California (Mr. Bungle album)

Untitled

California is the third and final studio album by American experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. It was released on June 13, 1999, through Warner Bros.

Musical style and writing

In keeping with the band's other output, California incorporates a wide variety of musical styles, including Hawaiian music, Eastern music, electro-funk, doo-wop, folk music, pop music, surf rock, circus music, psychobilly, kecak, thrash metal, lounge music, exotica, space age pop, jazz rock, avant-garde music, piano ballads and music influenced by science fiction, spaghetti western and horror film scores. The album's 1999 press kit by Warner Bros. Records states "California explores an ambiance new to the band, conjuring up the surly dance moves of Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire; digging through the graveyard of riffs to find English pop, Elvis, Neil Diamond and Michael Jackson. The album is sure to alienate those expecting weird meter-changes and heartless vulgarities. To be sure, this is Western music, chockful of backbeats, strings and vocal harmonies. But like the original 49ers, the listener is headed into a desert land of drought and famine — the dark side of the California Dream."

Regarding the album's writing and sound, Trevor Dunn stated in a 2017 interview that "[we] never discussed our projected direction. We never sat down and said, 'ok the last record was like that so now let’s attempt this.' Instead we individually brought things to the collective table that somehow coalesced without premeditation." He goes on to state that "the recording of California was a bit of a nightmare. We attempted frugality by recording a lot in our rehearsal space which Trey had partially turned into a recording studio. But we also spread the work out over various outside studios with a number of engineers as well as additional musicians. In the end we had two 24-track tape machines and two ADAT machines linked. That record would have been much easier to manage had Pro Tools come along a bit sooner."

Promotion and touring

To support the album, Mr. Bungle embarked on a large scale tour covering North America, Europe and Australia. They also notably appeared on the 2000 edition of the SnoCore Tour, performing alongside alternative metal acts whom they had influenced, such as Incubus and System of a Down. According to Dunn, Mr. Bungle were "completely out of place" on the SnoCore Tour. He remarked "We were sort of the grandpas of the tour, so we started really messing with the audiences. We dressed up like the Village People and acted super gay which really pissed off the metal kids." Guitarist Trey Spruance reflected on the SnoCore tour in 2002, recalling "some of us were going, 'Well … I guess … this’ll be an … adventure?' And that was the whole spirit we went into it with. You know, there’s this thing of, 'Yeah, man, we’ll reach all these other people! We can expand the audience!' I didn’t fucking believe that for a second. That kind of logic—it doesn’t get you anywhere; it doesn’t work. It’s a recipe for failure and disaster." When asked about the hostile audiences the band were subject to during the SnoCore shows, Spruance said "those can be just magic moments. That’s definitely when Mike is at his best."

File:Anthony Kiedis 2006.jpg

Anthony Kiedis

A major controversy with Anthony Kiedis/Red Hot Chili Peppers developed following the album's release. It was scheduled to be released on June 8, 1999, but Warner Bros. Records pushed it back so as not to coincide with the Red Hot Chili Peppers similarly titled album, Californication, which was to be released on the same day. Following the album release date conflict, Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis had Mr. Bungle removed from a series of summer festivals in Europe. As a major headlining act at the festivals, Kiedis and his band had a say in which bands could appear. The reasoning behind his actions have never been explained, although he had been involved in a public dispute with Mike Patton and his former band Faith No More a decade prior. According to Mr. Bungle themselves, Kiedis had never met or spoken to anyone involved with the band aside from Mike Patton. Patton himself stated "the rest of the band doesn't care. It's something to do with Anthony."

As a result of the concert removals, Mr. Bungle parodied the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Pontiac, Michigan (coincidentally the home state of Anthony Kiedis) on Halloween of 1999. Patton introduced each Mr. Bungle band member with the name of one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, before covering the songs "Give It Away", "Around the World", "Under the Bridge" and "Scar Tissue", with Patton deliberately using incorrect lyrics. Mr. Bungle also satirized many of the mannerisms of the band, mocking heroin injections, deceased guitarist Hillel Slovak and on-stage antics. Regarding the Halloween show, Trey Spruance said "It was pretty weird, having been fans of the first two RHCP albums, realizing that somehow something personal had gone amiss somewhere. So amiss that a decade and a half after we’d liked this now hugely popular band’s music (and hadn't thought much about since), we'd be dealing with the fact that they were unmistakably trying to bury us. Why keep quiet? I remember drawing everybody’s tattoos. James Rotundi our touring keyboardist knew the band's more recent music, and he's a great guitarist, so he did those duties." Kiedis responded by having them removed from the 2000 Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand. He said of the festival shows “I would not have given two fucks if they played there with us. But after I heard about [the] Halloween show where they mocked us, fuck him and fuck the whole band.” Patton went on to claim that Kiedis' actions had "ruined" Mr. Bungle's career, while Trevor Dunn remarked "It really screwed us up. It screwed up my life in a personal way." The band officially split in 2004, although they had not been active since playing their final concert on September 9, 2000 in Nottingham, England.

Trevor Dunn performing in his California attire during a 2000 show in Germany.

Live performances

On previous tours, Mr. Bungle were known for their characteristically unconventional stage shows, where the band members would dress up in costumes and masks. The 1999-2000 shows in support of California usually featured Dunn dressed as a blonde girl resembling Goldilocks or The St. Pauli Girl, although for the other members this period was largely devoid of masks and outfits due to the increased demands of the music.

As with the previous "Disco Volante Tour", songs from the group's self-titled debut and independent demos were largely absent, with the exceptions of "Quote Unquote", "My Ass Is on Fire" (reworked with electronic elements), and several of the band's early independent death metal songs, which were featured as part of a medley along with the Disco Volante song "Merry Go Go Bye".

Critical reception and legacy

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Alternative Press
NME	6/10
Pitchfork	7.3/10

California was well received by critics. A positive review came from Pitchfork, who called it "one of those albums that you can't believe a major label had anything to do with", writing, "the more I listen to California, the more I'm convinced that Mike Patton is really the devil on holiday." Steve Huey of AllMusic similarly remarked that the album "[will] make you marvel at the fact that such a defiantly odd, uncommercial band recorded for Warner Bros." In 2017, Canadian site Exclaim! cited it as an essential album in Mike Patton's career discography, claiming "California maintained the strange stylings that Mr. Bungle fans had come to love by that point, but remains beautiful and melodic to this day."

On June 30th 2017, the popular metal band Avenged Sevenfold released a studio cover of the California track "Retrovertigo".

Accolades

Year	Publication	Country	Accolade	Rank
1999	Rolling Stone	Germany	"Albums of the Year"	15

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Sweet Charity"	Mike Patton	Patton	5:05
2.	"None of Them Knew They Were Robots"	Trey Spruance	Spruance, Patton, Danny Heifetz	6:03
3.	"Retrovertigo"	Trevor Dunn	Dunn	4:59
4.	"The Air-Conditioned Nightmare"	Patton	Patton, Clinton "Bär" McKinnon	3:55
5.	"Ars Moriendi"	Patton	Patton	4:10
6.	"Pink Cigarette"	Patton	Spruance, Patton	4:55
7.	"Golem II: The Bionic Vapour Boy"	Spruance	Spruance	3:34
8.	"The Holy Filament"	Dunn	Dunn	4:04
9.	"Vanity Fair"	Patton	Dunn, Patton	2:58
10.	"Goodbye Sober Day"	Patton	Patton, McKinnon	4:29
Total length:				44:16

Personnel

Mr. Bungle

• Trevor Dunn – bass guitar, artwork concept and production
• Danny Heifetz – percussion, drums, keyboards and production
• Clinton "Bär" McKinnon – saxophone, keyboards, French horn and production
• Mike Patton – vocals, keyboards, artwork concept and production
• Trey Spruance – guitar, engineering, production strategy and production

Additional personnel

• Bill Banovetz – English horn
• Sam Bass – cello
• Ben Barnes – violin and viola
• Henri Ducharme – accordion
• Timb Harris – trumpet
• Marika Hughes – cello
• Eyvind Kang – violin, viola
• Carla Kihlstedt – violin and viola
• Michael Peloquin – harmonica
• David Phillips – pedal steel guitar
• Larry Ragent – French horn
• Jay Stebley – cymbalom
• Aaron Seeman – piano on "Pink Cigarette"
• William Winant – timpani, mallets, tam tam and bass drum
• Billy Anderson – engineering
• Gibbs Chapman – mixing
• Ryan Cooper – publicity
• Elizabeth Gregory – legal representation
• Josh Heller – engineering
• Malcom Hillier – sleeve photography
• George Horn – mastering
• Adam Muñoz – engineering, mixing and editing
• Mackie Osborne – sleeve layout and graphic design
• Justin Phelps – engineering
• Rob Worthington – mixing