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Explain Buckethead to me...

Silenced Fred

By Silenced Fred
in The Gibson Lounge

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Hector Arcadius

Hector Arcadius

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I have just 'aquired' his whole discography....I'm not really into 'shredding'' date=' but his stuff is like guitar heavy Residents...crossed with Captain Beefheart...

 

I think the reason most people don't get it, is that it's very different to most mainstream music...in both production values, and content...having listened to The Residents for years it's not sooo 'alien' sounding to me...even the drum machines...

 

It's also humorous...(Zappa would be proud) so the serious rock contingent very rarely 'get it'...

 

Basically if you have long hair, tattoo's, and think bands like Aerosmith, Van Halen etc are cool...you will hate it...

 

If, on the other hand you wanna go 'Fast and Bulbous'....you will love it..[thumbup

 

 

 

Not true. I love Aerosmith and I do get Buckethead. I can appreciate good music when I listen to it, either coming from heavy-metallers, from glam-rockers or from solo instrumental artists with very personal dress codes... And I don't think Aerosmith get themselves very seriously either, I find a lot of good sense of humour in their music.

 

 

What people do not get is that quality music and honest song-writing can be found in all sorts of genres. Bull$hit as well. And all those decades after Alice Cooper and David Bowie shook common perceptions about music, attitude and stage presence, people still do judge an artist by his appearance...

 

 

Lesson to be learned: People simply do not change...

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Shnate McDuanus

Shnate McDuanus

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Well...the bucket and mask are just part of the image. Questioning that is like questioning why KISS wear makeup or why Geddy Lee used to wear various silk kimonos on stage--and it's a valid thing to question, but the easy answer (and, of course, not the only one) is that it's part of their "image." One may ask why an artist needs an image? Some of them feel they do, some of them feel they don't.

 

I know that I have an image and I cultivate it every day (see: Marc Ford.)

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Diatonic_mealworm

Diatonic_mealworm

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Buckethead is different than most guitar players has a great sense of humor and likes horror films. He does what he wants with no regard to popularity. Whats not to like about a guy who claims to have been rasied by chickens in a chicken coop? good musicians ussally have a sense of humor....

 

I love that people always use the i dont get him thing...I'm glad you dont get it! I like having people ask me who my favorite guitar player is and its not lame-o- Steve Vai or another over hyped guitarist.

 

 

I think I'll start a topic called : Explain Steve Vai to me.

 

If you took away Steve Vai's whammy bar ..He couldnt play anything worth while. The guy is border line *** with his hair always being blown back as he plays ...lol! why doesnt anyone say stuff about him...Hes a total femme bot!

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Look! Im guitarest!

Look! Im guitarest!

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Nope. It's a jab.

 

But on a serious side' date=' I just have never been able to sit through one of his songs[/quote']

 

And you haven't heard all of his songs so...

 

All the shredders have talent' date=' they just lose my interest after about half a minute.

It gets old and boring very quickly.[/quote']

 

That's what I think about Malmsteen. At first I thought it was cool that his was shredding these classical songs in stuff but that's his weakness: he can't go a whole song without shredding. That's something that makes BH different from other shredders.

 

I can honestly say that I don't believe BH has released a "shredding" album in about 6-7 years....its all been cool melodic rock tunes lately with some great solos that have SOME shred...

 

Just to clear up the misconception that he is simply a shredder.

 

You still don't like him....cool with me y'all!

 

 

Isn't kaleidoscalp shreddy? I don't have it but that's what it seems. That came out in 2005 and that was probably the last crazy-awesome album.

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ShredAstaire

ShredAstaire

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^ Loaf, Kaleidoscalp is somewhat shreddy....but more effecty and circuit-bendy... yeah something like that.

 

I dunno...I guess the way I look at this whole thing is that you don't HAVE to get a guitarist or an artist to appreciate their music. Like Bubba said earlier (I mean McMurray), he doesn't get the bucket either, but he's left that behind because it doesn't matter one lick. It makes no difference to the music.

 

Diatonic Mealworm also mentioned something important - a sense of humour!! BH has one and he's not afraid to use it in his persona or his music....

 

Typically I have found that the people who don't "get" Buckethead, or at least make a big deal out of it are the people that are so stuck in their ways that there is no way they would even bother giving it a shot. You know, the whole "Get off my lawn" thing.....What is pretty cool is that I know many of you have actually gone out there and checked out his stuff....and you either liked a song or two and may investigate more, or you stopped after a couple of tunes that did nothing for you. I applaud all of you for checking it out and making an informed decision on your own.

 

I do feel that there is a lot of "following" going on when it comes to Buckethead. I.E. Oh...hmmm the "big guys" here don't like Buckethead, I guess I don't either. That's fine if you truly don't but don't be afraid to like what you like.....whether its Buckethead, Vai, Clapton or the freakin Jonas Brothers.

 

There's plenty to choose from...and I find people tend to "test" random YouTube vids and that's not always the best approach because of the hundreds of songs you'll find.

 

I like to match up Buckethead songs with styles that people like. Plenty of my buddies are not huge Buckethead fans (many of them don't listen to him at all), but they've all given him a try. I'll typically find out what someone listens to and I can recommend some of his songs or albums that might match that style. There's the shreddy albums like the Cobra Strike albums (which sound like video game music a lot!), there's the mellow albums like Colma and Electric Tears and even Shadows Between the Sky, there's the "hard rock" melodic albums like Elephant Man's Alarm Clock (one of my favs!), Pepper's Ghost etc, there's the heavier, more experimental albums like Cuckoo Clocks of Hell and Inbred Mountain (which have some shredding in them but they are far from Shredding albums)....my personal fav album is Giant Robot...a 1996 release where he has a nice rockin 90s guitar tone with a lot of really cool catchy tunes.

 

So i'm not trying to sell anyone, i'm trying to educate. Take it or leave it...remember, i didn't start the thread. :)

 

But yeah, like i said in the Clapton thread.....you either get it or you don't...there is no explaining required. Listen to the music and if it moves you, then you should be proud of what you like.

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mcmurray

mcmurray

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All the shredders have talent' date=' they just lose my interest after about half a minute.

It gets old and boring very quickly.[/quote']

 

Please tell me where the shred is in this tune, cos I'm not hearing it;

 

http://www.bucketheadland.com/01_The_Landing_Beacon.mp3

 

There's about 500 more where that came from.

 

Bucket ain't a shredder in the normal sense of the word. With guys like Malmsteen and Petrucci, all they do is shred. They simply can't tone it down.

 

On the other hand, Bucket is the master of composing easy listening down tempo music that your grandmother would love. If all you've seen is youtube videos, this will come as a surprise.

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ShredAstaire

ShredAstaire

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Shred' date=' Cuckoo Clocks has a ton of shredding! Not much soloing but a lot of shredding. What would make something a shred album? Inbred Mountain has quite a bit of shred and it's just an avant garde masterpiece.[/quote']

 

I disagree Loaf....i think he incorporates shredding in the songs on that album but I wouldn't call it a "shred" album. It sounds NOTHING like any other shredders music....therefore, it cannot be the same. [lol] hehehehe

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mcmurray

mcmurray

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Yeah' date=' I have been listening to him on Pandora, and some of the stuff is really good. I would say just over half I listen partially to, then skip it. Overall, I enjoy it though. [biggrin']

 

Good stuff mang.

 

I wish we could get Pandora here in Australia.

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DAS44

DAS44

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Good stuff mang.

 

I wish we could get Pandora here in Australia.

It's a great website, it's introduced me to a lot of new artists....

 

funnily enough its where I discovered that Buckethead had some good stuff (dont judge me you pr!cks)

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