Mr. Bungle (album)

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Mr. Bungle
MrBungle-MrBungle.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedAugust 13, 1991
Recorded1991 at Different Fur, San Francisco, California, United States
Genre
Length73:19
Label Warner Bros.
Producer John Zorn
Mr. Bungle chronology
OU818 (demo)
(1989)
Mr. Bungle
(1991)
Disco Volante
(1995)
Singles from Mr. Bungle
  1. "Quote Unquote"
    Released: 1991

Mr. Bungle is the debut studio album by American experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. It was released on August 13, 1991, through Warner Bros. Records. The album contains many genre shifts which are typical of the band, and helped increase the band's popularity, gaining them a cult following.

Contents

Content

The album cover features artwork by Dan Sweetman, originally published in the story "A Cotton Candy Autopsy" in the comic book series Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children .

The album mixes a variety of musical styles, including ska, circus music, heavy metal, free jazz, and funk. [2] Steve Huey AllMusic called the album's musical style a "dizzying, disconcerting, schizophrenic tour through just about any rock style the group can think of, hopping from genre to genre without any apparent rhyme or reason, and sometimes doing so several times in the same song", and Mike Patton's lyrics as "even more bizarrely humorous" and "less self-censored" than those of Faith No More. [8] Warner Bros. promoted the record as Patton's "seriously weird new project". [9]

The lyrics in the album are broad in themes, ranging from more comedic to dark or sexual. "Slowly Growing Deaf" was "inspired by the ironic need to wear earplugs while listening to music and also people’s inability to listen", according to bassist Trevor Dunn, and was later designated as part one of his "Sleep" trilogy, with the other two being featured on the band’s second album in 1995. [10] "Squeeze Me Macaroni" is a song featuring strong sexual themes being illustrated through food metaphors. "Egg" is about asociality. "Stubb (A Dub)" is about Trey Spruance's dog, Stubb. [11] "The Girls of Porn" is about pornography and masturbation. "Love is a Fist" is about domestic violence. "Dead Goon" is about an asphyxiophile whose actions lead to his accidental death.

Samples from David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet are strewn throughout the album.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [8]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal 8/10 [12]
Entertainment Weekly D− [13]
Kerrang! Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [14]
NME 1/10 [15]

The album received mixed reviews upon release. Entertainment Weekly gave the album a highly negative review, writing: "Adjectives like 'puerile' and 'unlistenable' take on entirely new dimensions when applied to Mr. Bungle". [13] In contrast, Trouser Press called it "one of the most ambitiously random, fractious records in recent memory" and "one of the finest records of its kind". [16]

Legacy

In 2015, Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer praised the album, stating: "I loved their last album, California, but their self-titled debut had the biggest impact on me. There’s a song on there called "Love Is a Fist" that's fucking crushing. That set the tone for us and what we went on to do creatively. They were completely outside the box and just didn't care – they satisfied only themselves. It wasn't about record sales, it was just about creating a band." [17]

Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold has named the album as "one of the most incredible pieces of music [he has] ever heard in [his] life". [18] In 2021, Incubus vocalist Brandon Boyd stated that he loved how "irreverent and disgusting and scary the music was" at the time. [19] Boyd and Incubus later toured with Mr. Bungle at the 2000 edition of the SnoCore Tour. When asked about the album's influence on bands such as Korn and Incubus, Spruance said in 2021, "often I feel that the public that took to this album had pre-existing mental problems that the wide distribution of the CD only exacerbated." [20]

Track listing

All songs are credited to Mr. Bungle. Actual writers below, according to ASCAP. [21]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Travolta" (retitled "Quote Unquote" on later pressings) Trevor Dunn, Danny Heifetz, Mike Patton, Trey Spruance 6:56
2."Slowly Growing Deaf"Dunn, Heifetz, Patton, Spruance, Clinton McKinnon, Theo Lengyel6:58
3."Squeeze Me Macaroni"Dunn, Heifetz, Patton, Spruance5:38
4."Carousel"Dunn, Heifetz, Patton, Spruance5:13
5."Egg"Dunn10:39
6."Stubb (A Dub)"Dunn, Heifetz, Patton, Spruance, McKinnon, Lengyel7:19
7."My Ass Is on Fire"Dunn, Heifetz, Patton, Spruance7:47
8."The Girls of Porn"Dunn, Heifetz, Patton, Spruance, McKinnon, Lengyel6:42
9."Love Is a Fist"Dunn, Spruance6:00
10."Dead Goon"Dunn, Heifetz, Patton, Spruance, McKinnon, Lengyel10:02

Three more songs ("Mr Nice Guy", "Thunderball", and "Platypus") were also recorded for the album, but were cut at the last minute; a revised version of "Platypus" would appear on the band's second album, Disco Volante.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. [22]

Mr. Bungle

Additional personnel

Technical personnel

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References

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  11. "Stubb | Faith. No Man".
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  18. "Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold / Rick Beato Interview". YouTube .
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  20. Followers, Faith No More (October 31, 2021). "Trey Spruance Halloween Interview". FNM Followers.
  21. "ACE Repertory".
  22. Mr. Bungle (liner notes). Mr. Bungle. Warner Bros. 1991. 9 26640-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  23. "MR BUNGLE". www.trevordunn.net. Retrieved October 13, 2018.