Customer Reviews

California

5 star:		(189)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Some would say this is Mr. Bungle's most normal album. But really, what does that mean? In the world of Mr. Bungle, "normal" is a relative measure. A "normal" Mr. Bungle song might still be the craziest music you've ever heard. On California, the songs maintain the backbone elements of Mr. Bungle: wacky lyrics, insane hops from style to style, and all around weirdness.

"Ars Moriendi" is pure aural insanity. What kind of song brings together Arabian melodies, gypsy music, and grindy speed metal? Why, a Mr. Bungle song, of course! This is one of their craziest songs ever, and will sit well with fans of the band's zanier moments.

How about "Pink Cigarette"? With lyrics like, "Your kiss...touches everything but me," you might think this is an emotional, sad song. NEVER! Mr. Bungle waxes the cheese big-time, with Patton's emotional histrionics and the melodramatic orchestrations being far from heartbreaking. I love it; it's amusingly cheesy because the band obviously knows it's cheesy. Patton even makes fun of the turgid "ahhhh" backing vocals that were prevalent in the 50s and 60s. This band is the best.

Mr. Bungle has been accused of not knowing the value of a song, but their versatility never ceases to amaze and they definitely know how to compose. "The Holy Filament" is a bombastic new age piece with exquisite keyboards and very lush orchestrations that ooze grandeur and magnificence. It's very...unlike most of the band's work, but it fits because there are no rules in Mr. Bungle's game.

"Goodbye Sober Day" throws Balinese chants, lounge music, and thick-azz metal into a blender with acid and serves up a smooth mix.

Maybe because "Sweet Charity", "Retrovertigo", and "Vanity Fair" are some of the most streamlined songs the band has done, people call this one normal. Still, "None of Them Knew They Were Robots", "Golem II", and "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare" are more Bunglian weirdness.

California belongs in your collection if you like your music endearingly strange.

If ever a CD was designed to be utterly fantastic then this is definately the one! After a disturbingly long period of time since 1995's surreal-yet-brilliant album, 'Disco Volante', Mr. Bungle have returned with 45 minutes of musical genius. From the first soothing melodies that introduce the record, to its cacophonous finale, 'California' is without doubt the best record of the year. Plus it further enforces the respect fans have for a band that can say "Hey, did you like our last record? Well, this new one's nothing like it!". Mike Patton is simply a joy to listen to, his range of vocal styles covering every inch of catagorisable music genres and not letting up for a split-second. The band behind him are equally phenomenal, creating songs that include a genuine love ballad with no reference to porn or sex with food! Is this the same band that released the self-titled debut record in 1991? You wouldn't guess it to hear them now. Ultimately this album is damn amazing, blowing me away more than any Faith No More (Mike Patton's other band that have now split) album has - a feat that I definately expect from Mr. Bungle! God bless them all!!

"California" is a stunning record-- breezy, harmony laden, off kilter music, embracing and disgarding dozens of genres. In many ways, it also for me appears to be the most heavily influenced by Mike Patton. His penchant for theatrical and somewhat overblown (not necessarily a bad thing) comes out pretty heavily in this one. Mind you, I approach this from a drastically different standpoint than many others-- I came to Patton from John Zorn and am a huge Beach Boys fan, and in many ways, this sort of sounds like the two of them were the peak influences. Take "Air-Conditioned Nightmare", with its syncopated, vocal driven rhythms, bringing up and disgarding genres with an ease that only John Zorn seems to manage well.

Overall, the album feels like a psychotic lounge record-- its a number of ballad forms that dominate the record, but they're all really engaging and worth repeated listens-- check out "Sweet Charity", the brilliant "Retrovertigo" (if Patton's singing at the chorus doesn't stop you in your tracks, I don't know what will), or "Pink Cigarette". Mind you, the emphasis on ballads shouldn't distract from other great song fomrs, the album dives into the totally bizarre on pieces like "None of Them Knew They Were Robots" and "Golem II: The Bionic Vapour Boy", maintaining a stunning level of quality.

As if this wasn't enough, the Brian Wilson influence exerts in the production too-- the album has that same sort of Phil Spector/Brian Wilson lush wall-of-sound genius production vibe that you really don't get anymore.

In the end, the record is brilliant, start to finish. Its a shame we'll probably never see anything else from this ensemble (details are sketchy, but my guess is that Patton and Spruance are unwilling or unable to reach anything resembling common ground on either a personal or musical level anymore). Highly recommended.

There are three types of people who won't like this album:

1) Fans of Bungle's eponymous first album (or ealier demos) who were desperately hoping Disco Volante was a "period" and that they'd eventually return to their old ways. Well, not on this album, which owes more to the Beach Boys than to early 90s funk-metal.

2) Fans of Disco Volante, who would be enormously disappointed to learn that after that brilliant expermental piece, the boys in Bungle are back to doing actual songs again, and what's worse, vaguely friendly ones at that.

3) People who'd heard that Mr. Bungle finally released a "pop" album, but will find to their dismay that the album is still just too "weird" for their spoonfed tastes.

Everybody else-- old fans, new fans, and people who still think Mr. Bungle was just some short on Pee-Wee's Playhouse alike, should be able to get into at least a song or two on this album. The people decrying it as "commerical" obviously have forgotten exactly how bland and hackneyed real commercial music is. This album is perhaps a little easier to digest than anything else this band has done, but don't take that to mean that it is easy to listen to.

Is it the band's best album? That depends on your personal tastes. Is it unquestionably brilliant and a must-have? Yes.

I purchased the self-titled debut when it first came out. I wasn't ready. I took it out of my tape player and allowed it to grow dusty in my bins. In it's place, I put in whatever Rock band of the moment I was into. You guys got me though. I've been a huge fan of Faith No More's jazzy, easy listening tunes. I was frustrated with FNM's breakup, and I was trying to find some way to continue to hear the brilliance of Mike Patton. After reading all that had been said on this board, I not only plugged the self-titled tape back into my tape player, but I went out and bought California...WOW! Upon first listen, Air-Conditioned Nightmare blew me away, and the more I listened to it the more I got into the other songs. All the compliments have been listed below, if you're even slightly intrigued, but let me say one thing...if you're more interested in art than simple songs, Mr. Bungle's California is the album you've been searching for all along...I cannot believe this album hasn't gone multi-platnium. I don't know who this incriminates; Warner Bros? The people who would rather hear the Backstreet Boys or Mariah Carey or Britney Spears? Or possibly Mr. Bungle themselves for maintaining such a low profile? I have no idea...But my confusion stems from the incredible quality found on this album!

Well, If you're reading this, I'm guessing you've heard Mr. Bungle before. If not.....well, sorry, no words can describe it. Imagine Middle Eastern Music, Jazz, Polka, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Rock, Swing, and lounge, all wrapped up into one song. Still interested? I just bought their third release, California, and so far I think it might just be their best. Of course, I can't really say that because all Mr. Bungle albums take time to truly digest. But so far its great, and I'm sure It will only get better. One thing I'm happy to see missing on this album is the death Metal sound. It was funny and clashing (which is good under the circumstances) on Disco Volante, but still got a little cheesy and sounded very dated. I don't know maybe I'm just not into it. I prefered songs like Chemical Marriage and Ma meeshka Mow Skwoz....And thats more of the direction this album moves in. This album continues with Mr. Bungle's classic satire. But despite the irony, there is still a very sincere beauty to these songs. It really is an amazing combination. If you enjoyed either of the previous albums, I definately suggest it, because it combines the best of both worlds. And If you've never heard them......well, no promises; it's not for everyone. If you like zappa, you might like it....but then again you might not. There really is no other group to compare them to .

A brilliant album, of course. But like the notorious vinyl reissue of the first Bungle album, this is not a good purchase. The mastering is extremely quiet; I found I had to turn the volume to nearly twice the level that my turntable normally requires, and because of that, the sound distorts. Some might say that this is necessary because of the way the album was recorded (multi-tracked, full-frequency, etc), but I don't think this is the case. It's a shame, because this album was clearly destined for vinyl (ten songs in 45 minutes, the 60s-style cover, etc). Warner Bros. should have done it themselves back in 1999, but oh well.

I confess I discovered Mike Patton?s work quite late in life.
I was a Hiphop junkie and couldn?t be bothered to listen
to other music.
The bad thing is realizing how much great music you ve been missing out on.
The great thing is finding out how much great music you ve been missing out on.

And in the case of Mike Patton, he is a workhorse, a one-man genre, and discovering him made me discover 3 of my all time favourite bands and favourite albums.

First Angel Dust blew me away. Faith No More lifted a giant middle finger to the industry after the poppy Real Thing
with an album that set beauty and terror on a head on collision.
Incredible.
Next , after devouring FNM albums, I decided to give Tomahawk a try. Not thinking it could come close to FNM, but what the heck.
Mit Gas blew my mind. Its still my favorite adrenaline rush,
replacing FNM MTV videoclip colourfulness with whiskey soaked blood stained rusty leather guitar strings strangling an abused radio transmitter..

Next up was Mr. Bungle. Didn?t expect much of these guys. Thought of them as the singer?s college band, that he basically kept humouring in-between breaks from his real band FNM.

You can imagine the shock and awe I was in as I laid belly up
with the headphones up to 10 listening to California first few cuts.
All the while thinking.."Better listen to this again tomorrow when I sober up a bit, because this can?t be that good":
but it is.

California blew my mind harder than anything I?ve heard since I was like 15. The perfect twisted pop album. Its easier to mention the one cut I don?t care for too much, "Vanity Fair", than run down the list of highlights, because this album is a mayhem of genius and talent.

California Uber Allesch


P.S. How ANYONE could seriously give this album anything less than 5 stars is beyond me. What does it take to impress you?? The hand of God on guitar, Buddha on bass and Muhammed on the drums ???

After Faith no More's demise was made official with a simple post in their website which read that the band expected to dispel all rumours that they were disbanding by,precisely, disbanding a guessing game started trying to figure out where would scattershot genius Mike Patton point his batteries to next.

As it turned out he decided to rejoin his former crew, Mr.Bungle, in order to create their best album"California" in which an endless array of styles mark presence and where the band effortlessly swings, in a matter of seconds, from one style to the other.

It all culminates in one of Patton's best compositions "The Air Conditioned Nightmare",a track that fuses breathtakingly heavy metal,surf,punk,lounge and even an arabic flavoring in the chorus.

Every Faith no More fan should find much to please him here as long as he's not expecting the album to be as heavy as FNM's outings but I think this record remains one of Patton's most easily approachable works (at par maybe with "The Real Thing")and at that a fine starting point for the uninitiated.

At the present moment, this is the only CD with Mike Patton on it that I own. However, I feel the urge to get more. These guys have great instrumentation ("None of Them Were Robots," "Goodbye Sober Day"), and extremely depressing lyrics that seem eerie when paired with the seemingly upbeat music ("The Air Conditioned Nightmare," "PInk Cigarette"). Pop music was almost proclaimed dead, but then I heard these guys. Mike Patton is a modern day Syd Barrett, and you will find as much insane genius here as on Piper at the Gates of Dawn. If you are fed up with all that crud on the radio, and want some GOOD music, definatly check out Mr. Bungle.

DISCLAIMER: Because of its wierdness, it may take you a few months to get accustomed to California. Once you do, you'll love it.