Background

 

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Buckethead (born Brian Carroll in 1969) is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for wearing a white plastic mask and a KFC bucket on his head. He is a prolific composer, having released 36 solo albums and performed on over 50 more. His music includes thrash metal, funk, electronica, jazz and avant-garde music.

Although a multi-instrumentalist (playing bass guitar, banjo, and piano), Buckethead is best known for his electric guitar playing, characterized by diverse playing styles spanning thrash guitar, fingerpicking, and slap guitar. Guitar One voted him number 8 on a list of the "Top 10 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time".

Although Buckethead now works primarily as a solo artist touring the United States with a trio, he has had a wide variety of high profile collaborations with such artists as Les Claypool, Tony Williams, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Serj Tankian, Guns N' Roses, Saul Williams, Mike Patton, Viggo Mortensen and with Bill Laswell on Praxis.

As a teenager in 1988, Buckethead entered a song called 'Brazos' into a Guitar Player Magazine contest; it was a runner up, and eventually released on the Deli Creeps' demo tape in 1991, titled 'Tribal Rites'. This is what was said about him:


“An astonishingly skilled guitarist and bassist, he demonstrates post-Paul Gilbert speed and accuracy filtered through very kinky harmonic sensibilities. His psychotronic, demonic edge is very, very far removed from the clichés of classical metal and rock. A real talent to watch, he's still a teenager. Also known as "Buckethead".”

This, also, is how Guitar Player Magazine editor Jas Obrecht came to know of Buckethead. Impressed with his demo recording he got in contact with Buckethead and they soon became friends. In 1991 Buckethead moved into Obrecht's basement (this is also where footage for the Young Buckethead DVD was filmed).

After a few self-released albums, Bucketheadland was released on John Zorn's Avant record label in 1992. Though available only as a pricey Japanese import, the record received positive reviews and earned some attention. At about this time, Buckethead fell into the orbit of prolific bassist/producer Bill Laswell (himself an occasional Zorn collaborator); as either a performer, producer or composer, Laswell was involved in many of the albums listed in the discography below, and Buckethead made many more appearances on albums by Laswell's collaborators.

In 1992 Buckethead with Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell and Bryan "Brain" Mantia formed the supergroup, Praxis. This project was the idea of Bill Laswell and consist on music with other guest like Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Les Claypool of Primus among other guests, Buckethead did not participate in all the albums, their first album Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) released in 1992 was a very aclaimed album.

One such Laswell project was Death Cube K (an anagram of "Buckethead" he created to circumvent legal complications with Sony Records, with which he was signed to in 1994 to release Giant Robot.). Science fiction author William Gibson later borrowed "Death Cube K" as the name of a bar in his novel Idoru; quoting Gibson in an interview for Addicted To Noise:
“Death Cube K is actually the title of an album. I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the group but Bill Laswell who I don't really know but out of the kindness of his heart occasionally sends me big hunks of his output, groups that come out on his label. And Death Cube K was the title of some vicious ambient group that he had produced. And when I saw it, I thought: a Franz Kafka theme bar in Tokyo.”

In 1997 Buckethead began work on an album titled Buckethead Plays Disney, but the album has never been released. According to his web page:


“This highly anticipated album, once listed in an Avant catalog, has yet to be completed. It is Buckethead's most precious personal project so he won't record or release it until he knows he is ready”

In November of 1997, Buckethead with the supergroup Praxis released the single "Turn Me Out (Turn to Sugar)" featuring Kathy Brown on vocals that reached the #1 spot in the charts of Number-one dance hits in the United States.

In 1999, Buckethead released his fifth album with the colaboration of Les Claypool from the band Primus called Monsters and Robots, its the best selling album of his carreer.

According to Anthony Kiedis' autobiography, Scar Tissue, Buckethead once auditioned to play guitar for the Red Hot Chili Peppers shortly after John Frusciante left the band.

Buckethead achieved a greater public profile as a member of Guns N' Roses from 2000 to 2004; however, the band only toured in 2001 and 2002 during this era. Guns N' Roses response to Buckethead's departure was:


“During his tenure with the band, Buckethead has been inconsistent and erratic in both his behavior and his commitment, despite being under contract, creating uncertainty and confusion and making it virtually impossible to move forward with recording, rehearsals, and live plans with confidence. His transient lifestyle has made it near impossible for even his closest friends to have nearly any form of communications with him whatsoever.”

Despite this, Buckethead's guitar parts were found intact on leaked Chinese Democracy tracks "I.R.S.", "There Was a Time", "Better" and "Madagascar". However, it is uncertain if Buckethead's guitar parts will be present on the final product.

Since that time, his cult following in the underground music communities has steadily increased. He frequently performs at festivals and in clubs nationwide, and often tours as the feature performer.

In an interview with Revolver, Ozzy Osbourne stated that he had offered to have Buckethead play guitar in his band at Ozzfest. Ozzy quickly changed his mind after meeting with him when Buckethead refused to go on stage without his disguise:


“I tried out that Buckethead guy. I met with him and asked him to work with me but only if he got rid of the fucking bucket. So I came back a bit later and he's wearing this green fucking Martian's-hat thing! I said, 'Look, just be yourself'. He told me his name was Brian, so I said that's what I'd call him. He says, 'No one calls me Brian except my mother'. So I said, 'Pretend I'm your mum then!'. I haven't even got out of the room and I'm already playing fucking mind games with the guy. What happens if one day he's gone and there's a note saying, 'I've been beamed up'? Don't get me wrong, he's a great player. He plays like a motherfucker.”

In 2005, Buckethead released an album as Buckethead & Friends called Enter The Chicken. Released by Serj Tankian's label Serjical Strike, the album features Tankian, Maximum Bob, Death By Stereo singer Efrem Shulz, and others. The album is marked by its leaning towards more traditional song structure, while still featuring Buckethead's guitar skills.

In 2005 Buckethead released his first DVD "Secret Recipe", originally sold only on tour; the only places for other fans (those who either didn't go to a show or live abroad) to get hold of the DVD were auction sites such as eBay. Bootleg copies were also sold on eBay for a short period of time. Eventually Travis Dickerson held a raffle for copies of the DVD on his website. Those who wanted to "win" a copy had to enter their name and email address. When entries were closed he picked 200 names at random from those who entered and they were allowed to buy a copy of the DVD from his website. In March 2006 the DVD was finally made widely available.

Released in November 2006, the cross-console video game Guitar Hero II features Buckethead's song “Jordan” as an unlockable bonus track. The video game version is the only known studio recording of the song, though he had played it for years before live. Also, the live version almost always contains just the verse and chorus of Jordan, then goes into Post Office Buddy, and returns to the verse and chorus of Jordan. However, the Guitar Hero II version contains a special solo specifically for the game. The solo version has been played live only once by Buckethead at the James Brown tribute concert Decemeber 22nd, 2007. He might have done this because he saw James Brown as an idol. It was at the time (and still believed to be by some) the hardest song in Guitar Hero's history.

In late 2006 Buckethead released a two volume DVD entitled Young Buckethead featuring rare footage from 1990 and 1991. The DVD also contains three complete Deli Creeps shows, a sound check, backstage footage and solo footage of just Buckethead. All the artwork was drawn by Buckethead himself.

In the year 2007, Buckethead released more than 20 albums. In February tdrsmusic.com announced the release of a new Buckethead CD, entitled Pepper's Ghost and was released on the 1st of March, also in February Buckethead tdrsmusic.com began shipping In Search of The, a 13 CD set of original music that is said to be handcrafted, numbered, and monogrammed by him that contains over 9 hours of music. In May the label Avabella released the album Acoustic Shards that consist in acoustic recording made in 1991. Later in the year in August, Buckethead released a reissue of the demo tape Bucketheadland Blueprints that could be a hand-drawn cover made by him or could be just a standard CD, finally in October he released 2 new albums:Decoding the Tomb of Bansheebot and Cyborg Slunks and in mid December a standard CD was being printed.
Death Cube K also had releases, In August a 400 limited-edition, hand-numbered albums were released as DCK and also in mid December he released under this anagram a 5 CD box set called Monolith and consisted on 1 unbroken track for CD of a leght aproximated of 45 min each.
Also Buckethead released other albums with artist like the sequel to the Buckethead and Travis Dickerson's Chicken Noodles was released in mid-December 2007, entitled Chicken Noodles II.
Also released an album with the supergroup Praxis called Tennessee 2004 which consist on a live record made in Tennessee in the year 2004. Buckethead also released an album with the group Shin Terai called Light Years, another CD that Buckethead released this year was Kevin's Noodle House featuring drummer Bryan Mantia.
In July of 2007 it was revealed that Buckethead is working on a project by the name Science Faction, a band very similar line-up wise to Praxis. The band also features Bassist Bootsy Collins and drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia. Greg Hampton will supply lead vocals as well as produce the project. They haven't released any albums but the first one is expected in 2008.
Buckethead didn't only released music albums, in October he released in the label TDRS 5 paintings.

Current projects

According to IMDB, Buckethead will appear as himself in an upcoming movie entitled American Music: Off the Record, due out in January 10 of 2008.

In January 1 of 2008 the band Praxis released the album Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness).

The first album of Science Faction is expected to be released in 2008 with no especific date yet known.

Discography

Buckethead's bands

Note as well as being a solo artist since 1992, Buckethead often releases albums as Death Cube K - he has used this name as an alias since 1994 (most recently used in 2007). The name Death Cube K is an anagram for Buckethead.

   Praxis (1992-present)
   Shine/Shin Terai (2001-present)
   Thanatopsis (2001-present)
   Buckethead & Friends (2005-present)
   Science Faction (2007-present)
   with Travis Dickerson (2006-present)

Former bands

   Deli Creeps (1991-2005)
   with Jonas Hellborg and Michael Shrieve (1992)
   Pieces (1993)
   Zillatron (1993)
   Cornbugs (1995-2007)
   Giant Robot (1996)
   Cobra Strike (1999-2000)
   El Stew (1999-2003)
   with Viggo Mortensen (1999, 2003-2005)
   Moonraker (2000)
   Guns N' Roses (2000-2004)
   Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains (2002-2004)
   Gorgone (2005)

Equipment

Guitars

   Gibson
Gibson Les Paul - 1959 heavily modified, all white hardware, Covered DiMarzio high distortion pickups.
Gibson Les Paul - 1969 heavily modified, all white hardware, killswitch, Uncovered DiMarzio high distortion pickups.
Gibson SG
Gibson SST
Gibson Chet Atkins

   Jackson
Jackson Y2KV - "coopwood" custom made, reverse neck, with larger body and headstock due to Buckethead saying normal guitars looked like toys in his hands
Jackson Y2KV - "KFC" same as the "coopwood", only with the KFC red stripes, Di Marzio X2N PUs, kill switch and an Original Floyd Rose (that he never uses)
Jackson doubleneck - a custom doubleneck half guitar, half bass

   ESP
ESP MII custom - used throughout his concert in the Wetlands, broken as seen in one of the Binge Clips

   Heartfield (by Fender)
Heartfield Talon model with pink DiMarzio X2Ns

   Steinberger
Steinberger GS "Kaiser's Gift"

   Ibanez
Ibanez X Series Rocket Roller II - used throughout the Praxis era

   Takamine
Takamine Acoustic

Amplifiers

   Peavey Renown
   Peavey 5150 head on a Marshall 1960 Slant 4x12 cab
   Diezel Herbert
   Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier
   VHT Pittbull 50 watt heads
   Matt Wells 17 1/2 watt head wired through a Harry Kolbe 4x12 cab

Effects

   Digitech Whammy II (and IV)
   Dunlop Cry Baby 535q
   BOSS TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
   BOSS NS-2 Noise Suppressor
   BOSS RC-20 Loop Station
   BOSS OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion
   Roger Mayer Octavia
   DOD Electronics FX-25B envelope filter
   Alesis MidiVerb II
   Roland SE-50 multi-effector
   Zoom multi-effects
   AnalogMan BicompROSSor
   MXR EVH phase 90
   Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler
   Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer
   Killswitch

For full Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckethead