Buckethead New Buckethead Pikes Discussion

[Pishy]

@sosso what is the exact meaning of a pike?

makes sense, I like the name with the pumpkin in there. 

I'm listening to his podcast interview now . 

[triad]

2 hours ago, Pishy said:

@triad #65 is so awesome. I need to keep listening of course , but really great.

he was here just this September , why didn't I look?!! And I didn't know about his work with Bootsy until recently .

So Pike was the name of one of his albums then he had a series of Pikes, right? Pikes are a long running project but he also has separate albums? Are Pumpkin Pikes different? 

Glad you like Pike #65 for starters.    The Pikes are great to listen to at work (rocking or ambient - no experimental shredding for me) with no distracting lyrics.  I know there were several Buckethead albums before the Pikes, but other posters here know wayyyy more about that than I do.  I knew he played on Chinese Democracy, but didn't pay attention to his career until finding this forum at the time of the GnR reunion.  

[Pishy]

@triad yes, I used to listen to guitarists with no lyrics long ago and realize I miss it. 

I'll stick with the Pikes then, lots to discover there. 

Same here, I wasn't into CD for a number of reasons. I knew who Bucket was in general and that he was some technical wizard. I also was a real jerk and too busy wondering what axl was doing , you know using the GnR name and cobbling a group together, the guy with a KFC bucket on his head wasn't exactly the same as Stradlin or Slash. So I didn't investigate. I'm sorry Buckethead!!! 

But now I like the end of "there was a time" because of Buckethead . And he is so great on his own. Buckethead is his own man and seems like a really cool dude.  It's interesting watching him play, he employs various forms of communication, he likes the interaction. 

I want to see him live, I don't really deserve it at this early stage of studying his work but I want to go now!

Edit: this is really sad 

 

Edited October 21, 2017 by Pishy

[ToonGuns]

On ‎20‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 7:28 AM, triad said:

Thanks.  Yes, Bucket played the 2nd TWAT solo, starting at 4:20 or so.  I hope he comes my way on the next tour!  I've never seen him live.  

Below is a list of recommendations that @Gackt posted way back when there were only 100 or so pikes.  The Pike styles are all over the place.  This is a great help: http://decino.nl/?p=pike-suggester.  One of the most popular Pikes is #65.  

#1 It's Alive

#3 3 Foot Clearance

#5 Look Up There

#7 The Shores of Molokai

#11 Forgotten Library

#23 Telescape

#26 Worms for the Garden

#28 Feathers

#31 Pearson's Square

#32 Rise the Blue Lotus

#38 It Smells Like Frogs

#40 Coat of Charms

#42 Backwards Chimney

#51 Claymation Courtyard

#56 Cycle

#64 Aquarium

#65 Hold Me Forever

#66 Leave the Light On

#80 Cutout Animatronic

#90 Listen for the Whisper

All currently available for $2 each in download on sale until 1st Nov.

Of this list my personal faves are Shores of Molokai, Telescape and Hold me Forever.

Of the older pre-pikes stuff try Colma, Monsters and Robots, Deli Creeps, and Praxis - Transmutation.

Also try Pikes #95 - Northern Lights, solo-tastic.

Edited October 22, 2017 by ToonGuns
addition

[Sosso]

On 21.10.2017 at 5:20 AM, Pishy said:

@sosso what is the exact meaning of a pike?

makes sense, I like the name with the pumpkin in there. 

I'm listening to his podcast interview now . 

The Buckethead Pikes are being sold in a small kiosk within the fictional Bucketheadland Park. 

[Pishy]

@ToonGuns thanks for letting us know about the sale, I'll be placing an order today then.

ill try the ones you added to the list. I listened to Colma on YouTube, I think that one was for his mother as well but not too sure, it's very good. Praxis-Transmutation has a name worthy of investigation.

@Sosso good to know, much appreciated. 

[ToonGuns]

Enjoy the sale! There's definitely some stuff that is more experimental than others, but if you stick to the suggestions above you've got some excellent options.

Another favourite of mine (not a pike) is Elephant Man's Alarm Clock.

also search for the song "Buckethead" by Colonel Claypools Bucket of Bernie Brains - fabulous solo.

[Sosso]

#46 Rainy Days should be in that list as well! It's easily in my top 10 from all his Pikes

Edited October 25, 2017 by Sosso

[Gackt]

12 hours ago, Sosso said:

#46 Rainy Days should be in that list as well! It's easily in my top 10 from all his Pikes

I remember making that top 20 way back when, there's a lot I wish I could have included on top of them because of how unique and good a lot of the albums in 2010-2014 sounded.

It'll be a lot harder to make a top 20 nowadays, even a top 10 pike list now including up to #272..

[Pishy]

30 minutes ago, Gackt said:

I remember making that top 20 way back when, there's a lot I wish I could have included on top of them because of how unique and good a lot of the albums in 2010-2014 sounded.

It'll be a lot harder to make a top 20 nowadays, even a top 10 pike list now including up to #272..

I like Pike 12 a lot. I also listened to "Christmas with Buckethead" today and like that too. What do you think of  Enter the Chicken? Maybe these match up with pike numbers you listed or came after.  I'm a novice but I think Buckethead needs a university course, better yet, he should teach the course. 

Forgot to add, @Sosso #46 is very nice. I'm in my first run through of these , I kind of got stuck on 65 and Enter the Chicken. I also like 271 which I just randomly selected . I like the artwork on 271 as well, does Buckethead do the artwork?

Edited October 26, 2017 by Pishy

[Gackt]

4 minutes ago, Pishy said:

I like Pike 12 a lot. I also listened to "Christmas with Buckethead" today and like that too. What do you think of  Enter the Chicken? Maybe these match up with pike numbers you listed or came after.  I'm a novice but I think Buckethead needs a university course, better yet, he should teach the course. 

Enter the Chicken is fantastic and I wish he'd make another album similar to it someday; the next best thing to it would either be Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains's single album, or Praxis's Profanation which also features a handful of guest vocalists.  I believe Enter the Chicken came out in 2005, while the pikes started in 2010.

To best easily explain how the pikes came to be for someone recently getting into Buckethead..back in 2010 he released the Happy Holidays from Buckethead CD from TDRS, then released four other "pikes" the same year with Happy Holidays being renamed with the tracklisting shuffled a bit into becoming the 3rd pike which is also the longest, 3 Foot Clearance.  2012 saw the release of five more pikes and Electric Sea, Buckethead's last "traditional" album till this day.

#12 is an excellent pike, one of those great albums to groove to.  

[Pishy]

1 minute ago, Gackt said:

Enter the Chicken is fantastic and I wish he'd make another album similar to it someday; the next best thing to it would either be Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains's single album, or Praxis's Profanation which also features a handful of guest vocalists.  I believe Enter the Chicken came out in 2005, while the pikes started in 2010.

To best easily explain how the pikes came to be for someone recently getting into Buckethead..back in 2010 he released the Happy Holidays from Buckethead CD from TDRS, then released four other "pikes" the same year with Happy Holidays being renamed with the tracklisting shuffled a bit into becoming the 3rd pike which is also the longest, 3 Foot Clearance.  2012 saw the release of five more pikes and Electric Sea, Buckethead's last "traditional" album till this day.

#12 is an excellent pike, one of those great albums to groove to.  

You know a lot, I think there is so much material, which is amazing , but it takes time to orient yourself so I appreciate the explanations .  

Do you buy the download or actual album? I like albums but I might have to go with downloads for now and I'm not so sure physical albums are available anymore . There is a big sale that was mentioned above so working on my shopping cart. 

I'll check out the 2 you recommend that would be the next best things to Enter the Chicken. I do like hearing nothing but his work but with vocalists , it's another experience and its interesting to see how he puts it together . I read in what I believe was a rolling stone article , that Buckethead was pretty happy with the collabs he did with vocalists.

yes, I like track 3 on Pike 12 a lot. Someone posted it early in this thread and I saw it as I was randomly reading posts and found the rest on YouTube. 

It's early for me but i really want to hear him live. lucky Cali people can hear him on Halloween!

[Gackt]

4 hours ago, Pishy said:

You know a lot, I think there is so much material, which is amazing , but it takes time to orient yourself so I appreciate the explanations .  

Do you buy the download or actual album? I like albums but I might have to go with downloads for now and I'm not so sure physical albums are available anymore . There is a big sale that was mentioned above so working on my shopping cart. 

I'll check out the 2 you recommend that would be the next best things to Enter the Chicken. I do like hearing nothing but his work but with vocalists , it's another experience and its interesting to see how he puts it together . I read in what I believe was a rolling stone article , that Buckethead was pretty happy with the collabs he did with vocalists.

yes, I like track 3 on Pike 12 a lot. Someone posted it early in this thread and I saw it as I was randomly reading posts and found the rest on YouTube. 

It's early for me but i really want to hear him live. lucky Cali people can hear him on Halloween!

I go with the downloads when there's a $2 sale happening, I'm hoping he puts some of his older albums he's been re-issuing on vinyl on his Bandcamp also for download for people that haven't heard them yet..he has a ton of classics in his discography worth checking out.

 

[Pishy]

12 hours ago, Gackt said:

I go with the downloads when there's a $2 sale happening, I'm hoping he puts some of his older albums he's been re-issuing on vinyl on his Bandcamp also for download for people that haven't heard them yet..he has a ton of classics in his discography worth checking out.

 

I'll poke you with my poking stick! Sorry , a lot of people received that message today , lol!

yes, the $2 downloads are a sweet deal to say the least. 

Vinyl would be a whole other listening experience . I don't know Bandcamp, need to add that to the list. You mean classics that are on albums that are separate from the pikes? I wonder if there is a comprehensive list of all his work . 

 

[Sosso]

1 hour ago, Pishy said:

I'll poke you with my poking stick! Sorry , a lot of people received that message today , lol!

yes, the $2 downloads are a sweet deal to say the least. 

Vinyl would be a whole other listening experience . I don't know Bandcamp, need to add that to the list. You mean classics that are on albums that are separate from the pikes? I wonder if there is a comprehensive list of all his work . 

 

Bandcamp is the side where he is uploading his albums

[Gackt]

1 hour ago, Pishy said:

Vinyl would be a whole other listening experience . I don't know Bandcamp, need to add that to the list. You mean classics that are on albums that are separate from the pikes? I wonder if there is a comprehensive list of all his work . 

Bandcamp is the website that hosts the pike downloads  I'd consider everything pre-pikes in the "classic" territory now, if you're looking for a list of all the things Buckethead's performed on, Wikipedia's discography page has the great majority of it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckethead_discography

[Sosso]

I heard those Albums during this week:

#23 Telescape

#46 Rainy Days

#106 Forest of Bamboo

#121 Shaded Ray

#177 30 Days Til Halloween: Swollen Glasses

#193 14 Days Til Halloween: Voice From The Dead Forest

#266 Far

#272 Coniunctio

I love These $2 sales

 

 

 

[Pishy]

5 hours ago, Gackt said:

Bandcamp is the website that hosts the pike downloads  I'd consider everything pre-pikes in the "classic" territory now, if you're looking for a list of all the things Buckethead's performed on, Wikipedia's discography page has the great majority of it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckethead_discography

Thanks guys, I thought maybe it was an album name. 

I read through that , it seems detailed. Im also diving in randomly and getting good tips here. 

My cat is going to weigh in.  He has taken a serious shine to "Christmas with Buckethead" and Pike #12.  When I played it in the car,  he stopped walking all over the place and lied down and listened. It honestly relaxes animals, Buckethead has magic powers.  

5 hours ago, Sosso said:

I heard those Albums during this week:

#23 Telescape

#46 Rainy Days

#106 Forest of Bamboo

#121 Shaded Ray

#177 30 Days Til Halloween: Swollen Glasses

#193 14 Days Til Halloween: Voice From The Dead Forest

#266 Far

#272 Coniunctio

I love These $2 sales

 

 

 

I'm going to add #177 and #193 to my shopping cart, I like the titles

[triad]

15 minutes ago, Pishy said:

Thanks guys, I thought maybe it was an album name. 

I read through that , it seems detailed. Im also diving in randomly and getting good tips here. 

My cat is going to weigh in.  He has taken a serious shine to "Christmas with Buckethead" and Pike #12.  When I played it in the car,  he stopped walking all over the place and lied down and listened. It honestly relaxes animals, Buckethead has magic powers.  

I'm going to add #177 and #193 to my shopping cart, I like the titles

Well, for $2 you can't go wrong, but I'm not a fan of the Halloween countdown series at all.  Let us know what your cat thinks of them!  (Not sarcasm, lol.  I wonder if he will still be soothed.)

Edited October 27, 2017 by triad

[Pishy]

27 minutes ago, triad said:

Well, for $2 you can't go wrong, but I'm not a fan of the Halloween countdown series at all.  Let us know what your cat thinks of them!  (Not sarcasm, lol.  I wonder if he will still be soothed.)

Uh, oh, is it scary noises ? Ill let you know his unbiased opinion  

my favorite holiday by far, is Halloween , so I'm captured by those titles. 

Thst deal is indeed excellent , going to branch out and take some risks , like picking lotto numbers , haha! 

You guys have put a good list together in this thread. Maybe we can pick a pike a week or something and all share our thoughts , like a Bucket-Book Club. Or maybe a person shares a track from any album/pike and everyone listens and votes if it's a Buckethead-Bests or just listens to it. Kind of make an all-star album. I'm sure there are better ideas , ways to explore his body of work . 

[Sosso]

@triad @Pishy Yeah, his Halloween Pikes mostly contain scary noises. I can understand that not everybody likes this, but I'm a very big fan of horror films and those soundscapes are not unfamiliar for me.

The Blue Squared album is by far my favourite Halloween Pike. It could be used as a score to a slasher film like Friday the 13th or something...

Edited October 27, 2017 by Sosso

[Gackt]

9 hours ago, triad said:

Well, for $2 you can't go wrong, but I'm not a fan of the Halloween countdown series at all.  Let us know what your cat thinks of them!  (Not sarcasm, lol.  I wonder if he will still be soothed.)

Have you listened to the 29 Days Till Halloween one, Blurmwood?  It's a lot different than the other Halloween albums, as it's not an ambient/noise release.  

Kitty would likely love the 56th pike Cycle, still by far my favorite for a chill album.

[Sosso]

@Gackt Do you like the Ambient/Noise Pikes?

My favourite Ambient Pike is #272 Coniunctio

Edited October 27, 2017 by Sosso

[Gackt]

58 minutes ago, Sosso said:

@Gackt Do you like the Ambient/Noise Pikes?

My favourite Ambient Pike is #272 Coniunctio

I've been a fan of him experimenting with that style since his Death Cube K days, sometimes you just need to be in the right mood to really enjoy an album like that..where you can set it as background noise

After so many years of listening to his music I've come to appreciate all of his different styles, my favorite by far though has been his work with Travis Dickerson on albums like Population Override, Axiology, Dragons of Eden.  When Travis released Requiem in 2015, I was more excited for that than I was for the hundred of pikes Buckethead released that year alone, lol

[Sosso]

10 minutes ago, Gackt said:

I've been a fan of him experimenting with that style since his Death Cube K days, sometimes you just need to be in the right mood to really enjoy an album like that..where you can set it as background noise

That's right. I'm listening to the Death Cube K albums / Halloween Pikes when I wanna watch horror films. Those albums are great companions to those films.