STEPHEN FRY

While I'm on a bit of a roll with posting/SPAMMING tonight...I just thought I would make a little post in tribute to one of my favourite bands of all time. They are deceptively good: they only ever released 3 albums, their name smacks of high-school immaturity, as does their first album (although it shows signs of great musicianship and is still definitely worth a listen; there aren't many just-out-of-high school bands with that much musical ability), and they have the kind of cult following that is more than enough to put off the kind of people who hate bands with cult followings but each album shows how much they have matured. Their second album, Disco Volante, is an avant-garde mish-mash of cartoon, metal, lounge, middle-eastern...well almost anything, and it varies between being astoundingly good and just incredibly frustrating. Their third, California, is a 'pop' album in the only way Bungle could make a pop album. Each track has distinct Californian influences, and yet no track is the same as the last. The production is incredible. So much going on in each track and yet it all works. It has ballads, metal, Jewish-sounding experimental music, all sorts. The band are not to everyone's taste, and who knows, I may grow out of them eventually, but for now they are pretty much a staple in my musical diet and not only would my music taste, but my attitude towards music as a whole and the way I approach my own musical ambitions would never be the same without them. RIP Bungle!