Buckethead and friends

Back in college, in... the 90s... I had a friend who was really into Buckethead.  I'd never heard of the guy before, but I was kind of fascinated by this story of an amazing guitarist that only appeared on stage with an empty friend chicken bucket on his head, and a creepy mask.  And clothing, too, I mean, it's not like he's only wearing a chicken bucket.

Anyway, he had this import album called Bucketheadland, and he played it for me a few times.  It's crazy and epic and bizarre, and Buckethead can play the guitar like a madman.  I don't understand why he feels like he needs a bucket on his head.  It makes it harder for me to take him seriously as a musician.  On the other hand, listening to him play guitar makes me forget he has a bucket on his head.  It's a weird one.

It might feel like work at times to listen to the whole thing, but fortunately for you the first six or seven minutes of the album is all you need to discover his epic genius.  The Giant Robot Theme is so awesome I could easily get teary eyed imagining giant robots entering some field of battle to fight huge aliens for the future of Earth.

Now, at that time I also learned about a band called Praxis, which was a loose collaboration of different artists, including Bootsy Collins, John Zorn, and a Japanese noise artist named Yamatsuka Eye.  I got to hear their album Sacrifist, and immediately fell in love with the song Rivet, which was written in part by Buckethead.  Hey, scream along if you know the words!

Learning a little more about Yamatsuka Eye, I realized that I'd actually heard something else by him back in high school, when an Italian exchange student who came to live at my house during my junior year brought his cassette of Naked City's album Torture Garden.  Although I appreciated that album conceptually at the time, it was the kind of thing I could only listen to for a few minutes at a time.  Go ahead and try a little bit of it for yourself.