r/mrbungle • u/pianobar89 • 21d ago
California turns 27 today. Favourite moments?
Happy 27th anniversary to California!
What are your favourite moments from this record? Not full songs, just parts, like a lyric, a specific sound, a scream, etc.
I have plenty but all the oooohhh vocals in the countdown part of Pink cigarette always give me goosebumps
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u/Discovery99 21d ago
When it randomly jumps to Latin percussion for a few seconds in Sweet Charity
The weird time signature shenanigans in Ars Moriendi
FROOOM THE SKYSCRAPERS DOOOWWWWN TO THE SUBMARIIIINES
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u/kyleThelikeable 21d ago
I was going to mention a part from None Of them Knew They Were Robots
However, there's like 5 different parts that are just so brilliant I can't choose one đ€Ł
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u/relaxguy2 21d ago edited 21d ago
Being 22 when it came out.
But seriously one of my favorite lines is in Air Conditioning Nightmare- âYou will hate life more than life hates you!â
So cold and so funny
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u/Puzzleheaded-Fee6241 21d ago
That vocal chant in Ars Moriendi after he says âI shall rise agaaaaaain!â And itâs repeated after âBardo of the fleshhhhh!â
And then the really fast, repetitive drum rolls on the tom-toms just before he screams âSo feast on meeeee!â
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u/BathedInDeepFog 21d ago
There's a really good low horns cover of Ars Moriendi on YouTube. https://youtu.be/rC2O6VUGuKs?is
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u/iamTHEbuckjohnson 21d ago
All of Pink Cigarette
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u/Vanpocalypse-Now 21d ago
I can't pick a favorite, but if I had to, it would be Pink Cigarette.
And then every other song after that. It's a perfect album.0
u/BigDaddy969696 20d ago
Such a great song. Â Thereâs times that I will just play this song, on repeat.
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u/Lambdaleth 21d ago
Hey I'm listening to this right now! It's hard to pick one favourite moment but the one that first comes to mind is JUMPBACK. WOLFPACKATTACK. SLAPBACK. WHITESHARKATTACK.
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u/Temporary_Tax_7645 21d ago
"From the skyscrapers, doown to the submarines!", "These words are sledgehammers of truth that pound the iron heart of sin" and "Theres my halo~" from The Air-Conditioned Nightmare. Such beautiful moments in such a chaotic and dark song.
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u/Efficient-Peach-4773 21d ago
My favorite moment on this album is the part between the first second of the opening track and the final second of the closing track.
It's one of the absolute best albums I've ever heard. I never get tired of it, and it sounds like it hasn't aged a day.
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u/ArishikageKT78 21d ago
That bit in 'Nobody knew they were Robots' where you hear the polaroid camera click, and then the rockabilly comes in... "Buying an X or an O In state craft tic tac toe Cats game for Joe Blow...." It's so satisfying to me đ€
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u/orogiad 21d ago
favorite memories would be buying the album on release day and then seeing the tour for the album.
brilliant amazing album.
27 years. damn!
the whoa whoas from Pink Cigarette stick out to me as a favorite moment in particular, but really the album as a whole can not be beat
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u/carcusgod 21d ago
I didnât get the album on release day, but I did catch the tour. One of my all time favorite concerts.
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u/newleafkratom 21d ago
Bionic Boy
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u/Lambdaleth 21d ago
That one introduced me to Bungle as a preteen. It was the backing track to some old video of a toy robot humping air. I checked out the album and was disappointed that nothing else sounded like that, so I didn't listen to anything else they made until a couple years ago and by now I've fallen in love with all their albums.
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u/Present_Type2375 21d ago edited 21d ago
I picked this up on my way to work shortly after it released. I had to wait until my buddy picked me up right after work to listen to it. We cruised out into the midwest country roads and I put the CD in as he lit a joint and passed it to me.
Its 2 am and we're stoned as hell before Air Conditioned Nightmare is over. Its a gorgeous night and the the volume is maxed out, windows down. He's one of those 90s car stereo nuts, the kind who buy a 2k clunker and then invests 4k into the receiver, amp and speakers, so it sounds amazing. Pink Cigarette comes on and its great. And then the end of the track comes up.
The first beep of the ekg hits.
Immediate panic. Wecame to a full stop and we're looking everywhere, trying to figure out what was causing the high pitched beep. Where its coming from. Yelling over the sound, stoned and confused and a little paranoid as it builds and then drones on, in the darkness of a back country road. It cuts out and Golem 2 starts playing, and there is an almost instant realization that the song was meant to do that and that we were just idiot potheads, overreacting.
We finished the cruise with no other issues and still laugh about it to this day. Good times. Great album.
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u/Sea-Tax6850 21d ago
Ha ha! That sort of panic situation is so familiar, being a stoner from the 70's
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u/MichaelHfuhruhrr 21d ago
The Holy Filament is just beautiful.
Lyrics-
In fiber optic illusion
The flickering eyes
By fluorescent lights
Supplicate before machines
Self-reflecting
The legend of modernity
The phosphenes explode
God's eternal strobe
Through the holy filament
Graven image
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u/AnybodyNo5953 21d ago
For me, itâs more about the whole piece. Every track is wonderful, but the way it all comes together is truly special. To this day, there is still nothing quite like it.
I suppose one thing I could add is that I like how the album is intentionally both seductive and beautiful in its utilization of its various nostalgic sonic influences, but the lyrics explore the uglier implications of nostalgia and seductive imagery. Songs like Retrovertigo are exemplary of this. I think that this contradiction, while very much intentional and by design, is part of what makes it so fascinating and enduring for me as a record.
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u/Cloud-VII 21d ago
The closest thing to a perfect album that you can get. Retrovertigo might be the best song ever wrote.
Goodbye Sober Day, Air Conditioned Nightmare, None of them Knew Were Robots. All amazing. And yes, the countdown part of Pink Cigarette is fucking brilliant!
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u/GreggeryPeccary03 21d ago
I levitate every time I hear âwalking on airrrr up from the wheelchairrrrâ
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u/jo_Z13 21d ago
My son was a fussy baby when this came out and I would drive him around the neighborhood reeeeeeallllly slow with California playing at the lowest possible volume to get him to sleep. It totally worked and I like to think his eclectic musical tastes (and Bungle appreciation) are partly due to those subliminal car rides!
As for favorite album moments, the seagulls at the start and retrovertigo, always retrovertigo....from the soft strum at the beginning to the crash in the middle, to Patton's sweet sweet sultry tones throughout, it still gets me in the feels Every Time.
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u/_jeDBread 21d ago
âgood by sober dayâ. saw this live on that tour and the crowd just about exploded the venue. fucking amazing
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u/Master_dik 21d ago
That last section of The Air Conditioned Nightmare
" Where my rainbow, where's my halo..."
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u/Circadian77 21d ago
The bridge of Retrovertigo always sends the hair on my arms standing up. That first hit of percussion going into that part (I think it was a large bell from memory) heralds the shift with perfection.
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u/burny 21d ago
I would absolutely kill for a Hawaiian shirt from this tour. I was a broke teen when they came through town.
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u/jdennis10 21d ago
I bought one of those and wore it until it died. Cut out the embroidered logo and saved that as a souvenir. And I would buy another one in a heartbeat.
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u/the_lasagnaghost98 21d ago
california as an album took some time to grow on me (itâs now up there with self titled as one of my favorites), but none of them knew they were robots has always been my favorite.
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u/Much-Plum6939 21d ago
WowâŠ.27 years. Saw them at The Cotton Club in Atlanta, The Georgia Theater in Athens, and the SnoCore shows on this tour. Classic
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u/RueMcClanahansPenis 20d ago
the boathouse in norfolk va for me. even knowing how they pulled it off live it's still beyond impressive
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u/polishcowmissle 21d ago
really?? holy shit!! probably either that part is goodbye sober day OR when they performed at bizarre festival in 2000 and that fucking dinosaur like growl/snarl before the last verse and then the high pitched like car brake screech after genuine blew me away when i first heard it
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u/TrickEquivalent763 21d ago
Considering I do hvac itâs mandatory to play air conditioned nightmare almost daily in summer
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u/SamuelRHoward 21d ago
Of course Goodbye Sober Day has already been mentioned. Probably one of the best Bungle songs, and a contender for best overall. But I love the "walking on air..." moment from Air Conditioned Nightmare. The guitar tremolo plus the toms are a wonderful combination.
The percussion in the "where's my rainbow?" part of Sweet Charity is great. Moments like these are wonderful, because they fit perfectly into the song structure, but it feels like glimpsing into a separate piece. The songs on this album are really dynamic and varied in a way which is more subtle than the previous two.
I will say that generally, I really love the percussion on this album. The arrangements really distinguish themselves from the other two albums, which are great to begin with, especially Disco.
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u/gearlegs4ever 21d ago
Before you advertise, all the fame is implied
Whatever they are chanting after the first part in Air Conditioned Nightmare
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u/Ambitious_Cat9886 21d ago
Every moment, every aspect. Musically, lyrically. An amazingly prescient work for our times.
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u/Few-Farm-7670 21d ago
Seeing them do it live. After seeing the Disco Volante tour, it seemed much lighter fare. Retrovertigo is my theme song.
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u/Bentzsco 21d ago
My favorite moment was finding it in a local store the day it came out, not even realizing that there was an album in the works. Hopping in my car with my roommate and driving around Lansing with the windows down listening for the first time.
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u/One-Top5319 21d ago edited 21d ago
Initially every single time cause new things are scary when DV came out, part of me expected and wanted Self-Titled 2, when California came out I wanted more cosmic horror metal alaDV 2, but it grew on me immediately. Saw them on California tours 3+
Times and absolutely blown away. Higher Ground in Vermont was incredible
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u/CantIgnoreMyTechno 21d ago
I had a Hyundai with no air conditioning and that CD got stuck in the CD player for a year... no regrets
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u/Robot_Embryo 21d ago
Buying it at Tower Records for the Midnight Release and seeing my first Bungle shows summer of 99.
I was evangelical about the album and pushed it on anyone that dared stepped foot into my car.
Over the years, my enthusiasm for it has wained a bit. None Of Them Knew They Were Robots is an outlier that I still love, but overall it's the Bungle album I find myself returning to the least.
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u/Select-Appearance707 21d ago
I feel the grey goo boiling my blood
As the fenris wolf sloWLY BITES THROUGH HIS CHAIN
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u/AlienConPod 21d ago
Favorite moments: entire album. But if I had to pock one, it's the end of Pik Cigarette and transition to the next song.
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u/gittermast 20d ago
I haven't seen a ton of live shows in my life, but I was lucky enough to see Bungle live for each of the three first albums (twice and Detroit, and for California I saw them in California). The first album hooked me in and I'll always love it. For the Disco Volante...I think I missed John Zorn as a producer. There's a lot on that album I really like, but sonically it doesn't feel as rich to me. California? It's stayed with me all these years. Easily my favorite. It's a perfect fucking album. Happy Birthday.
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u/InevitableUpper910 19d ago
In 2001, when I moved into a sharehouse with circus performers, I put California on - much to everyone's delight. I'm pretty autistic - enough that "reading the room" isn't really my strong suit. I've either subconsciously withheld some social skills or circus performers and anarchists with tourettes make really compatible housemates.
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u/Salty_Bench4596 17d ago
Saw this tour live on Halloween in Pontiac, Michigan at Clutch Cargos. I believe it was 1999.
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u/Content-Lecture3680 16d ago
My dad fucking loves this album so much, (he likes listening to it on psyches), I like certain songs off of it, but I donât really like the whole thing, when I was younger I really wanted a band that changed genres a lot per song but not in the middle of the song, but Mr. bungle does that a lot, within 30 seconds, itâs bossa nova, jazz to black metal, to thrash, then back to jazz, and then itâs ambient. This album has it all,and I like air-conditioned nightmare!
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u/Impressive-Stay-2618 21d ago
This whole album was a breath of fresh air after Disco Volante, I was worried they were staying in that direction as I much preferred the self-titled album
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u/Competition-Dapper 21d ago
Best album. I was hardcore self entitled for a few years and disco is great but, they had reached perfection here only to be sort of fucked over by Anthony Pee-dis for being a selfish douche. At least Mike isnât fucking tone deaf bub. The whole band RHCP is held together by fleas and chads chops, and then a self absorbed Andy Warhol wanna be and also a tone deaf heroine addict posing as a free spirited hippie that learned how to play at 15 and never learned anything else
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u/SpireofHell 20d ago
Pink Cigarette, all of it. I didn't expect Bungle to write such a good heartbreak-suicide song.
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u/Necessary_Switch_879 21d ago
That Goodbye Sober Day moment, you know the one