From the first time I heard Mike Patton's voice on Faith No More's "Epic" I was captivated. I can't remember hearing a so-called pop singer that could change his vocal styles so quickly and effectively. After consuming the whole of "The Real Thing", I was even further blown away by "Angel Dust", wherein Patton channeled the voices of preachers, doctors, cheerleaders and the torchbearers of true perversion. It was shocking stuff, definitely not what your average 14 year old's mother was hoping he would be listening to, although who knows these days. Regardless though, I loved what I'd heard and wanted more, which led me to the message boards at Prodigy. If you know what Prodigy is, and I'm not talking about the rapper from Mobb Deep or Liam Howlett, then you know how badly I'm dating myself here, but this was before just about anyone could get on the net and if you wanted answers it was the place to go, and that's where I found out about Mr. Bungle.
Upon topical introduction, I was warned that if I expected Faith No More's sister group that I would be sorely disappointed, but I knew I had to check this stuff out, and this shit was CRAZY!!! Mr. Bungle was Patton with friends Trey Spruance on guitar, Trevor Dunn on bass, Danny Heifetz on drums, and Clinton McKinnon & Theo Lengyel on horns. There had been other members but these were the core and they brought a bizarre mix of ska, death metal, grindcore, jazz and ambient vibes to the band.
The ska vibe almost got them in trouble as Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, upon seeing FNM's "Epic" video, called Patton out for supposedly stealing his moves. Patton said he'd happily handle the threat to which Kiedis claimed he'd need to bring a posse. Well, Patton showed up outside Kiedis' apartment to accept the challenge with members of Bungle and FNM ready to shut him up. Kiedis, of course, cowered inside, instead deciding to spark a long-standing feud between the three bands. It never phased FNM or Bungle though as they continued to tour and rock it out as evidenced by their long careers, but if I had to choose which group to be afraid of it would definitely be Bungle. These guys used to dress up in horror movie masks and fake their own hanging deaths. Not to mention, if the visuals didn't get you, their creepy vibes with songs like "Love Is A Fist" and "My Ass Is On Fire" could give you nightmares.
Mr. Bungle had actually been around for a number of years prior to Patton joining Faith No More. In fact, one of his requirements for joining FNM was that he didn't have to quit Bungle. So, when FNM started achieving success on the charts offers started coming in to sign Bungle. They went with Warner Brothers, the parent label of Reprise which just so happened to be the home of FNM. Prior to this they had recorded four independently distributed demo tapes so they had a good sense of themselves, so it was no surprise when most of their debut for Warners consisted of re-recordings of older songs. Oddly enough, at least for a major label act, they hired John Zorn to contribute production to their debut. How much Zorn was involved is probably the biggest question to be asked of the first album. Much has been documented about Patton and Zorn's continued working relationship, but these rough mixes don't show much of Zorn's influence. Some of his horn can be heard on the album's final mixes but he's practically invisible on the rough mixes. So it was rather shocking when the second Bungle album sounded more like something Zorn would have produced although he was completely uninvolved.
"Disco Volante", Bungle's second album for Warners, has been called one of the biggest jokes ever played on a major label. I believe that honor goes to Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music", but DV is not remotely commercial. Patton's vocals are minimal throughout and when he is present he's reading Italian dialogue or shouting bizarre poetry. If the first album scared or confused people, this one sent them running for the hills, but if you stuck with it, as I did, it proved extremely rewarding and just as good, if not better, than their major label debut.
Featured here are rough mixes for the first, self-titled Mr. Bungle album and demos for their second album, "Disco Volante". The self-titled roughs aren't terribly different from what was officially released, but it's great for those interested in the core of the songs, especially without all the layers of samples and sound effects featured on the final versions. The highlights here are "Platypus", "Mr. Nice Guy" and "Thunderball". "Platypus" was recorded for their second Warners album, "Disco Volante", but here Patton's vocal approach is much simpler than on the DV version. "Mr. Nice Guy" was a hold-over from the last demo tape, "OU818". As for "Thunderball", it is indeed a cover the Bond movie theme, and was played frequently live at the time.
The "Disco Volante" demos, like the self-titled album rough mixes, are not all that different from the final versions but do show the band in a rougher, less polished form. The highlight is the hornless demo of "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz" in which Patton, who doesn't have much to do with the final version, proceeds to unleash a tourettes-like rant about pooing, shitting, fucking and more along with a painful cry of how terrible an instrumental song can be for a lead singer. Pretty damn funny stuff.
Mr. Bungle Stuff:
Self-Titled Album Rough Mixes
01 Platypus
02 Love Is A Fist
03 Mr. Nice Guy
04 Egg
05 The Girls Of Porn
06 Thunderball
07 Slowly Growing Deaf
08 Squeeze Me Macaroni
09 Stubb (A Dub)
10 My Ass Is On Fire
11 Travolta (Quote, Unquote)
12 Carousel
Disco Volante Demos
01 Phlegmatics
02 Carry Stress In The Jaw
03 Everyone I Went To High School With Is Dead
04 Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
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