30 Day Song Challenge: Day 11 - A Song From Your Favorite Band

Desert Search For Techno Allah
Mr Bungle

I'm not sure if I even have a favourite band anymore, but seeing as Mr Bungle stole an epic proportion of my youth I'm throwing THIS in your face. 'Techno Allah' is probably the song that got me into Mr Bungle in the first place, and it's a great example of what to expect from the band.

Mr. Bungle was Mike Patton's high school band before guitarist Trey Spruance encouraged him to send in a demo tape showcasing his vocal talents when it was announced Faith No More needed a new singer. The downside to this was that Mike became the front-man for FNM and then went supernova, leaving Mr. Bungle as a sniveling clown in an abandoned corner.

It was only until Warner Bros heard that he was 'still in another band' that they became interested in Mr Bungle, and so they threw money at him to go and make another Faith No Morey type of record. Enter the eponymous debut album, which can only be described as a screwy, funk-fueled carnival orgy.

Realizing that both bands sound nothing alike, WB dropped Mr Bungle like an old man's turd, and thus created a rift between FNM and MB fans forcing them to behave like divorced parents fighting over their only vocally-gifted child.

Their second album 'Disco Volante' was recorded using only one microphone in people's houses and garages and drove both Trey Spruance and John Zorn to insanity whilst trying to produce it. More avant-garde than the previous and stinking like a Naked City album (a good thing), it's more insane, more sporadic and definitely my favorite.

By this point Mike grew more distant from the Bungle boys with many other side projects, and an altercation between Trey during his short time with FNM on the album "King For A Day..." forced a tension upon the two of them. After recording their last album, the surf-injected "California", the band members were virtually strangers, a group of session musicians forced to work together as they toured their final shows.

I'm not even sure if Mr Bungle is officially dead, but either way, he ain't coming back like Faith No More did.