Mr. Bungle

Mr. Bungle ruled.

Forget that they preceded Mike Patton‘s involvement in Faith No More – and if you aren’t already familiar, you really MUST begin by watching this original 1960 short film after which they are named.

Their condensed quirkiness was a catalyzing force: You could play Mr. Bungle‘s 1991 “major-label debut” self titled CD for a Pearl Jam / Stone Temple Pilots adoring friend, and that friend would (after the obligatory “that’s some weird stuff!” assessment) become a devoted Bungle fan themselves.. and thus the band’s following spread throughout the pre-internet music world.

I saw Mr. Bungle live only once.  It was a memorably vexing night of shrill sonics and disorienting nonsense: the band wore masks and exterminator jumpsuits, they played nary a lick of any familiar songs, and the whole thing was a strange smoke-clouded concert perversity.

Here’s my funny Bungle story: when I was in high school, not long after having received my  ‘OU818′ demo tape (1990) in the mail, the phone rang at my home.  When I answered “Hello?”, the reply was “Hey, Adam – this is Danny from Mr. Bungle…hey, me and some of the guys are here in Detroit catching some ballgames…and we’re looking for..like..some cheap places to stay? Thought maybe you could help us out?“…

I really thought I was onto something good when I recently re-discovered this old clipping from Jam Rag (a now defunct Michigan-based independent music zine).  And thankfully, a quick web search revealed that the entire lengthy, informative interview is readily available for you Bungle fans to read.

So what happened with that phone call?  You’ll have to understand that (at the time) I was a 16 year-old kid living at home with my parents.  So, my response to Danny Heifitz was: “Well, there’s plenty of hotels and lots of places that have cheap rooms around the city...”

Yes, I know:  I totally missed out on my chance to have Mr. Bungle sleep on the floor of my parents’ house.