SOUNDTRACK: MR. BUNGLE-The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo (2020/1986).
In 1986, Mr. Bungle released a demo tape called The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny.
In 2020, after a reunion tour of sorts, the band rerecorded the album, with some slight personnel changes. Original singer Mike Patton was still there as was masterful guitarist Trey Spruance and bassist Trevor Dunn. But they had two impressive guests stars (who also performed live with them), Scott Ian (from Anthrax) on rhythm guitar and Dave Lombardo, drummer extraordinaire.
And thus they re-recorded the initial demo. Fans of Mr. Bungle’s later genre bending work would be a little disappointed because this was pretty much a heavy heavy metal record. But it is Mr. Bungle so you know there’s gonna be some weird stuff too.
The only song they don’t play from the original is “Evil Satan” which is more or less a goof anyway.
“Grizzly Adams” opens the album with a very pretty guitar instrumental. Spruance really shines with this moody, weird piece. But even when the full band joins in in the last 30 seconds, it doesn’t prepare you for the heaviness to come.
“Anarchy Up Your Anus” is old school metal–heavy guitars with an Anthrax/Slayer vibe. There’s even a lengthy scream after the opening drum fills. This song has an opening narration by Rhea Perlman. Yes. Rhea Perlman. The narration comes from the Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House Disney album (on the demo they just played the audio from the record).
“Raping Your Mind” is out of sequence from the demo (it was originally song 6). It continues with the heavy Anthrax-like riffage and some serious drumming. There’s a cool middle moment where there’s two guitar solos and just bass and drums in the back–there’s some seriously wicked guitar soloing going on.
“Hypocrites /Habla Español o Muere” was originally a longer song, but they decided to shorten it and add this humorous cover of the Stormtroopers of Death song. The title is mentioned in the first few seconds, then after 30 seconds, the song jumps into a bit of “la Cucaracha” and then segues into “Speak Spanish or Die.”
“Bungle Grind” is really heavy with some classic mosh sections and faster riffage.
“Methematics” is a new song. It’s a bit more standard heavy metal and not so much early thrash until the double bass drums kick. There’s lots of parts including a classic punk style in the middle. This is more akin to the later, adventurous Mr. Bungle, but at 8 minutes it is a little long.
“Eracist” is another new song. This one is great. Really catchy with some good old fashion metal riffs and chanted chorus. There’s a seriously heavy middle section, too.
“Spreading the Thighs of Death” was the third song on the demo. It’s some good fast thrash with wicked chord changes and massive double bass drum. There’s some really wild guitar soloing too.
“Loss For Words” is a Corrosion of Conformity cover. It’s a pretty serious cover version. Patton’s vocal delivery is even a little different.
“Glutton for Punishment” is another new song that fits into the classic riff an thump thrash. There’s a whispered vocal part where you can actually hear the words! And a fascinatingly fiddly guitar solo that left me wondering how he did it.
“Sudden Death” ended the demo and ends this as well. A heavy chugging riff and super fast thrashing–it’s impressive that they can keep it up for seven plus minutes. I rather liked the “yes/no” chanting at the end.
This album isn’t for everyone (as most Mr. Bungle albums aren’t). But it does show off some quality old school metal and some serious skill for a band covering themselves 30 years later.
[READ: March 24, 2021] Zed
I saw this book in Barnes & Noble and fell in love with the cover. I made sure to look for it at the library and was pretty psyched when it came in.
And I was pleased as soon as I started reading.
Set in the not too distant future, one tech company, Beetle, dominates the world. I thought that Beetle was pretty inspired name. It could be Apple (who have a connection to The Beatles, with Apple Records) and it looks a lot like the word Google, although I suppose it is probably closest to being about Amazon–with their online assistant Athena.
Nearly every citizen (the book takes place in London, but Beetle is global) wears a BeetleBand which monitors everything you do–like a Fitbit or Apple Watch on steroids.
It tells you when you are stressed or when you should hydrate or that you shouldn’t have that donut. Indeed, everything is now really “smart”: fridges, doors, cars. Everything in your house is monitoring you. And everyone has a Veep, a personal assistant who does everything for you (except for physical things, since it has no body). You pay for all the best stuff in Beetle bucks–the cryptocurrency that replaced actual money as the dominant currency. If you didn’t convert your pounds, euros or dollars, when the rate was good, you’re just stuck.
When the book says everyone, it’s really mostly everyone. There are some people who can’t afford such extravagance. People who don’t work for Beetle get paid in regular money which isn’t very useful. There are also neo-Luddites who want nothing to do with Beetle. But they are carefully monitored by Beetle.
Most people work and communicate in a virtual world with avatars that are some version of themselves. And most importantly, every person has a Lifechain–the algorithm that determines the longevity and happiness you should experience. This predictions are pretty much never wrong and everyone uses them to judge people–employers, police, etc. Everything you do, every decision you make changes our Lifehchain, which changes you likelihood of doing x y or zed.
The book opens on a very ugly (and kind of graphic) scene. George Mann, an otherwise unremarkable person has just freaked out and killed his entire family. Something totally unexpected–his Lifechain never predicted this as an option.
He should be easy to track what with him what with him wearing a BeetleBand and all. But more human confusion comes in to mess with the perfect system.
Mann goes to a diner and removes his BeetleBand. Then another guy who is shaped like Mann (and is named Bigman) sits down at the table where Mann was. When the droid comes to arrest Mann (these droids are headless but bipedal and extremely creepy), it misreads Lionel Bigman’s behavior as a threat and shoots him in the head, killing him instantly.
This should never have happened.
Then we meet some of the main characters, Douglas Varley is a programmer for Beetle (his Veep is Scrace Dickens). His job is to make the Beetle owner, Guy Matthias look good (Veep: Sarah Coates). So when the unthinkable happens and the behavior of a person doesn’t match up to expectations, he needs to come up with a reason. A reason why, for instance, Bigman decided to commit suicide by droid.”
Then there is Eloise Jayne (Veep: Little Dorrit) who works for NATSO (the National Anti Terrorism and Security Office). This mostly means protecting Beetle, since they are intricately linked with all national security measures. She is responsible for making sure people are brought to justice. She released the droids that killed Lionel Bigman. She needs answers.
The fourth player in all of this is David Strachey, editor of several newspapers (all owned by Beetle). He is free to write whatever he thinks is best–no really, Beetle wouldn’t have any say in the news–as long as Strachey was happy to keep his job.
So the papers reported on the death by suicide and the blogs that said it wasn’t death by suicide were suddenly overwhelmed by views making them crash. It’s coincidence that Beetle owns the internet.
It quickly become apparent how much Beetle owns–including opinions, police and judges.
But what about the glitch with Mann and Bigman? Well the programmers have a term for it: Zed. After some very funny explanations of what Zed might mean, the techie programmer (and all around bad ass Frannie Amarensekera) explains that Zed is the category term for instability–“slight anomalies that we needn’t worry about.”
But soon Zed starts taking over everyone’s thoughts. And Guy Matthias starts freaking out because all of these Zed moments are making him and his product look really bad. Eloise Jayne is told that Zed is the greatest threat to civilization as they know it–so she needs to be on the look out for it (even if no one really knows what it is).
Later when she watches one of her droids interact with someone who is about to get arrested, she intervenes and is shot by her own droid. She winds up in the hospital–in (mental and physical) for most of the rest of the book.
Strachey is the only one who has any real qualms about what he’s doing. He regrets giving into Guy all the time. And he becomes the access point for Bel Ami, a neo-Luddite who is the spokesperson for LOTUS an organization looking to undermine beetle. They meet in a bookstore (who buys books anymore?) where the owner will disguise their BeetleBands for a short time. They even pay in actual money, darics–the owner doesn’t accept Beetlebits.
Obviously, Guy is going through a rough time. In addition to this Zed problem, his wife has decided to leave him (he sleeps with young women all over the world), his kids don’t speak to him and his Lifechain predicts that just about anyone he sleeps with will give him a satisfactory rating of less tan 3 out of 5. Plus, it seems like the Chinese are improving on Beetle technology faster than he can and they are not sharing.
For the most part I really enjoyed this story. The riffs on the abuses of power (and how easy it is to cede our freedom to technology) were terrific and there was plenty of very funny stuff. I enjoyed the tone of all of the Veeps.
The whole idea later of BeSpoke, a simplification of language designed to avoid confusion between speaker and hearer, is pretty great. It really messes things up.
But there were many parts where the book just seemed to drag on. The book could easily have been 75 pages shorter.
The parts with Bel Ami (who is great character) and the LOTUS were just so long-winded and full of techno babble. There’s a lengthy explanation of how LOTUS managed to hack into Beetle and yet the techno babble did not help to explain exactly how they were able to do what they did. There’s also a way too long list of all of the people who Bel Ami also “is.” The idea was great but there were so many and we only ever saw one other person mentioned.
It felt like there were several sections where one paragraph of description would have sufficed but the book provided several pages. Guy is trapped between two doors that won’t open for so many paragraphs detailing how much he can’t get out but wants to get out. Eloise is confused (so much detail about how confused Eloise is).
And then came the ending Without spoiling things, Bel Ami works with Strachey to try to undermine beetle.
And it seems like consequences are either blown way out of proportion or are ignore altogether. It’s possible that the ending was reasonable, but it wasn’t very satisfying. It feels so unfinished.
Even worse was the final chapter which for all its hints of something happening seems to end in stasis. As if there is a sequel, and boy I hope there isn’t.
I can’t get over how much I loved this book in the beginning and slowly grew to dislike it.
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