
Photo Credit: Daniel Vorley / Getty Images
It appears that the legendary Mr. Bungle are back in full swing, with the news now confirmed that they're in the studio re-recording their 1986 demo The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny, as well as a bunch of covers and unreleased tracks!
The news comes after the band three huge reunion shows earlier in January, which saw Mike Patton recruit the talents of Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies) and Scott Ian (Anthrax) to join original members Trey Spruance bassist Trevor Dunn in playing the 1986 demo in full alongside a smattering of covers and unreleased b-sides.
In a lengthy new feature with Revolver magazine, Trey Spruance had this to say on the decision to play the shows and re-record the demo:
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO RE-RECORD THE RAGING WRATH OF THE EASTER BUNNY?
TREY SPRUANCE I guess there's a couple reasons. The main one is that we started hanging out again and doing music together — Trevor, Mike and I — about 10 years ago. That was obviously way after the band broke up in 2001 or whenever it was. So we've been meeting up and doing stuff for 10 years. We never felt like there was a pressing need to do a Bungle reunion, but we were hearing about it all the time. We knew people wanted us to do it, but we were kinda looking at each other, like, "Should we?" We felt like if it wasn't coming out of us naturally, what the fuck are we doing? Maybe we should be thinking about our legacy more than doing a reunion just to do it. So we didn't do it.WHAT CHANGED?
Then Trevor had this spontaneous idea when he was on tour with Lombardo — probably in Fantmas — "Wouldn't it be great if we did our early thrash/death metal stuff with Lombardo?" I think it was an informal thought at first, but then it kind of took root when my band Secret Chiefs 3 was opening up for Dead Cross on tour. That put all of us in the same room — me, Trevor, Mike and Lombardo — and Trevor brought it up again. Like, "We're all standing here with Lombardo. Wouldn't it be amazing if we did this?" About a year later, Lombardo called me and suggested we surprise Patton for his birthday by doing a demo of these tunes.
Given that the tunes are so old, it will be very interesting to hear them with a new coat of paint on them. You can listen to the original release below:
Listen to Mr. Bungle now.
