By A. Keane Stern,1991
You may have heard about this new band called Mr. Bungle. Actually,
they're not a new band. Mr. Bungle has been around for about six years
now. I had heard a lot about them and was eagerly anticipating the
release of their debut album on Warner Bros. I bought it the day it came
out at Tower Records. So anxious was I to hear it that I even paid the
absurd list price of $13.99. I wrote a review of the album, read that if
you want specifics, but needless to say, the album is one of the greatest
recorded works of Western Civilization. This was an album I had been
waiting for my entire life. Something that shredded all your ideas of
what music should be like. A middle-finger of epic proportions to the
entire major label system. This is what alternative music was supposed
to be like. None of this "jangly college rock" crap like the Pixies.
Mr. Bungle render groups like that useless. Here's an analogy: Let's
say that you're 9 years old and you're looking for your dad's Playboy
collection. You know where he keeps them, on the top shelf of his
closet, but how do you get up there? You start piling crap up, books,
boxes, electrical devices, pets, anything that will get you to the top
where the air-brushed goddesses await, divested of all clothing. You
start climbing up these stopgap stairs. Right when you're about to reach
the top, your older brother rushes in with a small step-ladder. He
quickly scampers up the ladder, grabs the Playboy collection and runs out
of the room, off to do what young men are known to do with such
publications. Here's my point: Mr. Bungle represents that step-ladder
your older brother brought in. All that junk you piled up represents The
Black Crowes, Anthrax, the Violent Femmes, Paula Abdul or any other
useless music. Right then, your makeshift ladder collapses right on your
fat little nine year old face. The step-ladder that your brother used is
still standing. Next time you'll try that step-ladder. Next time you'll
try Mr. Bungle.
Of course, I was excited to see Mr. Bungle at NYU on Halloween. I
wondered what types of people they would be. Child molesters or Harvard
scholars? Both, perhaps? Were there any band members or was the whole
album put together by one mind? I had listened to the album several
times, and the possibility that living humans were behind it was somewhat
disappointing. So eager was I, that I didn't even wait for the show, I
went early to Loeb Student Center for the soundcheck. When I got there,
someone pointed out Mr. Bungle's lead singer to me. His name is Vlad
Drac. He's got a side project back in San Francisco called Faith No
More. They're not as good as Mr. Bungle, but that's kinda like saying a
certain book isn't as good as the Bible. Still, I have a feeling that
this FNM may be extremely popular someday. I start talking to Vlad. We
hit it off right away. We know some of the same people and share an
appreciation for Godflesh, which is being blasted over the PA system. He
agrees to do an interview with me as soon as the soundcheck is finished.
30 minutes later, I'm sitting in a Loeb conference room with the six
members of Mr. Bungle, their manager, crew, and some girl who was
apparently in love with Vlad Drac. I have a few questions prepared but
most I make up on the spot. The whole interview is a blur. I don't
remember much.
Listening to the tape of my encounter with Mr. Bungle jogged my memory of
the traumatic events that occurred. The first thing I hear is them
planning how their set is going to go. It sounds like a football team
going over half-time strategy. One of them sets a cup full of ice over
the door, rigged to fall on whoever is next to enter the room. I start
my interview and Vlad Drac leaves the room. The tape then starts to
sound like something from the album, there's screaming, shouting,
burping, cursing, bits of muffled conversation, unexplainable noises. I
ask how the band got on Warner Bros and they're not really sure. "By
force," says one. Each band member tells me their name. Dunn on bass,
Scummy on guitar, McKinnon and Theobald Brooks Lengyel on horns and
Heifetz on drums. Heifetz tells me he's not going to say anything
because he's studying for a big quiz, but "I might come up with something
later." I discover that MTV is going to be at tonight's show to make
sure Mr. Bungle is "kidding." "We made a video and they think it's got
hidden mass murderer messages in it," Scummy explains. "Does it?" I
ask. "They're not too hidden," he replies. I ask what song they made a
video for. Scummy tells me the video is for "Travolta" and then has an
argument with Heifetz over the song's true title. I ask how the band got
thrash jazz assassin John Zorn to produce the album. "Basically we
kicked his ass in," informs Theobald Brooks Lengyel. Scummy, apparently
the only one interested in the interview, says "He's such a bum that we
felt really sorry for him." Dunn tells me, "The guy writes so much music
that is just inaccessible, you can't listen to it. He's basically a 20th
century failure, we're trying to help him out."
How exactly did Mr. Bungle develop their novel style of music? "We
picked it up from being a death metal band and being addicted to video
games," explains Scummy. Dunn jumps in by saying, "And listening to
Mercyful Fate. Pass that pizza you fucker!" to a fellow band member.
Is the music entirely planned out in advance? "100%, there's almost no
improvisation on it," says Scummy. "Except for half of it," adds Dunn.
I ask Scummy about serial killer/clown John Wayne Gacy -- would he like
the Mr. Bungle album? "We don't have too many homosexual references...
we have the whole clown thing, maybe if we gained some weight or
something." Mr. Bungle's fondness for masturbation has been
well-documented. Is it the throbbing force behind Mr. Bungle? I wanted
to hear it from the band themselves. "It's probably as important as it
is to everyone else in the world," Scummy tells me. "No one's willing to
admit it like we are. We're a lot more open than anyone else in the
world," adds Dunn. Horn player Mc Kinnon finally says something, his
sole comment of the interview. "Now that it's out in the open, we're
trying to hide it again." Scummy details what Mr. Bungle plans to move
on to: "We're graduating to shit on the face, kiddie porn, stuff like
that. Pretty soon we'll have our master's degree, move on to snuff films
and get our doctorate."
Me: "What are you trying to accomplish by using bowel movement samples
at the end of 'Slowly Growing Deaf'?"
I am of course curious about the live show. What about the mayhem and
samples that's on the album between songs? Is that going to be
reproduced live? "We figure most bands don't reproduce the silence
between their songs on their albums live," says Dunn. "If we put space
in between songs, we'd be reproducing other people's ideas. Silence is a
cover song," elucidates Scummy. I have to know who Mr. Bungle is. Who
is a Mr. Bungle? Theobald Brooks Lengyel asks me for a coke. Scummy
tells me that Mr. Bungle is, "...any kind of asshole, murderer, dickhead,
loser, geek, whatever." Dunn goes deeper into Bungology for my benefit.
"Anybody who's teased to the point of hanging themselves is Mr. Bungle."
Scummy adds that the ultimate Mr. Bungle would be anyone who hung
themselves with their mother's underwear in order to achieve higher
orgasm.
In ten years, can the band see themselves as big as the Grateful Dead,
with Bungle-heads all over the world? "I'll probably end up cutting one
of these assholes' fucking throats before then," says Scummy. Just then,
an NYU student walks into the room and the cup of ice that was set up
earlier falls on him. He takes it in good stride, which probably
disappoints the band. Singer Vlad Drac walks back into the room and has
this to say: "I just got stuck in the fire stairway. I walked in and
thought it was a regular stairway. Every door was locked. So I ripped
out the alarm wires so I wouldn't set it off." He tells me that the
major influence on the band is a TV preacher named Robert Tilton. "You
know how there was a reason why Bill Graham died? He's our reason." A
few band members did impressions of this Robert Tilton. It was pretty
funny, too bad you weren't there to see it. Vlad Drac starts talking
about the MTV controversy and suddenly I realize that he's really the
most normal member of the group. He's like the smart kid in high school
who's pressured to help the stupid kids cheat on the test. Then after
the test, the stupid kids tell the teacher that the smart kid cheated.
The balding drummer Heifetz starts to perform a haircut on himself.
What's the impetus for their conduct during this interview? "Every
straight interview we've given made us look like complete morons,"
explains Vlad Drac.
I got to see Mr. Bungle twice during the CMJ Music Marathon. The first
time was on Halloween at Loeb Student Center. "Every day is Halloween
for Mr. Bungle, except Halloween," Dunn told me. Vlad Drac jumps off the
PA stack, gets back onstage and then tackles the guitarist. Two days
later, I saw Mr. Bungle at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey. This time,
Vlad starts to eat some guy's braided hair in the middle of a song. In
both shows, Mr. Bungle did cover songs by Mr. Rogers and the Dead
Kennedys as well as other stuff. It was real special. Really.
Heifetz: "To build the biggest roller coaster ever."