ShredAstaire Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Buckethead is releasing a new album in September....9 Banjo tracks! What? No, this is not a bluegrass album....in fact, it sounds really weird (surprise). I'll call it dark and twisted banjo music. Sounds like it could be good Halloween mood music.... There are some 30 sec samples for those who are interested....and 1 full track is available to listen to. Reminder: This aint bluegrass or typical banjo music. http://travisdickersonmusic.com/store/spinal_clock.html Most of you will dis this....and that's ok. Even some BH fans are like "WTF?!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bill Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Why you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted August 27, 2010 Author Share Posted August 27, 2010 Ahahahaha.....i like that pic Bill!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shnate McDuanus Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 With the utmost respect... I jumped on over and honestly I thought the guy was brain dead before I listened to some of those tracks but come on "spinal cracker" isn't anything but some noodling and random thoughts with zero structure or anything. I honestly do not understand how so many of his fans will die for him (and there are a few fanatics here also) this wasn't even music. In conclusion I want what ever he is taking; its got to be way better than the meds that the VA is giving me.... OK, here's my take on Bucket... I do like some of his music (Giant Robot comes to mind first and foremost,) and I think he's a talented, interesting, innovative, creative, hard-working performer with a lot to offer the music world. However: (added emphasis should be noted here), I have the strangest feeling that a lot of what he does is, for lack of better words, very clever marketing. Let me explain. Buckethead's work, back in the earlier days of his career, came rather infrequently, and was at times more conventional in terms of structure and sound. However, as time went on and he developed a devoted fanbase, I think he may have essentially came to the realization that, for everything he records, there will be someone out there who will buy it, regardless of what it is, simply because Buckethead is attached to it. I'm sorry if this offends any of the BH fans on the forum--you've gotta remember, I'm a bit of a convert myself--but it's a fact of marketing and business that demand fuels commerce. It's the same practice that all major pop acts use--that of creating and utilizing artificial demand--and in fact, Buckethead has, among other things, proven himself a fairly clever marketer and businessman, for being capable of (essentially) living off of his reputation as a swell musician and guitarist, and at the same time being able to release all of the weird sounds that he likes to make--and we've all been there, performing twisted experiments with timbre, dynamics and tonality where anything goes and it doesn't have to sound "normal" to sound cool. In reality, I see Buckethead's operation as mixing the excitement of invention and innovation (there really is nobody else out there doing what he does who's as commercially successful, if they do anything similar at all,) the pleasure of musicianship (I choose to defend him as a skilled and creative composer, and even if you don't like his music, it should be recognized that he does a lot of different types of songs, of various degrees of adherence to traditional concepts of composition,) the notoriety of being an eccentric pop-cultural figure, and having the ability to put some food on the table with record sales, merchandising, concert ticket profits, and whatever else he may do to make money (i.e. Gibson endorsements). I don't know how well-off he really is, but hey, he doesn't exactly have to work a nine-to-five to keep himself in KFC buckets and white masks, if you get my drift. So yeah, I think that a lot of the stuff he releases is stuff that wouldn't get released by an artist with more mainstream clout (because, for instance, if Michael Bolton released an album of microtonal nu-grass songs, he'd never work again,) but because BH is sort of on the fringes of the mainstream, he has just enough devoted fans so that he can release box sets with noise tracks on them, special editions of special editions, DVDs of archival footage and even stranger "lost" tracks, etc. etc., and people will buy them--that's not to say, however, that these pieces lack value, because some of them are very cool (depending on your definition of cool) and lotsa folk seem to like them (again, I do and I don't, it depends on the piece in question.) You don't have to, and I wasn't raggin' on ya, Jocko, rather I was just airing my theory of why BH really releases so much strange, otherwise-unmarketable stuff. P.S.: I liked "Spinal Cracker"...for what it was. P.P.S.: I, too, wonder what he may be taking. Whatever it is, I'm sure you can find it in schoolyards and back-alleys across America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chase1410 Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 In conclusion I want what ever he is taking; its got to be way better than the meds that the VA is giving me.... LOL!!!! wasnt one of bucketheads best works huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bill Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted August 28, 2010 Author Share Posted August 28, 2010 Hey man, even I am wondering about Spinal Cracker.... BH is no different than an artist like Zappa...he creates what he creates and while I don't like it all, I can appreciate it. I think I will like the album for its dark mood and twisted sense of humour which is obviously there. LIke I said, most folks won't like it but Steve posted so many Gary Moore threads today that I had to take the heat off of him for a minute! :) And XDemonKnight...i think Buckethead releases so much weird **** because he writes SO MUCH and he knows the fans will buy...wouldn't you do the same thing? I would! Also, he's released a lot of brilliantly composed, "normal" albums in the last 3 years...two really mellow ones this year in fact. I get what you are saying though for sure...you gotta wonder what goes on in that positronic brain of his... OH, and i should add that the word is that Buckethead does not drink or take any drugs at all. I have no idea if that's true or not but if it is, he's one messed up dude!!! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shnate McDuanus Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 Hey man, even I am wondering about Spinal Cracker.... BH is no different than an artist like Zappa...he creates what he creates and while I don't like it all, I can appreciate it. I think I will like the album for its dark mood and twisted sense of humour which is obviously there. LIke I said, most folks won't like it but Steve posted so many Gary Moore threads today that I had to take the heat off of him for a minute! :) And XDemonKnight...i think Buckethead releases so much weird **** because he writes SO MUCH and he knows the fans will buy...wouldn't you do the same thing? I would! Also, he's released a lot of brilliantly composed, "normal" albums in the last 3 years...two really mellow ones this year in fact. I get what you are saying though for sure...you gotta wonder what goes on in that positronic brain of his... OH, and i should add that the word is that Buckethead does not drink or take any drugs at all. I have no idea if that's true or not but if it is, he's one messed up dude!!! lol Yeah man, that was exactly it. I guess my post was maybe a little ambiguous. I was praising him for his artistic freedom and his ability to make a living off of it. He's a hugely creative artist and it goes without saying that, if I could, I would. As to the drugs? If he's not taking anything, then my point still rests--you can find that in any school yard or back-alley, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaxson50 Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 It's that Avant Gardi stuff.... We use to call it tuning up...but now you multi track it and call it art. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIANTRobOT42O Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 Skeleton Dance is gold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstMeasure Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 Spinal Clock reminds me of Roger Waters "Amused to Death". I was one of those Waters Fans that was saying "WTF"?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverside Posted August 29, 2010 Share Posted August 29, 2010 I wonder how much the Gibson BH baritone banjo signature edition will go for... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted August 29, 2010 Share Posted August 29, 2010 Wow as if Banjo players didn't have a bad enough reputation already. Sorry but this is not what I would call experimental it's pretty much just rubisb it will be interesting to see how many copies are sold though and how many people sit around and talk about how creative he is. I bought a banjo a few years ago but never really learned to play it now I don't have to learn to play i can just say i'm playing a BH song. and sorry to disagree but he's not Zappa. Maybe next he'll release an accordian album or maybe just play a shop vac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.