Good post, I'll take you up on that offer of album suggestions. The guy is an intimidatingly skilled guitarist but I mostly know him from Youtube clips. I don't actually own any of this stuff exactly because I have no idea where to start. Especially 'cos he's musically all over the place.

So: which album(s) rock and shred the most lol. Instrumental material preferred (is it all instrumental? I don't know). Or let's put it this way: which album is his guitar playing magnum opus, his Passion & Warfare.

BMU wrote: So: which album(s) rock and shred the most lol. Instrumental material preferred (is it all instrumental? I don't know). Or let's put it this way: which album is his guitar playing magnum opus, his Passion & Warfare.

Good question.

His music is basically divided up into these categories;
- Instrumental easy listening (some really beautiful stuff here, the albums "Colma" and "Electric Tears" are good examples).
- Instrumental atonal/avant garde.
- Instrumental Fusion (more rock based than jazz based though)
- Instrumental rock/metal.
- Instrumental Jam band collaborations (such as Praxis, C2B3).
- Crazy Bucketheadland inspired stuff which includes everything from the above categories and weird spoken word.
- Guns N Roses (Chinese Democracy and most likely Chinese Democracy II when it comes out).

Some albums mix up all of the above styles.

To start off with, I'd recommend "Giant Robot NTT" which was recorded in 1996. Due to unauthorised samples being used this album can no longer be legally sold so Buckethead made it available free of charge. Some consider it his magnum opus.

Here it is:
www.megaupload.com/?d=NJVSTWSS (MP3 320kbps)
www.megaupload.com/?d=NX8V4PQ6 (apple lossless - full CD quality and can be played in Itunes)

From that CD, I recommend the tracks "Giant Robot", "Hog Bitch Stomp", "I love my parents", "Scraps", "Mrs Beasley", and "Chicken Boy". This will give you an example of his versatility. The other tracks are pretty good as well. Incidentally, Bucket also plays bass throughout.

Other albums that I highly recommend are;
Electric Tears
Colma
Decoding the Tomb of Bansheebot
The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock
Dragons of Eden
A Real Diamond in the Rough
Chinese Democracy - Guns n Roses (that should be available in your local music store).
Population Override (hard to find these days but worth a download).

You can't really go wrong with any of those. Most are available from www.tdrsmusic.com

mcmurray wrote:
- Guns N Roses (Chinese Democracy and most likely Chinese Democracy II when it comes out).

Oh thats due in lets say another 14 years or so .... i really doubt that will see the light of day

IceCreamMan wrote:

mcmurray wrote:
- Guns N Roses (Chinese Democracy and most likely Chinese Democracy II when it comes out).

Oh thats due in lets say another 14 years or so .... i really doubt that will see the light of day

lol. You're probably right, although GNR are more active now than they've been in a very long time.

Ohhhh yes Praxis. I'd forgotten, I got an album off emusic (legal paid-for download site) long ago. I don't recall it being a very pleasant experience lol. Colma I've heard some. I'll try that download, appreciated!

ya that would be sweet if you could scan the magazine for me, haha. what magazine did that come in anyway???

mcmurray wrote: Is there much love for Bucket in SA? The reason I ask is because IMO he's one of the finest players around, but isn't known widely outside the states. He's appeared on over 175 albums total, of which over 50 are solo recordings. His discography can be intimidating to navigate but if anyone wants album suggestions let me know what you like and I'll do my best to find a good match. He plays all genres so there's something for everyone.

Country?
Shetland celtic?
Bluegrass?
Zydeco?

Let me see if I have this right. Buckethead wears a bucket and a mask. Shoot! It looks like a wig hanging down from that bucket as well.

So how do we know who is actually appearing before us? They could have multiple bucketheads in the wings. One who is great at C&W, another who is great at whammy bar tricks, a third who murders the blues (make what you will of that) and so on. They let off some blinding lighting effect and swap whilst the audience is disoriented.

It's cute. If the "country buckethead" falls ill or starts getting uppity about the salary you just get another one.

like the Stig of the guitar world Bob...

Donovan Banks wrote: like the Stig of the guitar world Bob...

Exactly what I was thinking in the shower this morning.

My two favourite albums by him are A Real Diamond in the Rough and Pepper's Ghost. A Real Diamond is all very chilled, pretty sounds and what not (it's a listen in the background type album imo) and Pepper's Ghost I don't really know how to describe. Nice mixture of everything and I've found it the easiest album to get into. I think Pepper's is a good place to start if you're just getting into Buckethead.

X-rated Bob wrote:

mcmurray wrote: Is there much love for Bucket in SA? The reason I ask is because IMO he's one of the finest players around, but isn't known widely outside the states. He's appeared on over 175 albums total, of which over 50 are solo recordings. His discography can be intimidating to navigate but if anyone wants album suggestions let me know what you like and I'll do my best to find a good match. He plays all genres so there's something for everyone.

Country?
Shetland celtic?
Bluegrass?
Zydeco?

Well this tune touches on Bluegrass;

http://www.alleyjazz.net/philes/audio/Giant%20Robot%20NTT/Giant%20Robot%20-03-%20Hog%20Bitch%20Stomp.mp3

And here's a celtic sounding improv on the banjo;



These are styles he rarely plays, there are no albums of his full of bluegrass/country etc.

I have no idea what Zydeco is, I'm going to check it out, cheers.

X-rated Bob wrote: Let me see if I have this right. Buckethead wears a bucket and a mask. Shoot! It looks like a wig hanging down from that bucket as well.

So how do we know who is actually appearing before us? They could have multiple bucketheads in the wings. One who is great at C&W, another who is great at whammy bar tricks, a third who murders the blues (make what you will of that) and so on. They let off some blinding lighting effect and swap whilst the audience is disoriented.

It's cute. If the "country buckethead" falls ill or starts getting uppity about the salary you just get another one.

You're not the first person to make this observation, however one you're familiar with his playing/compositional style and technique you'll realise that it's one person. His name is Brian Carroll, and it's not a wig ?

bluemax wrote: ya that would be sweet if you could scan the magazine for me, haha. what magazine did that come in anyway???

GuitarOne magazine, Jan 2006.

I don't have access to a scanner right now, but as soon as I can I'll post it here.