buckethead is such an important guitarist to me. his music captures emotion in a way i can't really say that anyone else does.
the way he views everything is a lot of fun. a lot of what he does to me is just done with the utmost love and appreciation for it.
the passion he displays in his music is something i think everyone should strive to have. you can feel how much he cares about what he's doing, it's not just shredding for shredding's sake - there's emotion in every note.
there is such love in every bit of his aesthetic; the child-like wonder of the theme park idea, the pikes being like rides, giving toys out at every show, covering the star wars theme, having a rap battle with michael myers...
it's all just an amalgamation of his favorite bits of various media and it's really nice to hear.
i think my favorite album of his, and the most important one for me, is colma. this is an acoustic album written for his mom while she had colon cancer, and as such, is much more relaxed compared to his other albums.
songs like for mom, hills of eternity, and lone sal bug sound really nostalgic to me. all of them have an air of fog, but it's that good kind of fog that's just thick enough that you can still see through while knowing its presence.
for me, i think it's perfect on cold, rainy nights in december with the heater on looking out the window. the solemn but pretty guitar parts sound like raindrops on the ground that is the drum beats and bass.
and while there are more experimental songs, such as big sur moon, sanctum, and the title track, this is probably one of the best albums to put on at the end of a long day and relax to.
while he does still have more laid back albums, such as electric tears and electric sea, the lack of drums or bass make those albums more situational for me, whereas brain's grooves add a foundation to these songs that makes them more pleasing to listen to.
it's a really important album to me and it's one of those things where i can't entirely explain why. something about it just resonates with the soul. i think i listened to it at the perfect time in my life. i was in love, happy, and had a lot of great stuff happen to me then.
and it's not even that i'm not happy or in love now - i'm doing what i love and i'm passionate about. this is my dream. but i listened to this at the peak of that time and it really resonated perfectly with me. it's like a time capsule.
i love buckethead, i love this album, and i love how passionate he is about everything he does.
it's incredibly inspiring to me that he can do something so simple as playing guitar, do it so well, and have tens of thousands of fans love his work so much that he can release short albums so frequently and people will still buy every one of them.
he's one of the most important musicians of this era, and i think he really deserves more recognition for what he's done - and been doing - for the past 30 years at this point. show him some love, because he really deserves it.
and if by whatever chance he's reading this - thank you, bucket, for everything you've given everyone for so many years. thanks for being there for me at every high or low point for the past year or so. i love you man.
this song is the embodiment of childhood nostalgia to me. i didn't even listen to this, or anything close to it, during the times it makes me think of - but it still captures that emotion so well. the main riff he plays through most of the song reminds me of being 8 years old - waking up on an early november/december morning, booting up minecraft and making whatever fun stuff i could think of. it sounds like wet grass, cold breath, the dark sidewalk walking up to my grandparents house for christmas, the joy of chasing my cousins around the table and getting gifts i love so much. and though i haven't experienced that in a while due to the nature of the past few years, and not having nearly as much energy now, i still hope one day maybe i'll be able to experience something like that again for the last time. and maybe, just maybe, as i roll around town this year looking at all the christmas lights, i'll have something as euphoric as those days were, whether or not i noticed it.
i know i just put a song from colma on here, and i want diversity too, but this is another song that i really have to mention. the things i associate with this song are a lot more recent. i associate this with writing peaceful songs, talking to my friends, going upstairs and putting this cd on while reading on my bed. the light coming from my overhead, the whirring of my cd player, it really brings back nice memories even if it was just a year or two ago, but a lot of things can change in a year. i was really in love when i first heard this song, and as such i think about those times every time i listen to this song. i think the addition of those strings or brass or whatever is in the background add a lot to the mood of this one, and the reverb on the snare is really amazing too. it's just punchy enough. a lot of what i said about hills of eternity can also be applied to this, so i won't go back into that and extend this by a paragraph, but this is another really nostalgic song for me.
this song is great. the distortion is just enough to add a kick to it, but it's not overpowering, and doesn't clash with the delay/reverb. the backing track feels really grand, too - i love the choir and organ, they almost sound like the same ones used in the doom ost (which is funny, since he ended up doing the sigil ost) which adds a lot of charm to it. i love when it picks up around 2:40, like if the prior section was the entrance to this castle this is the main hall. the solo here is sweet, and the chugs are nice to add a bit of variety. then when it goes back to the main riff with another solo on top... man, it's amazing. one of the best emotional songs he's done, and of course, it's on one of the most eclectic/experimental releases.
missing my parents
the boiling pond
3 foot clearance
monument valley
please check out his site, it had a lot of influence on what i wanted to do with this site and it has a lot of interesting stuff on display, such as the photo on this page.
also check out this interview, it's just him talking to a therapist out of character and it's nice to hear about the more human side of him. it's very inspiring.