3 FOOT CLEARANCE

BUCKETHEAD is not only the master of confusion in categorizing his music due to his genre blender and musical smoothie approach of unorthodoxies but he is a nightmare for those even trying to categorize his albums in a database. This album is the perfect example of how crazy this dude's discography is.

Originally released on 21 Dec 2010 as an untitled album with untitled tracks and then renamed HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM BUCKETHEAD (with still untitled tracks) that included a hand drawn holiday greeting card drawn by BUCKETHEAD himself as a limited edition. Each edition was an original hand drawn cover. It was basically a homemade dealie bop to give the fan an artist's hands-on feel. This was released just before the beginning of the PIKE series and then the album was re-released as the regular edition and renamed PIKE 3 - 3 FOOT CLEARANCE under the BUCKETHEADLAND moniker on 17 Aug 2011 with the new album cover that fits into the PIKE series. The album is unique in the PIKE series for being one of the few to be significantly over the half hour mark by clocking in at 40:23

Of course if that wasn't enough. The tracks are all the same but moved around depending on which edition it is and there were different versions of different editions. Someone give me an aspirin, please. THIS review covers the track order of the PIKE 3 - 3 FOOT CLEARANCE edition

"Griffin's Spike" starts out as a heavy metal rocker with a classic metal riff that is powerful and loud. After building up the melody and rhythmic patterns we are treated to an outstanding tasty emotionally provocative guitar solo, the kind that sets BH apart from the others. This is a pretty decent opener although it's not the most original thing he's ever done. It still however reaffirms he can make "normal" heavy metal :P

"Rammellzee: Here Of The Abyss" Well, he couldn't stay normal too long. This one starts out with a stop and go type of riff and a "chirping" sound. It's definitely a heavy metal track but has more progressive time sigs. It continues the patterns and has some electronica flair ups and wah-wah guitar parts as well. It ends with a Hendrix inspired guitar riff. Another decent track.

"Floating Graveyard" starts off creepy and slow with an echoey guitar and background noises. It breaks into a slow tempo doom metal riff with a higher register lick and then speeds up to a nice bouncy metal rocker and then back to the doom riffage. It continues to alternate between the two styles adding bluesy solos.

"Ballad Of Jerry Mono" lives up to its name and is a slowed down number that starts out with clean echoey guitar with that jittery riffage BH is known for. The track develops melodically and remains slow with an uptick of speed at the end where a guitar solo shreds into the scene. The percussion is pretty busy for a ballad and follows the jittery echoed guitar's lead.

"H.D. Autopsy" does a total 180 and we get an instant frenetic thrashy guitar riff and then some sizzling guitar soloing that sounds like wailing souls or angry ghosts. Not sure which.

"Droid Hunt" is weird. It is mostly electronic noises that sound like a machine malfunctioning and then joined in by a funky bass line with a cool funky guitar as well. The riff trades off with the "talking robot" effect of the electronically manipulated guitar(?). Very cool and very original. Strange time sigs and strange lead guitar that accompanies in the end. Ends franticly.

"Battlefields" is another rowdy metal rocker where guitars, bass and drum attack with full fury. It slows down a bit and carries out a more subdued riff for a while and then alternates with the speedy one. OK and kind of the type of track he'd do to death on future PIKES.

"Handprint Ornament" is another slowed down mid-tempo track with clean guitars and a bass that is more energetic. There is ambient keyboards in the background and the instruments take turns dropping out and letting the others have a chance to shine. The guitar solo is slow and melodic, not fast.

"Three Headed Guardian" starts out with what sounds like a harpsichord but then breaks into a jangly alternative rock sound which adds a bluesy guitar lick over the top and then the jittery riffs come into play. It eventually turns into a strange kind of mellow thrash and then a classic heavy metal sound and then fast guitar solos that become freaky.

"Harpoon The Goon" starts out as a hard bluesy rock riff, kinda like old AC/DC then breaks into a heavy bluesy rock riff with lots of percussion and cymbal action. Pretty much creates a blues rock melodic development. Nothing special but well done and then has some slower parts that remind me of ZZ Top breaks but becomes a bouncy AC/DC rocker again.

"Critical Leg Assignment" cranks out an avant-garde feedback scratching effect? This is the strangest track on here. It has a nice steady drum beat with an oddly-timed guitar doing strange chugging that follows. It manages to throw in a weird guitar solo. I love it! So original and BUCKETHEAD at his most freaked out state.

"Siamese Butterfly" is a short little heavy rocker that has only a guitar riff and a drum playing together in a strange time sig dance. It all changes it up often in different ways in its 1:56 playing time. Very original and pretty cool. Lots crammed into this one. Kind of a psycho-bluegrass feel to the whole thing.

"X-Ray" (0:49) is a strangely distorted guitar riff that stops and goes really fast and then goes really wild and then before you know it the album is done.

I love this one! This one crams the traditional with the zany. These early PIKEs rock!

Pike 3: 3' Clearance

Art Review: They got the little chicken baby thing 10/10

Track 1: Griffin's Spike (4:07)

A heavy metal track with a cool intermittent solo, and some robo drums. Buckethead made this song for Blake Griffin the basketball player. Song does go eclectic midway through with some crazy riffing and killswitch action, but it's not too much different then any of his other stuff. Main riff is cool and catchy and the solo is pretty chill. 5/10

Track 2: Rammellzee: Hero of the Abyss (4:00)

This one starts off with some crazy digitech electronica zapping and a heavy riff. Switches over to some cool chugging wah action that's very sluggish. Slunkish? The tempo is slow and the 'abyss' bit really comes through with the deep bends and wah action. Drums sound mildly alive, less robotic then the previous song. 2:18 switches over to some weird wah playing then a sick riff with the heavy wah. Solo comes in with some spice and brings in some eclectic riffing too. Song ends off a little mysterious. 6/10

Track 3: Three Headed Guardian (3:56)

Buckethead straight away with the underlying lick and the solo flying in. Backing comes to the forefront with a nice riff and changes around with the distortion into the next section. More cool riffs. Solo comes back beautifully, really setting in stone with a fast flying riff and back into more heavy metal riffage. Drums are about in the middle of robotic and not. Solo comes in with some super speed and the song changes up drastically with some crazy super fast soloing that goes eclectic as per usual. Fast killswitch action and the drums are just crazy. Weird fast lick into a heavy finisher. Very cool and weird. 7/10

Track 4: Floating Graveyard (3:18)

Some creepy beginning vibrato into a heavy version of the same riff, wah seems to be quite present. The song then goes full metal with heavy drums coming and a sick backing. Switches back to the beginning riff, which transforms into another cool riff, which slides in the solo. Solo is creative as per usual and nothing eclectic comes forth. Song slows back down, back into the beginning riff and finishes off. Would be 8/10 if there was some more soloing but it kinda ends off bland. 7/10

Track 5: Ballad of Jerry Mono (4:55)

Jerry here has seen some beautiful sceneries that grace us, down a beautiful river valley into a soaring mountainscape. Very chill and open and begins to build up into something heavier. Solo guitar comes in the background with a different tone though doesn't last very long. Man this song is beautiful. Thoughts of a world of peace and flowers come to mind, a cottage that looks out onto the mountains perhaps. Around 3:00 it begins to pick up and get a bit faster. Super solo comes in as the song builds. Buckethead does some cool stuff then it actually just slows back down into something more calming. Song basically carries as it was before with a simple solo behind. Ends ok. Kinda faltered near the end. 6/10

Track 6: H.D. Autopsy (3:17) Starts off pretty heavy with some slightly quiet drums. Then an evil eclectic dark worldian solo comes out and the noises from beyond begin to chorus the sky. I can definitely see an evil doctor jamming out to this noise creation. Heavy bit is pretty good, and around 1:10 it switches over to something more listenable. Buckethead does some weird killswitch action then a sick solo comes in. Some heavy stuff jumps around and the solo keeps working. Song actually ends up being quite formatted in the later half and the solo is not very crazy. Just some fast whole fretboard riffing that swirls into the shadows of the slunk abyss. Ends off with some eclectic tapping. 6/10

Track 7: Droid Hunt (2:44) Ok, I'm in some sort of chamber where I am being turned into a cyber-slunk-o-tron-o-matic in front of a crowd of hungry chicken people. Back into some funk from buckethead with a little groovy riff then immediately my mind is being drilled into by the great master computer. Back to some groovy metal bits then a solo from beyond appears. This song reminds me of like all of the other songs on this album. Some weird stuff or normal riffage, then later an actual solid solo. This solo isn't too bad, some interesting stuff going on here with the vibrato, and its quite noisy. Not too notable. 5/10

Track 8: Battlefields (3:11) Another metal track with heavy riffing. This one is a tad groovetastic in its riffing style but nothing too great. Riffs go around and do some cool double layering stuff. Stuff gets quite heavy but nothing very interesting. Solo around 1:50, nothing NOTABLE. Man this one is just like the others. Very medial. Ending is kinda cool, but its really not hitting the spot. 5/10 but more like 4.5. Maybe 4.75.

Track 9: Handprint Ornament (2:46) Some slower atmospheric stuff with lighter drums. Guitar playing is pretty ok. Picks up midway through buts its about the same the whole way through. Just an atmospheric solo. End is good, more emotion. 4/10

Track 10: Harpoon the Goon (2:28) This one is another HEAVY metal rocker. It's got some weird riffage and it's also nice and groovy. ABC I love metal songs like you and me. Most of these would be good if not crunched into one album. Just boring to listen to 5 songs that sound similar. This one had some nice upbeat backing, drums are hella robotic, solo is nice. 5/10

Track 11: Critical Leg Assignment (2:33) Ok so back to the churning master. Some weird industrial super sensitive string ionizer from the backyard of bucketheads beast box. Name of the song is quite odd. Heavy riffing comes in a bit later. Weird stuff does not stop there with some weird 'soloing' and a funky bass backing. Eclectic riffing appears with the stupid goofy riffing which is so stupid. Very good. Weird stuff just happens here. This is a weird town. Ends off weird. 7/10

Track 12: Siamese Butterfly (1:54) Palm muted guitar with some ok drums. Goes around fast like a little dog then does some riffing like a dying water man thing from the glopian bellows of shadow cave. Yeah this is a bit creepy and just avante all over. Not too bad, music for a mad frenchman with a little yipper dog that pees on your shoe. 6/10 nice.

Track 13: X-Ray (0:49) My ears hurt. Just like if you put your head into a microwave and ended up speaking microwavenese, and now everyone thinks you're weird and a robot. 5/10

Overall a 6/10. Alot of repetitiveness but some of the weird songs were actually pretty good.