March 7 - Carousel

I am sticking with 1991, probably through this entire week as well - although that is not quite determined yet. But it was a really good year for music, and one of my favorite albums released that year didn't really click with me until a few years later. Mr. Bungle was by many seen as Mike Patton side project to the vastly more successful Faith No More; however, in looking at everything he has said, it is clear that he rather considered Faith No More his side project - he had been heavily invested in Mr. Bungle from his high school days.

Mr. Bungle is not easy music to listen to. I know that I, in my younger years, pretended to like and understand the music more than I did. As a matter of fact, when I purchased this album after listening to parts of it in the record store, I was convinced I was buying a shelf stuffer that would just be collecting dust. However, I took it out from time to time, and when I started working in Studentradioen i Bergen, people started playing the song Carousel often enough that it finally clicked. I found their second album, Disco Volante, in 1995, when I was back home in Trondheim, I think for Christmas break. I didn't know they had released a second album, so I still remember the excitement I had for the album - and how that was really difficult to listen to (even more so than the first). February 23, 1996, I went to see them in Oslo at Rockefeller Music Hall, and they barely played anything from the first album, which I knew well, and focused on Disco Volante and experimental interludes. Needless to say, I had a very different experience than I was hoping for - it would have been quite different today, 20 years later.

However, Mr. Bungle is well worth the time to listen to, so here is today's track: Carousel from their self-titled debut album released in 1991. Call it circus metal - call it what you will - I just call it good music.