Mr. Bungle

Mr. Bungle were a influential avant-progressive experimental rock group formed in Northern California in 1985. Created while the members were still in high school and named after a children’s educational film, they released three demo tapes in the mid to late 1980s, before being signed to Warner Brothers Records, who subsequently released three full-length studio albums between 1991 and 1999. Mr. Bungle have not been active since touring in 2000 to support their last album and are now disbanded.

The group was known for their distinctive musical traits, often blending and cycling through several musical genres within the course of a single song fusing radically different musical styles together. Many of their songs had a non-conventional structure and utilized a wide array of instruments and samples. Distinguished by their live shows, which often featured members dressing up and an array of unlikely cover songs, they had a characteristic style which in turn has influenced many recent funk metal bands. During the course of their career the band also had an ongoing feud with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ frontman Anthony Kiedis, which escalated in the late 90s with Kiedis having Mr. Bungle removed from a number of large music festivals in Europe and Australasia where the Chili Peppers’ were headlining.

Although signed to a major record label, Mr. Bungle never had significant commercial success and only released one music video. They did, however, gain a reasonable amount of worldwide popularity due to a large cult following.