mr bungle broke up :(

"Clown funk bullshit" is probably the best description of Mr. Bungle possible given the limitations of the English language.

My favorite band when I was 13/14. That lasted 'til I was about 18. I got into a real Mike Patton kick. Then I just stopped listening and haven't been able to even deal with the idea of his personality/voice.

I was reading Mark Prindle's site last night, though, and ended up DLing the early tapes (OU818, Bowel of Chiley). The embarrassing thing is that I was singing along to "Squeeze Me Macaroni" in no time.

is the story of the Bungles/Melvins show in Anaheim in 1992 anywhere on ILM? It's probably the best story of a concert ever that I happened to attend.

Details?

Don't know if I'm allowed to say, but Ned interviewed Buzzo and Dale very recently for a piece, and Ned asked about that show, and Buzzo's synopsis kinda sums it up. However, I don't want to give away something that might yet to be published.

rosebud is a sled, let's have it.

http://www.pattonmad.com/Mr%20Bungle/MrBungleBootlegTradingList.htm

lol, the Anaheim 1992 show is available. I'm very very tempted.

Looks like the story disappeared from ILM.

Anyway, Mr. Bungle are touring for their first album. They have a show lined up at the Celebrity Theater in Anaheim CA (in O.C.) It's their ONLY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SHOW (at the time), so tons of people come to see Bungle at a place that normally books Kenny G., Loretta Lynn, etc. (I think the place is now a House Of Blues.) Anyway, it's 1992. Despite the fucking canon, FUNKMETAL is alive and well, despite the peaks of Sub Pop, Boner, Amrep, etc. being alive and well too. Bungle are touring with this band Grotus, but Melvins are touring too, and Bungle being big Melvins fans invite them to be openers for this show. (This is a Joe Preston era show fwiw.)

I missed Grotus when I arrived, but it seemed the crowd was just sitting there waiting for their "clown funk bullshit" (phrase still major lolz). Melvins go on. It seems like only 17 people in the audience out of hundreds knew who Melvins where. I went with two friends who were one of those 17. Ned and his friend Jason were another two. (I would meet Ned for the first time months later. And then the rest is history <3 <3 <3 and all that.)

Anyway, Melvins are fucking great. They do stuff from Lysol, Bullhead, Ozma, Eggnog, etc. pretty much the peaks of those albums. the entire fucking audience boos the Melvins loudly because, you know, they're really dour and slow and not clown funk bullshit. As the boos get louder, Melvins become slower. At the end of the set, an onslaught of garbage goes in the direction of the Melvins leaving the stage. Dale comes back to the back and says "Mr. Bungle says fuck you" just to piss off the audience even more.

Anyway, apparently from backstage, Patton saw the booing and got really riled up. Buzzo reports that Mike took the Bungle set list, took a marker, and wrote in big letters on it "TONIGHT THEY WILL PAY".

OK, the Bungle set.

The band begin standing still doing a Melvins type track for at least 10 minutes. Patton under mask sits there waving his microphone doing nothing the entire 10+ minutes.

Basically the band did every amazing thing possible that was NOT on their one and only album. They did pretty much all their working versions of Disco Volante songs, in addition to an Alan Parsons Project cover, and a really early Negativland cover from the first album that has a really unsettling stereo pan of a preacher. The band stood still as some backing tape played this stereo fuckery in the background. Basically, it was the most amazing fuck you show I've ever seen.

The audience is trying to get into it, but their patience is heavily tried, becoming more ornery as an hour passes, and this spectacle of a set continues to go in all directions but the one the audience actually wants.

Only toward the end did they actually introduce a song from the first album, "Travolta", which is greeted with HUGE applause, like an communal unlocked constipation and being unwaterboarded. "FINALLY". So they do that, and another -- "Ass On Fire". During one of the songs, Patton initiates a total fratboy call and response thing.

Mike: "OK REPEAT AFTER ME... I LOVE BEER!"
Audience: "I LOVE BEER!"
Mike: "MICH-E-LOB"
Audience: "MICH-E-LOB"
(this goes on a little bit)
Mike: "I.. LOVE.. THE MELVINS! :-D"
Audience: "I LOVE THE, the, ur, Mel..."
Mike: "HAW HAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAWHAW!"

..song finishes, ends. Bungle retreats.

At this point, the audience has only begun to be riled up! I mean, they did two songs from the album! They're going to finish up the rest in the encore, surely. Right? Right?

They come out to do their encore. They don't do an album song. Audience is kinda wondering what the fuck. Then, excepting much of the band, the band suddenly stops playing except the drummer. The drummer notices that everyone else stopped, so he stops. The band turn around and all look at the drummer. The drummer, even though he was wearing a mask, had the most desperate "HOLY SHIT" look on his face. The band start screeching "HAPPEEE BIIIIRRRRFDAAAAAAY TO YOU". At that point, the drummer gets the fuck off his drumset and starts running for his fucking life. The rest of the band quickly catch up, proceed the beat the living shit out of him, the big curtains close, end of encore. Thanks for coming kthxbye.

Except for the 17 extremely blown away fans aforementioned, hundreds of fans of clown funk bullshit were supremely bummed that night.

Ned blogged a detailed play-by-play of this also:
http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/a-little-story-about-the-melvins-mr-bungle-and-me/

Amazing.

And yes that show bootleg is well worth it.

I’ve never listened to Mr. Bungle because of their terrible name Mike Patton is overrated.

I won't defend Mike Patton, but overlooking Mr. Bungle because of him is overlooking something entirely differejt.

i'm just kidding, i've heard the bungle records. still not a fan though.

I would never listen to a song by this band because of their name.

-- Spencer Chow, Friday, July 13, 2007 9:22 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^total douchebag thing to say,

Eh, I felt the same way about Death Cab For Cutie.

The best thing about DCFC is their name, because it is a (Sir) Viv Stanshall quote.

hey, at least DCFC isn't as bad as Cute Is What We Aim For.

listening to the first album, having a blast

ok we're about two minutes into 'egg' and i wanna take a garden spade to a large wooden table in bacchanal celebration

anusdei9 (3 weeks ago) -4 Reply | Spam
u think this shite is difficult music?ceck out atrox or madder mortem or dream theater if u want to hear something original loser.

tru2daflu (2 weeks ago) 0 Reply | Spam
did i say it was difficult. i said different. madder mortem to me sounds like cradle of filth with a female vocalist. dream theater sounds like a shitty hair band version of H.I.M. the thing about music is it is all opinion you can't make it fact that what you listen to is better than what others listen to. i will agree with you about atrox though they are very good.

anusdei9 (2 weeks ago) -2 Reply | Spam
hahahaha madder mortem sounds like cradle of filth?and dream theater like h.i.m.?yes it's definitive.you are deaf.get your ears checked.

tru2daflu (2 weeks ago) -1 Reply | Spam
i said hair band version of H.I.M. my ears are fine but thank you for your concern.

anusdei9 (2 weeks ago) 0 Reply | Spam
if someone says that dream theater sounds like any version of h.i.m. and madder mortem sounds like cradle of filth..well that person's ears are certainly nor ok.actually i admire you.deafness must be horror.my respect seriously!

signupaccountforme (1 week ago) +1 Reply | Spam
Mike Patton does get a whole lot of recognition because he makes a whole lot of "real" music. I don't know if you've heard of a little band called Faith No More, but they were one of the most influential bands of the nineties. Now he's in so many other bands like Fantomas, Tomahawk, Peeping Tom, and heaps more. They are all completely different, insanely creative and "real".
Just because Dream Theater play fast, does not mean they are good - they're hideously bad.

utuber351 (2 weeks ago) 0 Reply | Spam
Dream theater is great i must agree

mageskillquick (2 weeks ago) +3 Reply | Spam
lol!! dream theater fucking suck dude, no where near as good as bungle.

nonserviamreviews (1 week ago) +4 Reply | Spam
depends on how you look at it. Dream Theater are extremely talented and could play circles around Mr Bungle. On the other hand, Mr Bungle are MUCH more creative and in my opinion they are better song writers. I'd sure rather listen to Mr Bungle, but I don't think they could play what Dream Theater plays to save their lives.

TheCollector18 (1 week ago) +3 Reply | Spam
DT's members aren't half the musicians the members of Mr Bungle are. Yes, I hate DT but i'm trying to not let that influence my opinion. Yes, DT's member are very 'technically' talented but Mr Bungle's members are absolutely amazing

nonserviamreviews (1 week ago) +1 Reply | Spam
but saying "absolutely amazing" is COMPLETELY subjective. Fact is, each band has their strengths, Bungle's is in creativity and DT's is in technicality. Neither one is better than the other, it is all up to opinion. Personally, I have a good amount of respect for every member of DT, save for the super generic singer, but I would much rather listen to Bungle any day of the week (I am at the moment in fact).

tru2daflu (5 days ago) 0 Reply | Spam
dream theater isn't my favorite band in the world but what mr bungle can't play compared to dream theater they make up in creativity and that is what floats my boat. make a list of bands that sound like mr. bungle and a list that sounds like dream theater and see which list is bigger.

TS: Dream Theater vs. Mr Bungle

that isn't even a contest ffs, dream theater vs. HIM far more OTM

disco volante vinyl repress:
http://www.auralexploits.com/product_5994.htm

this is pretty cool. I always kicked myself for passing on this back in tha day.

The secret track being in the middle of the third track of Disco Volante always makes me soooo happy.

just wanted to say that HI DERE was/is right about Stubb (A Dub)

Everyone needs to scroll back and read (or re-read!) the Mackro/Ned stories about the Celebrity Theater show.

That is the best possible way I could fritter away the remaining hour of this Friday afternoon. Those stories are a fucking treat.

By the way, vote for Bungle in J4gger's 1990s album poll.

I will! completely forgot about that, thanks.

remembering the existence of Mr Bungle is the single biggest spanner in the works of my own ballot

like, there's THREE legitimately brilliant albums to vote for ON TOP OF the eight or nine I'd been carefully prepping

given that disco volante is towards the upper third of my top three albums of all time, I'm guessing I might squeeze it in somewhere...

dude I have my all-time top 5* jockeying for position, more or less

*give or take Still Life, On Land And In The Sea, Blood Inside and Spirit Of Eden

louis, you know i love you, but i can't believe i opened this thread for these worthless posts

this is that thing again isn't it

the thing where i bump a thread for meaningless praise ¬_¬

"i can't believe i opened this thread for these worthless posts"

typing this out every time it's justified will give you serious RSI.

^^^ truthiest of truth bombs

Are you going to vote for Bungle in Jaggers little poll, whiney?

Disco Volante is one of my faves ever, but there's prolly like 50 rap albums I'd put above it

What about Sailing the Seas of Cheese?

maybe like 15 years ago

The glorious funk-metal revolution of 2011 is gonna bite you in the ass, man.

primus and mr bungle are so much more than funk-metal

oh shit sorry another useless post

"California" is such a pretty and exciting album.

read thread as "my bunghule broke up :("

one day I will work out what the best Mr Bungle album is, but that day is not today

IMO it's not the first one.

I'd agree with that if I hadn't been caning the first one pretty hard today - although some of their moral decisions are questionable at best on that one