant which soon gives way to furious kecak-style rhythmic chanting - think Jon Anderson in "Soundchaser", only much more frantic and backed by a kick-ass guitar crunch - before reprising back to the bouncy melody and whimsical singing (which contrasts sharply with the rather apocalyptic lyrics) and ending with a bang, literally. Despite its few shortcomings, this is a truly innovatively demented album that belongs on every prog fan's shelf. Somehow, Mike Patton and Co. are able to create bouncy, outwardly cheerful music that leaves a disquietingly sinister residue. It's as if this stuff so demonically refuses to conform to expectation that it's literally frightening; or as if all the bounciness is intentionally overdone so as to become sickly-sweet and rotten at the core. In that case, this is the best worm-eaten apple you've ever had. review by Brandon Wu — 4-12-04 —