Mr. Bungle released this self-titled album on August 13, 1991.
“Mr. Bungle frequently incorporated unconventional instruments into their music including tenor sax, Jew’s harp, cimbalom, xylophone, glockenspiel, clarinet, ocarina, piano, organ, bongos, and woodblocks”.
“New York Times journalist Jon Pareles described it as music that “leaps from tempo to tempo, key to key, style to style, all without warning”. Similarly critic Patrick Macdonald commented “In the middle of hard-to-follow, indecipherable noise, a relatively normal, funky jazz organ solo will suddenly drift in”.
- What do they sound like
– Metal
-Funk and Punk
-Free Jazz and Swing
-Ska and Electronica
-Folk music and Bossa Nova
-Country and Western
<span;”>-Circus Music and video game/cartoon music</span;”>
- Live Appereances
“Mr. Bungle were known for their characteristically unconventional stage shows, where the band members would dress up in costumes and masks. In the early stages of their career they would often wear a uniform of mechanic’s jumpsuits along with masks such as Madonna, Richard Nixon, Darth Vader, an executioner’s hood, or plastic clown or gimp masks.”Often the theme was related to California with palm tree props and the band members wearing beach party outfits including Hawaiian shirts and khaki pants. Occasionally, the band would simply appear in black suits with white dress shirts or dress up in chef costumes, cowboy suits, or as the Village People.” – Source
For Movie Fanatics: “Samples from David Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet are strewn throughout the album. And it’s publicly known that Mike Patton would like to compose music or design the whole soundtrack to one of David Lynch’s future projects.”- Source
Travolta (Quote/Unquote): One of the album’s favorite songs for it’s weird avant-garde/funk attitude. The band had some legal problems while naming the song Travolta, which was changed to “Quote/Unquote” (the name of an unofficial biography of the actor) at the request of Warner Brothers. Rating: 9.5/10
Slowly Growing Deaf: I love how funk related to metal with the plain experimental punk-like attitude. This is perfect for a first time Mr. Bungle listener, although some experimental background is needed for a person to appreciate the abstract aspect of the song and the artist. The final minute of the song requires some good old headphones to simply listen to the… vomiting?
Rating: 9/10
Squeeze Me Macaroni: Starts very funky with some appreciated saxophone invasion along with every possible element of funk. It sounds like Red Hot Chili Peppers had gone experimental. Love the weird ass vocals and the saxophone-guitar riffs-slap bass coordination. It’s simply awesome and refreshing, as they move along the song’s weird parts. Great stuff right in the middle, extremely creative and funny. Always listen to the outro on each song, usually they are very experimental and they contain the David Lynch cuts.
Rating: 9/10
Squeeze Me Macaroni Lyrics: Ronald McDonald just loves to be fondled With Big Mac he’ll fuck it like a Chicken McNugget Colonel Sanders wants to goose Granny’s loose caboose He’s gonna give her a boost with that Kentucky fried juice Sooper doop poop scoop, loop de loop, chicken coop Shoot some hoop, top sirloin from the groin Topped with dick cheese, sneeze, wheeze, From the skeez disease, wooi!
Carousel: Avant Garde anyone? This is a great catchy one but still without any extremely shit on it , so… it goes down in the ratings, simply because it’s Mr. Bungle >> should be weird.
Rating: 8.5/10
Egg: 11 minute song > I rest my case. This is highly flammable, extremely dangerous, watch out “slippery floor” kind of song. 1:30 into the song it gets weird and fun + disturbing. At times the beat changes to kick off a dancing like mood then after all hell breaks loose while the song fades out for 3 minutes!
Rating: 8.5/10
Stubb (a dub): Loved this one, very catchy and experimental in a unusual focused way, with lots of folky stuff and “dub” stuff. Mike Patton pulls a great vocals job on this one.
Rating: 9/10
My Ass is on Fire: Technical funk/weird metal anyone? Amazing song from Patton being the annoying person that he is through distorted vocals and screams. This song screams Avant Garde and Patton replies “Its not funny, my ass is on fire”. My favorite on the album so far, despite that it is 8 minutes long. It gets very disturbing at the very end, which is great to listen to on earphones!
Rating: 10/10!
Girls of Porn: Also a funky one with a infectious riff. The sax also provides the mood which strangely suited a Tim Burton movie in my opinion.
Rating: 8.5/10
Love is a Fist: It has this very modern Psychostick feel to it with the added Mr. Bungle weirdness. The song actually ends at 4:30 and after that comes a hilarious 1:30 minute talk.
Rating: 8/10
Dead Goon: As always great bass lines, and great mood on this one for sure. The band knows when to add this Hollywood 50’s like Circus freak mood, and the cartoon-ish mood which is very interesting. The song is 10 minutes long but the drums actually stop at the 5 minute mark to give away room for a moody Mr. Bungle atmosphere which happened to be soothing this time.
Rating: 9/10
