Mr. Bungle

Mr. Bungle are an experimental rock group from Eureka, United States, formed in 1985 while the members are still in high school. Their line-up centres on Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn, with early members including Theo Lengyel, Jed Watts, Hans Wagner and Danny Heifetz; Clinton “Bär” McKinnon joins in 1989. The group’s later live and recording work also includes Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo, and their wider member history also includes Luke Miller and Scott Fritz.

Style and development

The band is known for combining and shifting between several styles within single songs, using unconventional song structures, a wide range of instruments and samples, and frequent changes of genre. Their music is associated with alternative metal, art rock, avant-garde, avant-garde metal, experimental and experimental rock. Early recordings show that range clearly: their first demo tape, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, uses a fast, low-fi death metal approach alongside train whistle, saxophone, bongos and kazoo; later demos bring in ska, swing and funk.

Early demos and first albums

The group takes its name from Lunchroom Manners, a 1960s children’s educational film featuring a puppet called Mr. Bungle. They record four demo tapes in the late 1980s: The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, Bowel of Chiley, Goddammit I Love America! and OU818. OU818 is the first to feature Clinton “Bär” McKinnon and Danny Heifetz, and it combines earlier material with heavier new tracks.

After building a following in Northern California, Mr. Bungle sign to Warner Bros. Records. Their self-titled debut album is produced by John Zorn and released in 1991. The record mixes metal, funk, ska, carnival music and free jazz, and critics often describe it as funk metal. Its first track is renamed from “Travolta” to “Quote Unquote” after legal pressure from John Travolta, and the band makes a video for the song, although MTV refuses to show it. The album sells well despite limited radio play, and the credits use obscure aliases. The group tours North America in support of it.

Their second album, Disco Volante, appears in 1995 after delays linked to artwork and the members’ other projects. It marks a shift from the earlier label of funk metal toward avant-garde and experimental music. The album includes foreign-language vocals, abrupt genre changes, and material drawing on death metal, children’s songs and a Middle Eastern techno piece. Its influences include contemporary classical music, avant-garde jazz, Pierre Henry, Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Zappa, Krzysztof Penderecki, Ennio Morricone and Peter Thomas. The vinyl edition includes a 7-inch by Secret Chiefs 3, who are then little known. Mr. Bungle tours the United States, Europe and Australia behind the record. Theo Lengyel leaves in 1996 because of creative differences.

California follows in 1999. The band tours in 2000 to support the album.

Break-up and return

By the early 2000s the group is inactive, and in 2004 it is described as disbanded. In 2019 Mr. Bungle reunite as a thrash metal band for a series of shows, performing their 1986 demo The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny with Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo. They then return to the studio to re-record that material as a full album.

Other activity and legacy

Mike Patton also becomes the lead vocalist of Faith No More in 1989 and later co-founds Ipecac Recordings. He works in projects including Fantômas, Tomahawk and Peeping Tom, and also does film work in Firecracker and voice work for I Am Legend. Trey Spruance works with Secret Chiefs 3 and Faxed Head. Trevor Dunn performs with Fantômas and leads Trevor Dunn’s Trio Convulsant, while also playing bass with Secret Chiefs 3. Danny Heifetz plays with Secret Chiefs 3, Dieselhed, The Tango Saloon and The Fantastic Terrific Munkle. Clinton “Bär” McKinnon also plays with Secret Chiefs 3, The Ribbon Device and UMLäUT, and lives in Melbourne, Australia; Heifetz lives in Sydney, Australia.

Mr. Bungle gain a cult following and are critically acclaimed for the technical ability of the musicians, despite limited mainstream commercial success and only one music video.