California is the third studio album by American experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. It was released on July 13, 1999, through Warner Bros. Musical style and writing The album's 1999 press kit by Warner Bros. Records states, The songwriting process for California was much less collaborative than the band's previous albums. Despite having a more accessible sound than prior releases, saxophonist Clinton McKinnon has stated, "It wasn’t some attempt at reconciling how much we’d previously tortured our audiences with white-noise [...] it wasn’t some conscious attempt to normalise our music or make it all the more palatable." On the album's writing and sound, Trevor Dunn stated in a 2017 interview that, "[we] never discussed our projected direction. We never sat down and said, 'ok the last record was like that so now let’s attempt this.' Instead we individually brought things to the collective table that somehow coalesced without premeditation." He goes on to state that "the recording of California was a bit of a nightmare. We attempted frugality by recording a lot in our rehearsal space which [our guitarist] Trey [Spruance] had partially turned into a recording studio. But we also spread the work out over various outside studios with a number of engineers as well as additional musicians. In the end we had two 24-track tape machines and two ADAT machines linked. That record would have been much easier to manage had Pro Tools come along a bit sooner." Regarding the album's title, drummer Danny Heifetz said in 1999, "More than anything, that title really sums up sonically what's going on on the record. It's very pleasant at times, and then there are a lot of little disasters that come up and present themselves, then blow over and go away like a storm. I would tend to explain it more like that, rather than, "Oh, California is this very deceptive place; it's bright on the outside and a really dark place on the inside." I mean, let's let the Chili Peppers do that." Trey Spruance, who had recently covered the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" for the album Smiling Pets, said that the work of Brian Wilson (particularly Smile) was "definitely" an influence, "especially when it comes to the Faustian scale of it." Promotion and touring To support the album, Mr. Bungle embarked on a large scale tour covering North America, Europe and Australia. They also notably appeared on the