| length =

| label = Warner Bros.

| producer = Mr. Bungle

| prev_title = Disco Volante

| prev_year = 1995

| next_title = The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo

| next_year = 2020

California is the third studio album by American experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. It was released on July 13, 1999, through Warner Bros.

Musical style and writing

The album's 1999 press kit by Warner Bros. Records states,

The songwriting process for California was much less collaborative than the band's previous albums. Despite having a more accessible sound than prior releases, saxophonist Clinton McKinnon has stated, "It wasn't some attempt at reconciling how much we'd previously tortured our audiences with white-noise [...] it wasn't some conscious attempt to normalise our music or make it all the more palatable." He goes on to state that "the recording of California was a bit of a nightmare. We attempted frugality by recording a lot in our rehearsal space which [our guitarist] Trey [Spruance] had partially turned into a recording studio. But we also spread the work out over various outside studios with a number of engineers as well as additional musicians. In the end we had two 24-track tape machines and two ADAT machines linked. That record would have been much easier to manage had Pro Tools come along a bit sooner." Trey Spruance, who had recently covered the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" with Secret Chiefs 3 for the album Smiling Pets, said that the work of Brian Wilson (particularly Smile) was "definitely" an influence, "especially when it comes to the Faustian scale of it."

Promotion and touring

To support the album, Mr. Bungle embarked on a large scale tour covering North America, Europe and Australia. They also notably appeared on the 2000 edition of the SnoCore Tour, which featured Incubus, Puya, and System of a Down. The members of Incubus and System of a Down have both cited Mr. Bungle and Patton's other band Faith No More as major influences on them. According to Dunn, Mr. Bungle were "completely out of place" on the SnoCore Tour. Guitarist Trey Spruance reflected on the SnoCore tour in 2002, recalling "some of us were going, 'Well ... I guess ... this’ll be an ... adventure?' And that was the whole spirit we went into it with. You know, there's this thing of, 'Yeah, man, we'll reach all these other people! We can expand the audience!' I didn't fucking believe that for a second. That kind of logic—it doesn't get you anywhere; it doesn't work. It's a recipe for failure and disaster." When asked about the hostile audiences the band were subject to during the SnoCore shows, Spruance said, "those can be just magic moments. That's definitely when Mike is at his best." The members of Incubus and System of a Down were supportive of Mr. Bungle when they were met with harsh audiences, and cheered on Patton when he got into confrontations with the crowds. The reasoning behind his actions has never been explained, although he had been involved in a public dispute with Mike Patton and his former band Faith No More a decade prior, where he accused Patton of stealing his style. According to Mr. Bungle themselves, Kiedis didn't know anyone involved with the band, aside from Mike Patton.

As a result of the concert removals, Mr. Bungle parodied the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Halloween 1999, in Pontiac, Michigan (the home state of Kiedis). Patton introduced each Mr. Bungle band member with the name of one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, before covering the songs "Give It Away", "Around the World", "Under the Bridge" and "Scar Tissue", with Patton deliberately using incorrect lyrics, such as "Sometimes I feel like I'm on heroin" and "Sometimes I feel like a fucking junkie" on "Under the Bridge". The other members of Mr. Bungle, amidst their on-stage antics, satirized many of the mannerisms of the band and simulated heroin injections, as well as mocking deceased guitarist Hillel Slovak and deceased friend of the band River Phoenix. In between "None of Them Knew They Were Robots" and "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare", Dunn (dressed as Flea) walked up to Spruance (dressed as the ghost of Hillel Slovak) and simulated injecting him with heroin, which Patton interrupted by shouting "You can't shoot up a ghost!". Dunn reflected "We had a member of the tour crew buy the most recent album of them (Californication) and then we proceeded to learn it in the back of the stage before the show. It wasn't hard. The hardest part was copying his tattoos with a permanent marker. I remember it was very funny to ridicule them without thinking about whether they would be aware or not. We were pretty pissed off for all the financial and personal damage that they caused to us based on their egos and freaks of power. We should probably have sued them."

Kiedis responded to the Halloween parody by having Mr. Bungle removed from the 2000 Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand. Patton went on to claim that Kiedis' actions had "ruined" Mr. Bungle's career during a 2001 interview, while Trevor Dunn remarked, "It really screwed us up. It screwed up my life in a personal way."

The band officially split in 2004, although they had been on hiatus since playing their final concert on September 9, 2000 in Nottingham, England.

thumb|left|Trevor Dunn performing in his California attire during a 2000 show in Germany. On his personal website, Dunn later wrote, "Everything you've ever heard about the Red Hot Chile Poppers [sic] screwing us is true. I'm not sure why they did it other than a non-singer's jealousy. They kept us off of festivals in Europe, Big Day Out in Australia and they had the release date of our record postponed while they released Californication. Ultimately they screwed ME out of a lot of money for which I will forever harbor anger. The best part is they had full support from their record label."

Live performances

On previous tours, Mr. Bungle were known for their characteristically unconventional stage shows, where the band members would dress up in costumes and masks. The 1999-2000 shows in support of California usually featured Dunn dressed as a blonde girl resembling Goldilocks or The St. Pauli Girl, although for the other members this period was largely devoid of masks and outfits due to the increased demands of the music.

As with the previous "Disco Volante Tour", songs from the group's self-titled debut and independent demos were largely absent, with the exceptions of "Quote Unquote", "My Ass Is on Fire" (reworked with electronic elements),

| rev2 = Alternative Press

| rev2score =

| rev3 = NME

| rev3score = 6/10

| rev4 =Pitchfork

| rev4score = 7.3/10

| rev5 = Spin

| rev5score = 7/10

California was well received by critics. A positive review came from Pitchfork, who called it "one of those albums that you can't believe a major label had anything to do with", writing, "the more I listen to California, the more I'm convinced that Mike Patton is really the devil on holiday."

Experimental artist Igorrr was greatly influenced by the album, especially by its track "Ars Moriendi". The 2005 single "Unretrofied" (from the album Miss Machine) by the Dillinger Escape Plan, who toured with Mr. Bungle in 1999, was inspired by the feelings that the song "Retrovertigo" evoked in guitarist Ben Weinman after listening to it every night. On June 30, 2017, the metal band Avenged Sevenfold released a studio cover of "Retrovertigo".

Accolades

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:0em 1em 1em 0pt"

!Year

!Publication

!Country

!Accolade

!Rank

|-

| align=center|1999 || Rolling Stone || Germany

| "Albums of the Year" || align=center|15

|- class="sortbottom"

|}

Track listing

Personnel

Mr. Bungle

  • Trevor Dunn – bass guitar, artwork concept and production
  • Danny Heifetz – percussion, drums, keyboards and production
  • Clinton "Bär" McKinnon – saxophone, keyboards, French horn and production
  • Mike Patton – vocals, keyboards, artwork concept and production
  • Trey Spruance – guitar, engineering, production strategy and production

Additional personnel

  • Bill Banovetz – English horn
  • Sam Bass – cello
  • Ben Barnes – violin and viola
  • Henri Ducharme – accordion
  • Timba Harris – trumpet
  • Marika Hughes – cello
  • Eyvind Kang – violin, viola
  • Carla Kihlstedt – violin and viola
  • Michael Peloquin – harmonica
  • David Phillips – pedal steel guitar
  • Larry Ragent – French horn
  • Jay Stebley – cymbalom
  • Aaron Seeman – piano
  • William Winant – timpani, mallets, tam tam and bass drum
  • Billy Anderson – engineering
  • Gibbs Chapman – mixing
  • Ryan Cooper – publicity
  • Elizabeth Gregory – legal representation
  • Josh Heller – engineering
  • Malcom Hillier – sleeve photography
  • George Horn – mastering
  • Adam Muñoz – engineering, mixing and editing
  • Mackie Osborne – sleeve layout and graphic design
  • Justin Phelps – engineering
  • Rob Worthington – mixing

References