Mr. Bungle

Since 1985 · United States

Mr. Bungle formed in Eureka, California, in 1985, high-school friends led by Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn. Their story

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Who they shaped

Behind them, left to right: NoMeansNo.

In front, left to right: The Dillinger Escape Plan.

The bigger the face, the stronger the proof: they said it themselvesreporteda critic, or widely accepted

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California (1999)

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California sounds like a radio dial spun across fifty years: lounge, surf, exotica, doo-wop and sudden bursts of noise, each song switching style without warning. "Retrovertigo" is the calm at its centre, a sweeping, sincere ballad that Mike Patton sings completely straight. The production is lush and meticulous, which makes the sharp turns all the more startling. It's their most approachable record, and the one Ben Weinman says gave the Dillinger Escape Plan its thirst for diversity.

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Mr. Bungle

California · 1999

Mr. Bungle formed in Eureka, California, in 1985, high-school friends led by Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn. Patton's rise with Faith No More got them a major-label deal, and they used it to make records that lurch between funk metal, death metal, carnival music, jazz and lounge, often within one song.

Disco Volante (1995) and California (1999) are their most ambitious records, and their restless genre-switching shaped heavier bands that followed, the Dillinger Escape Plan among them, who opened for them on the California tour. They stopped in 2000, and came back in 2019 to re-record their early thrash demos.