So what's up with Buckethead?

what's up with Buckethead? Well, the only real answer is...

siLLy puPPy wrote: Lewian, I'm trying to be explicit in my reviews all the whys. I have given a few 1 stars for pikes. The reason is usually that it is nothing new and yes boring. Compare albums I gave 4 stars to those I gave one. I've now listened to close to 70 pikes and my standards get higher as I proceed. Everything is played well but in my subjective opinion I just don't find all of equal quality. Same with other artists with large outputs like zappa.

Yes, I admire your reviews, you make them very informative which is quite an achievement given how many you write in short time (I can see a connection there), and I agree that the pikes are not all the same quality. Musical taste and even perception is of course subjective but still to me the impression of consistency (although perhaps not at the most obvious level) trumps diversity in what I have heard.

I checked out a few ones yesterday (all 2014/15). I tried some that should be fairly different from each other from descriptions I read (siLLy puPPy and comments on youtube), but my personal impression was not one of inconsistency. True some are more some are less experimental, some faster and some slower, some noisy some calm, but for me they all had a fairly similar feel to it, a musical stream of consciousness of which it doesn't surprise me one bit that this is all the same person. This is how moods change and music can express it. The whole approach what kind of thing this guy thinks makes a "song", the guitar playing and how it contributed to express different emotions, the use of rhythm and licks etc. seems pretty recognizable to me. Perhaps not recognizable enough to achieve 100% in an "is this Buckethead or not" quiz, but enough to give me the feeling that it's the same person, the shape my impression of his personality, but also to think at a certain point that it's all "more of the same" even when I go to a pike that is supposedly very different.

When I started to make my own music at the age of 15 or so I was very fast but bad. I have big appreciation for Buckethead for how good this stuff is given that often he does 30 minutes in a single day. I'd be mightily proud of myself had I been able to do 30 minutes of this quality in a day. On the other hand, the lack of elaboration of the compositions seems fairly obvious to me at any moment. OK, in my fairly random exploration (although I went into a few that got 4 stars by siLLy on purpose) I may have missed things that are different but still. I haven't come across parts/songs where I clearly felt that I want to listen to this again. (Probably I should peek into his earlier stuff when he took more time.)

I just saw that siLLy has come up with a one star review today. This was probably the first oen, but I'm not sure. I wonder whether this pike is really particularly bad or whether siLLy just gets bored more easily the more of this he does. We'll see.

Obviously having listened to Buckethead now on only two days in my entire life, I can't claim that my opinion is very qualified, not only may I have missed great stuff, also the stuff I listened to may grow if I'd give it more time. Still, my listening gave me a pretty solid feeling of what to expect, that I can occasionally have fun listening to some of this, I respect it for the productivity and for being an original thing to do and credit goes to him for doing it first, but also that I don't expect anything from this guy that can really draw me in, at least not in this 2014/15 phase; of course he may change direction at some point and he apparently has done this before.


Edited by Lewian - December 04 2015 at 06:55

For the curious, here's three different sounding Pikes:







Sometimes I listen to some Pikes on Youtube as background music when I'm cleaning, getting ready for work, etc.

zachfive wrote: I don't want to be a wet blanket here, but to both Dellinger and lazland - why are we scoffing someone for being creative? He is creating music, and if he wants to record and release it why should it deserve your disrespect? I am not telling you not have an opinion on the man, by all means that is your right; but to me, mocking someone for doing something that you deem is not of quality, well I do not agree with that. Especially when neither has listened to any of his music, only read about his extensive discography. Also, one could argue he is being very progressive, for who in recorded music history has put out that many records in that span of a time? Doing sh*t nobody has currently done in rock is what progrock is about. Whether you have or have not listened to his music, he should at the very least be commended for his commitment, no matter how much "quality" he puts in. I do realize you were interested in, and were reaching out to find more about this aberrant individual, and I may be taking this too seriously, so sorry to call you guys out on what may be a non issue. I'm not even a Buckethead fanboy by any means....

I'm not bashing him, I'm only discussing... or more like "talking", given my mostly ignorance of the artist. I never said he was bad... that would be totally inacurate not having heard him. It's just that I find it difficult to believe he could release much quality with that kind of amount of albums released... I would think it's actually impossible. Surely there is something of quality among so much music relased, but I don't think I would be willing to dedicate so much time listening to his music in order to find those wortwhile pieces. And if all his over 100 albums were really great... well perhaps even then I would be at a loss... imagine to consider buying 100 album in a year from just one artist just because it's all great, that would be some serious buck and time to spend on only one artist. That's why I thought it would be great if he would release a best of year 2015.

Yeah, I admire the guy for his creativity. His stuff is diverse and as such hit-or-miss but the stuff that 'hits' is great IMO.

lazland wrote: I have read, with some fascination, but without ever really being tempted to listen to any of them, Mr Silly Puppy's reviews of the hundreds of "Pike" albums released by Mr KFC Head. An incredible output. But are they any good? I listened to an interview with David Gilmour today, in which he said he continually wrote down and recorded ditties that came into his head. When he comes to making an album of music, he said that the vast majority of these notes and songs were discarded, as not being worth very much. Those that were good, of course, formed the basis of the work of art that followed. It strikes me that Chicken Meal Deal Bucket Bonce simply records, and releases, every single thought that comes into his head immediately, which does not strike me as being the best quality control in the recording world. As an ignorant of his work, is my impression a fair one?

That's exactly my impression, without knowing anything from him, and that's why I wanted to know what other people might think about him. I feel he should release a sort of "best of" album from each years releases, just for those who are interested in knowing his music, but don't want to buy over a hundred albums in one year (or even just listen to them) trying to find the moments that are worth listening... of course, he may be too busy releasing albums as for taking the time to choose his best songs of the year.

A very good guitarist who has over-saturated webdom with practice releases. And that whole "buckethead" thing is as old as listening to a 90s Korn album.

It's definitely gone over the top since he was doing an album a day, but they're all pretty consistent given the circumstances. There is a little bit of experimentation in each record, but not as much as his earlier stuff, and the song writing isn't technically as good. Still he hits upon some really nice stuff almost by accident (30 Days to Halloween: Blurmwood, being his most recent that I know of). I guess it's just about how important quality is over quantity, but to answer your question, I prefer to listen to his records more than a huge number of artists that spend longer on their music.