Mr. Bungle

**Mr. Bungle** is an American experimental rock band. They formed in Eureka, California, in 1985. The band is known for their eclectic style, spanning many genres, often within the course of a single song. This includes heavy metal, avant-garde jazz, ska, disco, and funk, further enhanced by frontman Mike Patton's versatile  voice. They also utilize unconventional song structures and samples, play a wide array of instruments hide their identities with costumes; and play a diverse set of cover songs during live performances.

The band was founded as a death metal project while the members were in high school. They got their name from a character in the 1960 children's educational film _Beginning Responsibility: Lunchroom Manners_. Mr. Bungle released four demo tapes in the mid-to-late 1980s. On the back of Patton's success as frontman of Faith No More, the band was signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1990. They released three studio albums of mostly experimental rock between 1991 and 1999. The band toured in 1999 and 2000 to support its third album before going on an indefinite hiatus. It was confirmed as a disbandment in 2004. It reunited as a thrash metal band for a series of shows in February 2020. They performed the 1986 demo album _The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny_ with Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian and former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. The band then returned to the studio to re-record the demo as a studio album. It was released in October of that year.

Mr. Bungle has gone through many lineup changes. Patton, guitarist Trey Spruance, and bassist Trevor Dunn are the sole consistent members. The band was based in San Francisco during its tenure with Warner Bros. During much of the band's existence, it was in a public dispute with Red Hot Chili Peppers. Particularly, between Patton and Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis.

### Musical style

According to _Invisible Oranges_, Mr. Bungle "cultivated their own complex universe whose parts, embracing both regimen and disorder, inspired awe with increasing perspective and closer examination". Initially a death metal band, and later a thrash metal group, Mr. Bungle changed their style in the early 1990s to a funk metal sound. It showed the influence of ska, disco and avant-garde jazz. In a 2021 interview, Spruance claimed that, "there's never been a time in Mr. Bungle’s existence where it wasn't a metal band. There was always metal in there somewhere, and when we think ‘metal’; metal isn't just riffs and drums playing like a machine; it's a whole psychology. The psychology of metal is there, even in that funk metal era; it's everywhere."

_CBS News_ said that the band's music was a "anarchic mix of metal, ska, experimental jazz, punk and soundtrack music". _The Sydney Morning Herald_ described Mr. Bungle as "experimental rockers". _AllMusic_ described the band as "free-form rock radicals" and said that "Mr. Bungle's sound and approach are a unique mix of the experimental, the abstract, and the absurd".  Pioneers of avant-garde metal, the band was also categorized as alternative metal by _Kerrang!_ and _The Quietus_.

### Stage shows and image

Mr. Bungle were known for their  unconventional stage shows. The band members dressed up in costumes and masks. The 1999–2000 shows in support of the _California_ album usually featured had dressed as a blonde girl resembling Goldilocks or The St. Pauli Girl. However, the other members this period often did not wear costumes. This was because of the increased demands of the music. Occasionally, the band would simply appear in black suits with white dress shirts. They would also dress up in chef costumes, cowboy suits or as the Village People.

## Legacy

Korn have utilized what they have dubbed the "Mr. Bungle chord" (A flat fifth chord or "tritone"). James "Munky" Shaffer, one of Korn's guitarists, stated in a 2015 interview that Mr. Bungle's self-titled debut "set the tone for us and what we went on to do creatively".

## Members

All of the members of the 'classic' lineup of Mr. Bungle are multi-instrumentalists. The timeline below reflects only their main roles. Members of the band were known to switch instruments mid-performance.

### Current members

|width="75"|Image|width="120"|Name|width="100"|Years active|width="170"|Instruments|Release contributions|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Mike Patton|rowspan="3"|||rowspan="3"|all releases|||
||Trey Spruance||||||||
||Trevor Dunn||||||||
||Scott Ian|rowspan="2"|2019–present||rowspan="2"||||
||Dave Lombardo||||||||

### Former members

|width="75"|Image|width="120"|Name|width="100"|Years active|width="170"|Instruments|Release contributions|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Theo Lengyel|1985–1996||all releases from _The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny_ (1986) to _Disco Volante_ (1995)|||||
||Jed Watts|1985–1987||_The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny_ (1986)|||||
||Hans Wagner|1987–1989|drums||||||
||Scott Fritz|1987|trumpet|_Bowel Of Chiley_ (1987)|||||
||Luke Miller|1987–1989||_Goddammit I Love America!!!$ɫ!!_ (1988)|||||
||Danny Heifetz|rowspan="2"|1989–2000||rowspan="2"|all releases from _OU818_ (1989) to _California_ (1999)|||
||Clinton "Bär" McKinnon||||||||

### Touring members

|width="75"|Image|width="120"|Name|width="100"|Years active|width="170"|Instruments|Release contributions|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||William Winant|1995–2000|rowspan="2"|percussion|||||
||Ches Smith|rowspan="2"|1999|rowspan="3"|none||||
||Jeff Attridge|keyboards|||||||
||James Rotondi|1999–2000|||||||

### Studio albums

|rowspan="2"|Year|rowspan="2"|Album details|colspan="4"|Peak chart positions|rowspan="2"|Sales||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1991|_Mr. Bungle_ * Released: August 13, 1991 * Label: Warner Bros. * Format: CD, CS, LP|style="text-align:center;"|—|style="text-align:center;"|—|style="text-align:center;"|134|style="text-align:center;"|57|US: 232,706|
|1995|_Disco Volante_ * Released: October 10, 1995 * Label: Warner Bros. * Format: CD, CS, LP, DI|style="text-align:center;"|113|style="text-align:center;"|4|style="text-align:center;"|40|style="text-align:center;"|—|US: 92,302|
|1999|_California_ * Released: July 13, 1999 * Label: Warner Bros. * Format: CD, CS|style="text-align:center;"|144|style="text-align:center;"|7|style="text-align:center;"|134|style="text-align:center;"|—|US: 72,381|
|2020|_The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo_ * Released: October 30, 2020 * Label: Ipecac * Format: Digital, CD, 2xLP, Cassette|style="text-align:center;"|30|style="text-align:center;"|—|style="text-align:center;"|6|style="text-align:center;"|53||

### Live albums

|rowspan="2"|Year|rowspan="2"|Album details||Peak chart positions|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2021|_The Night They Came Home_ * Released: June 11, 2021 * Label: Ipecac * Format: CD, LP, digital download, streaming|style="text-align:center;"|46|||

### Demos

|Year|Demo|Label|
| --- | --- | --- |
|1986|_The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny_|Ladd-Frith|
|1987|_Bowel Of Chiley_|Self Released|
|1988|_Goddammit I Love America!!!$ɫ!!_|Self Released|
|1989|_OU818_|Self Released|

### Singles

|Year|Single|Album||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1991|"Quote Unquote"|_Mr. Bungle_||
|1992|"Mi Stoke Il Cigaretto"|||
|1995|"Platypus"|_Disco Volante_||
|rowspan="4"|2020|"USA"||
|"Raping Your Mind"|rowspan="3"|_The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo_||
|"Eracist"||||
|"Sudden Death"||||

### Music videos

|Year|Video|Director||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="2"|1991|"Quote Unquote"|Kevin Kerslake|
|"My Ass Is on Fire"|Steve Lederman|||
|rowspan="3"|2020|"Raping Your Mind"|Eric Livingston|
|"Eracist"|Derrick Scocchera|||
|"Sudden Death"|Derek Cianfrance|||

### Live video

|Year|Video|Director|
| --- | --- | --- |
|2020|_Mr. Bungle: The Night They Came Home_|Jack Bennett|

## Other websites

- Official website

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **name**: Mr. Bungle
- **image**: Mr. Bungle.png
- **caption**: Mr. Bungle performing in 2020
- **landscape**: yes
- **background**: group_or_band
- **origin**: Eureka, California, U.S.
- **current members**: * Mike Patton
* Trey Spruance
* Trevor Dunn
* Scott Ian
* Dave Lombardo
- **past members**: * Theo Lengyel
* Jed Watts
* Luke Miller
* Scott Fritz
* Hans Wagner
* Danny Heifetz
* Clinton McKinnon (musician), Clinton "Bär" McKinnon