Buckethead

Nice, guys!

I have between 40 and 50 pikes (most from 126-175) and perhaps some at the end that I've never heard (not counting the Halloween albums from 2015; I probably should stay away from that). And many deserve a second listening. I'd like to try and join from the beginning, not sure if I can do them everyday though.
 
One other thing about technique...
Mosh said:
I am curious about the extent of his training. His raw technique is insane...
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It's really that right-hand. His left-hand technique (fingering, positioning, etc) is super-efficient; and he's fast, very fast. But that right-hand is just frightening. As he said, this isn't "soloing". All these notes are about texture. And it's something he's still doing.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
This'll be fun. Foro has basically already done this (although maybe not listened to all of them all the way through); so should be interesting to see how much opinion variation there is.
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Forostar said:
I'd like to try and join from the beginning, not sure if I can do them everyday though.
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Not 100% sure I can commit to listening to a pike every day either. Perhaps we can agree on a minimum number of pikes a week and make a weekly day for the discussions? That would make it more doable but I realize it's also gonna drag out the project quite a bit :p
 
One a day continuously is too much. I think just read Mosh's reviews & listen/discuss if you want to. Mosh's pre-Pikes album reviews have already taken me back to those albums too, as he's posted up his thoughts; some of them I hadn't listened to in a while. I just recently made Bucketheadland and Bucketheadland 2 "music cut" playlists i.e. the actual music minus all the interludes. I also made a big playlist taking two of the best (or just interesting) tracks from every pre-Pikes solo album...

All good! :ok:
 
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Well 30 minutes is perfect for my school commute, so I'll probably listen to one on the way there and one on the way home. More once I get home maybe if I feel like it. A formal discography discussion would be fun but there are just too many albums and frankly not all of them are worth much discussion.
 
I'm at work now but will look at those videos later.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
One other thing about technique...



It's really that right-hand. His left-hand technique (fingering, positioning, etc) is super-efficient; and he's fast, very fast. But that right-hand is just frightening. As he said, this isn't "soloing". All these notes are about texture. And it's something he's still doing.
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Yea the right hand is insane. That is some of the smoothest playing I've ever seen. You can't even hear the sound of the pick or his finger hitting the strings when tapping.

Also saw the FAQ bits about his training. Maybe it's more accurate to say that he has never studied Jazz theory.

Unrelated, but what is the deal with In Search Of The...? Is this previously released material or brand new stuff? How does it fit in with the whole discography?
 
Mosh said:
Unrelated, but what is the deal with In Search Of The...? Is this previously released material or brand new stuff? How does it fit in with the whole discography?
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In Search Of The is a 13 CD release from 2007. It's uncredited, each CD is unnamed, & none of the tracks have titles. It's not a re-release, the material is all new. For the purposes of your reviewing I'd definitely skip it. My guess is it's Buckethead's first real attempt to make & release something entirely himself. I'm not sure, as there has been nothing written about what it is e.g. it sounds like there's real drumming on it, so who played the drums? He recorded it at TDRS. It's got an awful lot of total crap on it. I've done a ISoT playlist which is about 40 tracks of kinda okay-to-VG tracks. I probably haven't listened to it enough, but nothing is outstanding or truly memorable on it.
Forostar said:
Oldest recorded I thought. 1988? Perhaps I am mixing it up with another release.
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It's hard to tell. Do you mean as a release, or just footage generally? You can tell by his hair when most footage is from. From the Coop is said to have been recorded in 1988, around the time he met Jas Obrecht from Guitar Player; that's the earliest recordings officially released. My guess is he was in the cover band Class-X just before this; maybe 1987-88; never seen the date confirmed though...


He played in Class-X as Brian Carroll, not as Buckethead. I assume the narrative here is that Class-X didn't play any original (Buckethead) material (I think the band was only doing covers at this point); and Buckethead, the character, was a persona for Carroll to play his own material (i.e. too shy/self-conscious to go up on stage as himself) . Therefore, why would he play as Buckethead in a cover band, right? But my guess is: he hadn't invented the Buckethead persona at this point. Listen to the playing though, definitely him.

EDIT: The Class-X videos were originally posted by WhildHorseStudios: https://www.youtube.com/user/wildhorsestudios1421/videos
I don't see anything firm ("Here's a start at reposting some great footage from the 80's"), but the video called Buckethead.mov states at the beginning of the footage that it's 1988. So, 1988 (when Carroll was 18/19, if you assume May 1969 is his correct D.O.B.) is definitely the earliest date ever mentioned in association with any footage &/or recordings. In that "shredding demonstration" video his hair looks the same as in Class-X & the same as in the famous advert he placed. All circa 1988-1989.
 
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I'm listening to the ISoT playlist I made (a while back) right now; it's actually pretty decent. Still, I cut 92 tracks down to 40 "decent" ones; hardly stellar quality from Buckethead. Each CD is like a kind of Pikes precursor in a way. Uneven.
 
Bucketheadland 2
Excited for this one. The first Bucketheadland had a lot of cool stuff and I liked the style of music there. It had a lot of filler tracks and the production was really bad, which brought it down in my rating. So far this sounds similar stylistically but with better production values. I also just realized that it has been awhile since we've heard Buckethead's more technical/shred side. The last album was mellow and before that there was a long string of electronic work. There was some shredding on there, but it was not the focus. I'm excited to go back to some riff driven shred rock.

Favorite songs
The Cobra's Hood - Real drums! The sound is great so far. Awesome riff.
Machete Mirage - The soloing on this is insane. Also some of the most brutal riffs I've heard from Buckethead so far. Love when it goes into half time.
Frozen Brains Tell No Tales - Cool catchy riff. Love the heaviness on these tracks. The screaming guitar solo is great. One of his more developed guitar solos I've heard. Dislike the fadeout, I liked where the soloing was going but it was cut off.
Digger's Den - Some awesome riffing and noises here.
Carpal Tunnel Tomb Torker - I like the weird space-y intro to this before it gets heavy. Nice mixture of awesome riffing and Buckethead's typical weirdness. Wish there was more of this on the album. Love the heavy bass too. I think this is the best song in terms of combining just about every element from the album in one track.


The Verdict
I enjoyed this one. It's a bit heavy on the spoken/comedy/experimental tracks, but they're actually pretty good on here. Those tracks also feature more variety than on the first Bucketheadland. Songs like John Merrick-Elephant Man Bones Explosion which are more focused on studio noises and dialog are still entertaining to listen to. A definite step up from the "noisy" parts of the original Bucketheadland. There's still interesting stuff on many of these tracks, even though I didn't include them in my favorites. That being said, there are still too many of them. They overshadowed the actual songs on the album again. I still liked the album but I wish it was more balanced. I will probably make a custom Bucketheadland album containing the real songs from both albums.

Also, the spoken sections remind me of Lumpy Gravy by Frank Zappa. Similar sound to the voices and similar mixture of noises and spoken sections. Any knowledge on Buckethead's familiarity with Zappa (@Cried)? He has to be an influence on some level. Very similar aesthetic.

Overall, the production values, playing, and writing were all a huge step above the original Bucketheadland. Definitely one of his better albums in general. If it was more balanced it could be a contender for my favorite.

7/10
 
Mosh said:
Also, the spoken sections remind me of Lumpy Gravy by Frank Zappa. Similar sound to the voices and similar mixture of noises and spoken sections. Any knowledge on Buckethead's familiarity with Zappa (@Cried)? He has to be an influence on some level. Very similar aesthetic.
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Freese makes that joke that he came from Dweezil Zappa's house to see Buckethead the first time he met him; but Buckethead didn't care about that, he just wanted to to talk to him about his Dad's work at Disney! :lol:

Honestly, I'm not sure how influenced he's been by Zappa. I'm not familiar with Zappa's work at all, so I can't compare. Most of the soundbites/skits seem more influenced by his love of Horror/Monster films to be honest. The were, however, both (Zappa, for most his adult life) from California.
 
Yea I remembered that from the interview, though I assumed that spoke more of a love for Disney than an indifference toward Zappa. :p

Frank Zappa was also a big fan of Monster films, specifically B movies. So there's a lot of crossover there. Similar style of humor and similar appreciation for more dissonant/unusual melodic/rhythmic patterns.
 
I think the similarities are real enough, but Buckethead has name-checked guys like Malmsteen & Lane before; I think he would have mentioned Zappa if he'd been a big influence. And although all those interviews were years ago, Buckethead had pretty much established his style by his late teens. There's certainly quite a few Buckethead fans out there who seem to be heavily into Zappa. I think that connection is far more to do with the scale/size of both artists work though.
 
Island of Lost Minds
Don't know what to expect with this. So far seems like a more stripped down production than Bucketheadland 2 and it looks like less people worked with him on this. So far it's just guitar and drums. I hope the whole album is like this. If this one is all about the tunes I'll be happy.

Favorite Songs
Shock Therapy Sideshow - Awesome doom-y riffing on this. Love the shift into 6/8 in the middle.
Dream Darts - This one is pretty dissonant. I like when Buckethead gets weird but in context of an actual song. Nice slide guitar noises.
Skull Scrape - This one was a trip. Lots of sudden mood changes and twists and terms. No technical moments of brilliance, but this song doesn't need it. An example of the ability for instrumental music to take you on a journey in a way music with vocals can't.
Ice Pick Through the Eyes - This one makes the favorites list for being exactly what I would expect the musical depiction of an ice pick through the eyes to sound like.
Four Sided Triangle - Nice odd/syncopated rhythms here. Very angular. The song titles have been very fitting so far. Love the atonal shredding at the end.
Viravax - Some really majestic melodies in this.
Lobotomizer

The Verdict
Awesome album. This is my favorite since Colma. I had no idea what to expect going into this but it really impressed me. No tracks dedicated to noise or studio experimentation, this one was all about the music. This album does have its weirder moments, but it's all built around a song. Some tracks are just Buckethead jamming to a drum beat, but that's enjoyable to listen to also.

8/10
 
Whoa, I'm surprised you like this album this ("Awesome album") much. I agree it is, unlike other albums, absolutely solid (every track VG or better) from start to finish. A few previous albums, for me, had more highs; but, yip, nothing disappointing on this at all.
 
I just got done listening to Island of Lost Minds. I wonder what the past few albums have been like if this album was all about the songs because to me there seems to be a lack of any real structure to some of these and sounds like it's just Bucket playing around with dissonance and other sound effects. I did like the album though and it's heaviness... Some of it reminded me of Townsend's Strapping Young Lad....I guess overall I'm more into the ambient/melodic Buckethead though :)

Fave on this album is Shock Therapy I think.
 
Yes other albums have higher highs but for me it's all about the consistency. Chances are I'm never going to listen to most of these albums again, just the songs in my Playlist will be sufficient. But this was an album that I actually could see myself going back to.
 
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