Buckethead

Buckethead is a controversial artist. Not because of his lyrical content, as most of his songs are instrumentals, but because of the way he looks. Sad right? I thought we all learned not to judge a book by its cover back when we were children. It seems this is not the case for many music fans out there.

First let me give you a bit of background on this character named Buckethead.

Legend has it that Buckethead was raised in a chicken coop by chickens. He considers the chickens his family. Though its said that early in his life, the chickens scratched his face so badly that he had to start wearing a mask to hide the damage done.

At the beginning of his guitar career, he started to wear a Chicken bucket on his head. (Originally it was not a KFC bucket, but Buckethead soon moved to the KFC buckets)

Buckethead has gone through many incarnations of his "look"....currently, Buckethead wears a slim one-piece coverall with his signature white mask and blank white bucket.

As you can likely tell, his "look" might put a few people off before even hearing a note of his music.

Here's where it gets fun....Buckethead is a classically trained guitar player that can and does play in MANY styles. No matter what kind of music you listen to, with a catalog of over 27 Solo CD's and countless other collaboration projects, there's a good chance that Buckethead has an album that you might like.

He is a YouTube phenomenon. If you search for "Buckethead" on YouTube, today, you will get 41, 700 hits to enjoy. MOST of which are recordings from his live shows. This is where MANY newer Buckethead fans discover their hero. There are of course those who upload copywritten material from his albums but the army of Buckethead fans that are there to report the abuse is enormous.

I've never seen an artist with such a rabid group of devoted fans before. Many would say that Buckethead fans tend to be obsessed with the man, and they would be somewhat right. Being one of those rabid fans, I feel like most of us are obsessed with the music first and foremost and support Buckethead's wish to remain anonymous.

While his real name is out there more and more, you'll never hear a true Buckethead fan use it.

Buckethead hit a surge of popularity back in 2006 when Guitar Hero II was released and one of his songs was made available as downloadable content on the Xbox 360. As many fans as this song created, it created even more haters.

The most common complaint you hear about Buckethead from the uninitiated is:

"He plays with no emotion...its just all shredding"

Usually this is coming from someone who has ONLY heard the song Jordan. I have just over 1000 unique songs by this artist and I could easily name 100's of songs where he plays with plenty of emotion. My favourite example being a song called Mrs Beasley, off his 1996 release on NTT Records called "Giant Robot" (This album is now out of print and quite rare)

This is a clip of Buckethead playing Mrs Beasley live in 1998 in Portland, OR:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vms-rblPcwc (Thanks to the taper of this show - Zintar)

The other main complaint you often hear from non-fans is:

"Get rid of the Bucket and mask - it's just a gimmick!"

The costume is not a gimmick, I assure you. It is his character. It is a crucial part of what is Buckethead. The music and the costume go hand in hand. In an early interview, Buckethead says:

"I thought it made sense with the way I play", he explains. "I play all this weird stuff, but if I just look like me, it isn't going to work. But, if I'm like this weird freak..."

One only needs to look at those who Buckethead chooses to collaborate with to know he is legit. He has cut songs and albums with Bootsy Collins, Bill Laswell, Les Claypool, Brain, Bernie Worrell, Serj Tankian etc etc.








































I encourage you to check out Buckethead for yourself. Remember, Jordan is a great song, but there is a LOT more to Buckethead than Guitar Hero and that song. If you find yourself wanting to dive in, find a Buckethead fan on Facebook, or at http://bucketheadland.proboards.com AKA Buckethead.TK, a message board where Buckethead fans can get together to chat about their hero and many other topics. Someone there will help you find some Buckethead that you like!

The best way to acquire Buckethead cd's is at http://www.tdrsmusic.com/ - This is Travis Dickerson's Recording Studio. You can purchase over 40 Buckethead albums from this site and you are buying direct from the artist. Please do not buy albums on eBay unless they are not available at TDRSmusic.com. (People like to sell stuff as Rare and Out of Print when it is simply not the case)

If you check his music out and still don't like it, that's cool because his music is certainly not for everyone...but if you do fall down the rabbit hole, you better start saving your money as you have over 100 albums to buy!

*If I have used any pictures that are copywritten, please contact me and I will remove them immediately.

Karma to Burn

OK, I'm not doing a random music selection today...i want to talk about a cool band called Karma to Burn.

Karma to Burn is a trio from Morgantown, West Virginia who play instrumental music. Labelled as "Stoner Rock" most often, they provide heavy beats with groovy riffs that make your head bang...sometimes unwillingly!

They have 3 full length albums available...the first, released in 1997 on Roadrunner Records is Self Titled and actually contains tracks with singing. Its my least favorite of the three...I just think this band does a better job without a singer holding them back. There is one amazing song on this album though - its the last song on the disc...it's called SIX. (After this album, ALL of their song names were numbers - they figured if there are no lyrics, they can't give them names!)

Six happens to be my favorite KtB song in their library. On the album, its almost like a bonus track....a long silence and then the song starts. (There is an edited version of this song on iTunes)
Anyway, this song has a cool dark opening....kinda quiet bass groove with some atmosphere (maybe even a double tracked bassline)... The drums kick in slowly and when the guitars hit, it creates a VERY nice buildup....about 1:10, the main riff slides on in and I picture like a chase scene. (Actually, K2B really evoke chase scenes in a lot of their tunes) Pick this song up for 99 cents to see if you like this band!

Their 2nd studio album is called "Wild Wonderful Purgatory"....this is when they started their Instrumental Only journey as a band. This is the first album I heard from these guys and I've always been into instrumental music. I liked what I heard here...I won't go into too much detail but each song has a different flavor to it but it all comes together as an album...a nice flow. Very nice introduction to a cool band!!

Their 3rd album is my favorite...its called "Almost Heathen" and it came out in 2001. The name describes the music perfectly. It's a darker album than their previous two efforts and contains less tracks....it seems more polished....solid. All 10 songs on this album RULE. This band can really create a groove....

Unfortunately, Karma to Burn broke up in early 2002 when their bass player (Rich Mullins) joined another band Speedealer.

Fast forward to 2009....and Karma to Burn reunites and does a reunion Tour in Europe and the US, kicked off at the Download Festival. They are currently working on a new album that is expected to hit the shelves (digital or otherwise) later this year.

I recommend this band if you like instrumental, heavy music that has serious groove.

Enjoy it. Comments welcome!

First Game - Random in iTunes

Hey there!
First of all, i'll let you know I have a somewhat large iTunes library, topping out at 9745 items worth 23.1 days of music if played nonstop.

I'm going to hit the random (or shuffle) button in iTunes and discuss my thoughts on the first 5 Songs/Artists that come up. Here goes:

Band: Mammoth Volume
Song: Noara Dance
Album: Noara Dance

OK this song is pretty groovy. It's heavy, very blues based fuzz rock. These guys are from Sweden. I gather they are into bands like Kyuss, Fu Manchu etc, though they do have some interesting riffs in terms of timing and flow. Over all, cool song from a pretty cool band.

Band: Public Enemy
Song: Night of the Living Baseheads
Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back...

This is the first Public Enemy song I ever heard. Man I loved Chuck D! He was so cool...his lyrics were awesome, the beats were cool and new. They had a dude with a giant clock around his neck, some military guys doing kicks and chops in the background all the time, and a cool DJ! Some cool scratching with samples too. This song definitely has the anti-drug message but somehow its still hardcore.

Band: Dungeon Family
Song: They Comin'...
Album: Even in Darkness

This group is a collaboration between many southern hip hop groups including Organized Noize, Goodie Mob and Outkast. It definitely has the southern vibe to it but without the annoying beats and bad rap. In other words, I really like this song...its got a dark ominous vibe with a cool guitar sample...

Band: Buckethead
Song: Johnny
Album: Acoustic Shards

This song is an instrumental acoustic guitar song which sounds kind of triumphant overall. Buckethead recorded this album in his living room with a single mic all recorded live with no overdubs. Impressive acoustic stuff for sure. Check it out if you haven't and don't be thrown by his appearance. He's an incredible guitar player!

Band: Tool
Song: Mantra
Album: Lateralus

This is kind of a tough one since its mostly just ambient noise....i love this album though. Its got a lot of killer riffs and Maynard's voice is amazing. The band came together very nicely on this. Tighter than....well, tigher than you can imagine! Heavy and dark prog metal...how could you go wrong?

Well that's my 5 for today. Not sure how often I will do this but it was kind of fun to hear some random stuff.

Here's the Deal...

Hi there, i'm Shred Astaire....I play guitar and love music and I'm going to blog occasionally for you all about my experiences with it. It's likely you will not have heard of a lot of the artists and bands that I will talk about so open your mind and expand your tastes. I will go outside of your comfort zone.