1999 Mr.Bungle

If 1997 found him stuck in the present with Blur and 1998 had him anticipating the next decade of indie rock via Mercury Rev, 1999 found him looking back in time with the release of the third Mr. Bungle album, California.

He had been a Mr. Bungle fan that whole decade, starting in 1991 when he discovered their first self-titled album while living upstate New York.  Songs from Mr. Bungle could have been posted for that year, but it would have disrupted the narrative flow and, besides, 1991 really was the year of Nirvana.  He could have posted something from Disco Volante for 1995, but how would that have fit in among My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and Music Midtown? 

Speaking of Music Midtown, bands that played the festival in 1999 included Everclear, Hole, OutKast, Wilco, Ben Harper, Berlin, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Blueground Undergrass, Bobby ’Blue’ Bland, Branford Marsalis, The Count Basie Orchestra, Cubanismo!, Destiny’s Child, Dr. John, Etta James, The Funky Meters, Galactic, George Thorogood, The Goo Goo Dolls, Issac Hayes, Salt-n-Pepa, Widespread Panic, Willie Nelson, Iggy Pop, and Jonathan Richman.  But he didn't go that year, violating his own Jonathan Richman vow, because he had decided that at 45, he was too old to go hear live rock music anymore and besides, it just didn't seem as much fun without his little red-headed girlfriend.  He hadn't noticed it at the time, but from 1998 to 2000, he was a dead man once again, just like at the end of the 80s.

Despite being dead, though, he still liked Mr. Bungle, and even though 1999's California was less experimental and more accessible than their previous albums, it wasn't just a case of yet another band putting out a mediocre album in the late 90s, it was a case of a subversive band being even more subversive by presenting their music with a more mainstream sound on the surface, but a deeper insanity hidden just beneath the surface.

As a band, Mr. Bungle had only one "official" video that immediately got banned from MTV for graphic imagery of twitching bodies dangling from nooses, but these two videos are both fan produced and really quite impressive for their high quality and narrative skill.  And if the singer's voice sounds familiar to you, it's because Mike Patton was also the vocalist for Faith No More, among other bands.  Patton was quite an exceptional singer and a utility player for a number of outfits but, apparently, he was not God.