Unspooling the Thread // Mr. Bungle Playlist

Mr. Bungle’s self-titled 1991 album is definitely not music for a mass audience. Produced by jazz provocateur John Zorn (as seen above), Mr. Bungle is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink blend of carnival prog, ska-metal, sea-shanty funk with a heaping helping of Patton’s manic vocal shred, scat and shriek. And there’s a John Wayne Gacy-looking clown on the cover. Frank Zappa more or less paved the way for the group’s brand of weirdo free-form genre mashing, though they certainly took it to an extreme. – Treble Zine

Way back in 2009 we profiled a merry band of freaks known as Mr. Bungle. Back then there was also little hope that messers Patton, Dunn and Spruance will ever go back to performing under that name.

Lo and behold/fast forward to 2019 and…they did. A number of shows were announced in LA, SF and Brooklyn (with Ian Scott and Dave Lombardo joining the main lineup).

Some of the footage from said shows made its way onto Youtube by now. Most peculiar of all – this thrashy new number called Glutton:

But back to our subject at hand…the playlist! It was compiled by our followers via a Twitter thread (hence all the unspooling) in which we asked everyone to name their favorite Mr. Bungle cut. Here are the results (along with a corresponding Youtube playlist):

The one where the evil magic fox chases the row of dancing fluffy chicks. Over and over the hills he runs towards the chicks, dancing in sunshine and blissfully unaware of the fate bearing down upon them. Great band on mushrooms if you’re in a good place emotionally. – Wasp Summer

Stubb – A Dub (picked by Cormac)

Merry Go Bye Bye (picked by Arizona Mayfield)

i love when mr bungle go metal and i love the noise, sounds like a shower curtain scraping back and forth, and the catchy part has some of their best lyrics

Goodbye Sober Day (picked by Robocop Remake / Mrrin213 and Arizona Mayfield)

After School Special (picked by Ya Hoo / Elizabeth Joan Kelly)

Egg (picked by Chunky’s Choice Cuts)

Carry Stress in the Jaw (picked by Ned Watrshed / Sam / oem / Miguel Perez / Andy Johnston / Vylter and Revenge Technician)