MR. BUNGLE | 26 Years

On August 13th 1991 Mr. Bungle released their debut self titled album. 

'The entire album crackles with a weird electricity and the air of a rock and roll circus gone insane. Which is possibly the closest anyone will ever come to describe Mr Bungle' - Kerrang!

Last year we spoke to members of the band in celebration of the 25th anniversary of this stunning and insane album.

TREVOR DUNN | Mr. Bungle 25th Anniversary Interview

"I would say that Trey and Mike and I, considering our ages and penchants, where destined to find each other.  We disliked everyone/thing else and we gravitated toward each other in a very small, impoverished, and isolated area.  I would say that every song reflects, in some way, our collective introspection, confusion, disdain and resultant social commentary and self-reflection that developed as teenagers in the ‘80s. While many of our peers were turning to drugs and alcohol, we found comfort in music."

DANNY HEIFETZ | Mr. Bungle 25th Anniversary Interview

"Perhaps the creepy artwork and kooky lyrics were enough to make a 13-year-old boy feel different than if it were a Human Nature record. I have met quite a few people (boys/men - what a surprise!) that had been about that age and told me what an effect it had on them. What I find most incredible is that several of them are now school teachers and, as if that weren't enough, some among them are award-winning teachers at that! I guess that's high regard coming to fruition, so I'm happy with those results."

BÄR MCKINNON | Mr. Bungle 25th Anniversary Interview

"There wasn't an overt intention to educate kids on how clever we could be, no. As ever, it was just us amusing ourselves and trying to make the coolest music we could with what we had."

TREY SPRUANCE | Halloween Interview

"A further thought looking back, to be real, it really says a lot about the state of things that there were so many people who responded so favorably to the sociopathic and ultraviolent aspect of early Mr. Bungle. We famously had those people in our faces throughout the band’s existence (although the Disco Volante era helped re-orient the fervor somewhat). But I find it super interesting that in that early era, Mr. Bungle's influence struck such an intensely and clearly mentally disturbed chord almost exclusively out among the 'masses' serviced mainly by media like Warner Brothers. Those were times when GG Allin and the Dwarves and that type of thing were still happening, and I went to their shows. I couldn't help but notice that elements of the Mr. Bungle audience, minor rural/suburban phenomenon that it was, with no crossover in any hardcore underground scenes at all, did have a somewhat similar fanboy variation of the Stockholm Syndrome thing happening out there. It was pretty out..."