DUNN DEAL

There is no rock band quite like Mr. Bungle. There is no composer quite like John Zorn. Trevor Dunn plays bass for them both...

- Joel McIver

Mr. Bungle, the California-based five-piece, were formed in 1985, and have always inhabited slightly vague musical territory in their sporadic periods of activity since then. Their singer Mike Patton is better known for his work with Faith No More, who tip a hat to the more eclectic work of Bungle from time to time, but who generally remain much more digestible in their approach. In 2021, however, Mr Bungle are arguably enjoying a higher profile than FNM for the first time, thanks to an astounding album they recently released on Patton’s label, Ipecac.

The album, The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo, is a modern reworking of the 1986 demo of the same name. Back then it was a cassette of attempts to play thrash metal; the just-released version is an all-grown-up transformation of the old songs into an unexpectedly savage suite of music. To achieve this, the core Bungle members Patton, Trey Spruance (guitar), and Trevor Dunn (bass) invited two veteran thrash metallers on board—Scott Ian, Anthrax guitarist, and Dave Lombardo, formerly of Slayer, and now of Suicidal Tendencies. Recorded at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in Los Angeles, the record is completely unpredictable, even by the standards of this bizarre band. We asked Dunn to talk us through it from a bass point of view...

Here you are, Trevor, with the metal album of the year, even though you’re not a metal band. What’s it like playing bass alongside Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo?

Both those guys are relentless, it’s great. Me and Mike and Trey were joking about it, like ‘These old men are keeping us on our toes!’

There’s a lot of distorted bass on there.