Sir Millard Mulch
How to Sell the Whole Fucking Univers to Everbody... Once and for All!
Mimcry
Rediscover your smile, you miserable bastard
Sir Millard Mulch, AKA Paul K. Mavanu (maybe his real name, maybe an alias), knows I’m writing this review. He knows my name, my address, my AIM and my Internet screen name on the Mr. Bungle message board, on which he has also been known to post. He even looks a bit like me, from what I can tell via Myspace; but he isn’t me, I promise. What he is, is all explained more or less humorously on this “triple CD” album. He’s an Internet fiend who shamelessly promotes his music online, he works in graphic design and advertising during the day, and during the other hours he dons the multiple masks of Sir Millard Mulch—self-confessed Bungle fan, Trey Spruance groupie (Mimicry is the now former Bungle guitarist’s label), former Ween keyboardist (he got fired for sabotaging their shows, apparently), and “self-appointed messianic person.”
It’s my job to tell you whether or not to buy this album, even though Mulch here, who is also a budding music journalist, does a better job of it himself. Half comedy skits, half Zappa-esque (no chance of letting this review end without the Z word) smirking prog, How to... is an acquired taste in every sense. Devin Townsend and Cannibal Corpse’s Paul Mazurkiewicz pop up, as do a bunch of other semi-famous experiprog cats. There’s a Bungle “cover,” a Mudvayne one too, and a third disc, which will leave you… ah, fuck it. Look Mulch up online. Drop him a line. Say hi if you like what you read and think you might get along. And for your fucked-up tastes, you might just have found the most entertaining album ever. Seriously.
—Daniel Lukes
