Buckethead: Encyclopedia - Buckethead

Buckethead

Buckethead (born Brian Carroll) is a guitarist and composer who has recorded several solo albums, as well as collaborative albums with Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins, System of a Down's Serj Tankian, and Primus bassist/singer Les Claypool. He has also worked with Viggo Mortensen on several limited-release albums. His stage persona is unusual: he wears a white kabuki mask and a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his head. In addition to his eccentric aesthetics, he displays this persona to press and fans alike: instead of communicating as Buckethead in public, he ventriloquizes with another mask, his "personal spokesman" Herbie. On stage, Buckethead enjoys not only entertaining by means of his guitar work, but also with displays of his nunchaku kata and pop-and-lock breakdancing skills.

A versatile artist, Buckethead performs and releases music rooted in many varied genres. Although best known as a "shredder" whose primary concern is virtuosity and blinding fretwork speed, his numerous limited-release albums cover and blend many different musical genres.

Buckethead was a member of Guns N' Roses from 2000 to 2004. He quit the band due to personal differences.

Buckethead has also recorded under the name Death Cube K (an anagram of "Buckethead" he created to circumvent legal complications with the Sony record label he was dealing with at the time). William Gibson later borrowed "Death Cube K" as the name of a bar in 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 an interview with Revolver, Ozzy Osbourne stated that he had offered to have Buckethead play for him at Ozzfest. Ozzy quickly changed his mind after meeting with him when Buckethead refused to go on stage without a 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!" - Ozzy Osbourne

In 2005, Buckethead released an album as Buckethead & Friends called Enter The Chicken. The album was produced by Serj Tankian and features Tankian, Saul Williams, Iranian singer Azam Ali, and Death By Stereo singer Efrem Shulz along with many others. The album is marked by its leaning towards more traditional song structure, while still featuring Buckethead's versatile and impressive guitar skills.

Buckethead - Discography

Buckethead - As Buckethead

• Bucketheadland Blueprints - 1991
• Bucketheadland - 1992 (Import 1993)
• Giant Robot - 1994
• Day of the Robot - 1996
• Colma - 1998
• Monsters and Robots - 1999
• KFC Skin Piles - 2001 (vinyl only)
• Somewhere Over the Slaughterhouse - 2001
• Funnel Weaver - 2002
• Bermuda Triangle - 2002
• Electric Tears - 2002
• Bucketheadland 2 - 2003
• Island of Lost Minds - 2004
• Population Override - 2004
• The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell - 2004
• Enter the Chicken - 2005
• Inbred Mountain - 2005
• Kaleidoscalp - 2005

Buckethead - As Death Cube K

• Dreamatorium - 1994
• Disembodied - 1997
• Tunnel - 1999

Buckethead - With Giant Robot

• Giant Robot NTT - 1996 (NTT Records)

Buckethead - With Pieces

• I Need 5 Minutes Alone - 1998

Buckethead - With Deli Creeps

• Deli Creeps (Demo Tape) - 1991
• Deli Creeps (Demo Tape) - 1996
• Dawn of the Deli Creeps - 2005

Buckethead - With Gorgone

• "Gorgone - 2005

Buckethead - With Zillatron

• Lord of the Harvest - 1993 (Black Arc/Rykodisc)

Buckethead - With Jonas Helborg and Michael Shrieve

• Octave of the Holy Innocents - 1995

Buckethead - With Cobra Strike II

• 13th Scroll - 1999 (Ion)
• Y, Y+B, X+Y - 2000 (Ion)

Buckethead - With Praxis

• Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) - 1992
• Sacrifist - 1994
• Metatron - 1994
• Transmutation Live - 1997
• Collection - 1998
• Warszawa - 1999
• Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness) - 2005

Buckethead - With El Stew

• The Rehearsal - 1999
• No Hesitation - 1999

Buckethead - With Guns N' Roses

• Chinese Democracy - Unreleased

Buckethead - With Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains

• The Big Eyeball in the Sky - 2004

Buckethead - With Cornbugs

• Spot the Psycho - 1999
• Cemetery Pinch - 2001
• How Now Brown Cow - 2001
• Brain Circus - 2004
• Donkey Town - 2004
• Rest Home For Robots - 2005
• Skeleton Farm - 2005
• Celebrity Psychos - 2006

Buckethead - With Jeremy Edgington

• Eat Breather - 2005

Buckethead - With Thanatopsis

• Thanatopsis - 2001
• Axiology - 2003

Buckethead - With Company 91

• Volume 1 - (Incus, 1992)
• Volume 2 - (Incus, 1992)
• Volume 3 - (Incus, 1992)

Buckethead - With Arcana

• Arc of the Testimony - (Axiom, 1997)

Buckethead - With Serj Tankian

• We Are One (Masters of Horror Soundtrack) - (Immortal Records, 2005)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Buckethead", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki