BOWL OF CHILEY (DEMO)

Bowl of Chiley is the second demo from Mr. Bungle. It has appeared at varying length, from 17 songs to 14 to 12. My review is using the 17 song version. I stumbled across it and the other Bungle demos and wasted no time snatching them up. As with all the Mr. Bungle demos, Bowl of Chiley shows the band developing their skills. Some of the songs find their way onto future releases (the last two demos and Carousel actually makes onto the debut album). The rest are only heard here, which makes this worth getting.

Mr. Bungle's first demo showed them in their death metal day, but this is where they really began to experiment. Nicotina is an 8 1/2 minute song that opens with a light sax and it keeps a beach rock theme, though it gets heavier and faster. Incoherence plays like John Zorn circa-Naked City. Evil Satan has festive composition that stands in sharp contrast to Patton's amusing raps and growls. Jumping (Part One) is fast-paced funk and features Patton rapping. This is probably where people started drawing similarities between Bungle and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which would lead to a public feud in the 90s. Jumping (Part Two) opens with a reggae beat before it explodes into metal, then calms back down for a clean guitar break and Patton scatting. Fart in a Bag shows that Mike's toilet humor was evident before he joined Faith No More.

The rest of the songs are interesting, but this is quite clearly a band struggling to find its sound. If you listen to Mr. Bungle, you can understand the difficulty in bringing all of their influences together. This sounds like Patton heard John Zorn in between this demo and the first, and the use of insane sax is much more evident here. This is where Mike first shows his gift for avant garde composition, but it is a scarce indicator of just how far he would push the boundaries. If you are a fan of Patton, you should try to find this. However, newbies should get Mr. Bungle's studio albums first. This is good, but by no means is it essential.

Grade: C-