Fungus Amongus

Album information

Many of the names given under 'Personnel' are actually pseudonyms for the Incubus members. 'Fabio' is guitarist Mike Einziger. 'Dirk Lance' is bassist Alex Katunich, who later adopted 'Dirk Lance' as his stage name. 'Brandy Flower' is an actual Sony employee, and 'Happy Knappy' is vocalist Brandon Boyd. 'Brett' and 'Brett Spivery' refer to Brett Spivey, long-time friend of the band, who went on to make their first two DVDs, and the videos for "I Miss You" and "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)".

The album cover image is of a mushroom (Amanita muscaria), also known as a fly agaric mushroom.

Stylistically, the album shows strong influences from funk metal bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus and Mr. Bungle, all of whom are mentioned in the liner notes of the album. Also the group present a quasi-rap style which is continued onto S.C.I.E.N.C.E. showing Brandon rapping on songs such as "Psychopsilocybin", "Trouble in 421", "Speak Free", and "Take Me to Your Leader".

Reception

Upon initial release the album failed to chart, however when re-released in 2000 by Epic/Immortal records it managed to peak at number 116 on the Billboard 200. The album received generally negative reviews from critics. Dean Carlson of Allmusic wrote "Incubus' independent debut is an unremarkable take on suburban MTV funk." he also criticized frontman Brandon Boyd writing "there's much to dislike, notably frontman Brandon Boyd, who growls like he wants the voice of anybody but himself". Tim Grierson of About.com observed "At this early stage, Incubus just sounded like a tired rehash of Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers."

Track listing

All tracks written by Incubus.

Personnel