Stereolab vs. Mr Bungle

It s like apples and oranges.

this is the best taking sides ever. but i don't know enough about mr.bungle except that i liked them when i heard them in the record store a long time ago.

with them being american, it seems unlikely, but are mr bungle named after that bear in rainbow? surely, rainbow never made it to america, did it?

It is like apples and oranges, but I've always liked oranges more. Bungle 4-eva.

This is sort've a meaningless comparison, no?

MR BUNGLE are named after a proper-child-ettiquete film from the 1950's.

...which was used in the Pee-Wee's Playhouse live special i think. I hear that there are 2 Pee-Wee movies in the works, one for kids and one for adults. going to have to make a decision...

To answer the question: Mr. Bungle is awesome. Mike Patton is extremely scary in person. I'm going to say: recorded - Stereolab (if only for their early "good" albums). live - Mr. Bungle.

All in all, I prefer Carl Stalling.

Mr. Bungle *has* evolved beyond masturbation and colostomies methinks. 'California' (and it really couldn't have been called anything else) is one of the most interesting albums that I've ever heard. I've heard it dismissed as just a random and noisy attempt at genre deconstruction, but if you listen to it more than say, three times, all of that changes. It's actually highly precise, very emotional, full of truths and commentaries, and intricately roadmapped. A full on musical adventure - and you surely don't find that very often these days my friends. Rare, above all that even, is the fact that all this innovation is going on in music that is also supersaturated with innovation's arch enemy - nostalgia - surf riffs, beachy harmonies, rockbilly, old westerns, metal, disco (you name it.) P.S. Don't make the mistake of giving Mike Patton *all* the credit just because he's got the highest profile - one listen to Secret Chiefs (Trey Spruance and Co.) and the group effort seems pretty obvious.

a friend of mine recently introduced me to mr bungle. admired the music a lot - such a crazy mix but so tightly wound together. still, it had a rockism about it which repels me. Stereolab, on the other hand - minutae! the lyrics are sometimes the worst excesses of lazy marxism but despite being lexically akward slide perfectly into the musidc, which is some of the most minutely composed... makes me wonder how mccarthy were ever so bad.

One of Dave Q's more inspired questions, this.

This is an interesting comparison and I'm going with Mr Bungle. Mr Bungle have an energy and playfulness which I find so charming and interesting that it's a pleasure to listen to. I haven't heard that much Stereolab, but it always seemed a bit detached and chilled, which doesn't really inspire much engagement with whats going on, although I quite like some of their stuff, from a distance. California is so colourful and manic and the whole thing has this incredible sort of SWING that makes it sound cool and exciting at the same time.

Ah, right, so Not a calum thread then.