All the samples were old video games and pinball machines. Every time you heard this album, you remembered the old times of playing those games, smoking a cigarette, looking over your shoulder to watch for the security guard as you made that last kill in the game you were playing. This album goes on the record for having the most video game and pinball machine samples of anything I have heard before.

I really can't say this rocks because it's just too out there to define. It is a great fucking album, don't get me wrong, but the insanity of it just makes me pull back and wonder why.

Like people of the '80s sit around and think of Frank Zappa. What they missed. How great he was. He was a genius they missed. Much like that, soon people will see what they missed in Mr. Bungle.

Plus they sing about the girls of porn. Which is kinda cool. (T)

Girls of Porn
Stubb (A Dub)
Squeeze Me, Macaroni

Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of anything Mike Patton, and my opinion on all things Patton related, be it Faith No More or Mr. Bungle or any of the myriad other bands/projects he has been a part of, is all a bit biased.

If I had to choose my favorite Patton related piece of work — and that's really like asking a parent to choose a favorite child — I would have to go with California. Yeah, FNM's Angel Dust forces some tough competition but hey, if you asked me today, I'd tell you I like my daughter better than my son (the mouth of a 13-year old boy can be exasperating). You caught me on a California kind of day.

This is way different from the previous Bungle efforts. It's polished, it's smooth, and it's not as experimental or noisy or juvenile. You'll get no "Squeeze Me, Macaroni" here. Instead, you get lyrics that have matured and musical composition that has flourished. Yeah, you still have a lot of that patented Bungle weirdness/noise, but California is like half mind fuck, where the band stars and shows off a plethora of amazing sounds and rhythms, and half lounge music, where Patton's voice is a musical instrument itself. While some say this is Bungle's most accessible album, that doesn't mean much here. That's like saying Mulholland Drive is David Lynch's easiest to understand work. Just because it has more melody and more instrumentation and reaches a wider audience, doesn't mean it's going to be any less confusing to a non-Mr. Bungle fan.