Buckethead is a virtuoso rock guitarist who performs onstage wearing a mask and a KFC bucket on his head. He has been doing this for the past 30 years.
His already-prolific discography took a turn for the manic in 2011 when he started releasing 30-minute albums in what he dubbed the "Pike Series". Thematically, each installment in the Pike series can be considered a ride or attraction as part of the concept of his own personal, sprawling "Bucketheadland" amusement park. Each installment is a standalone slab of instrumental guitar music that sticks to a specific mood, tone, or energy throughout its duration, but can range from ambient chillout noodlings to balls-to-the-wall hyperactive avantgarde shredding noise. As of February 2019 he has released a jaw-dropping 275 installments in the Pike series comprising roughly 138 hours of music.
Considering the content and the excessive scope of work of this musical project, it would be insane to attempt to review these in the same format I would any other album. First of all, it would become monstrously repetitive. Second of all, possibly more than any other project in modern music history, I think it would be irresponsible to rate and review the individual components as if they should be perceived as individual components in the first place. Obviously, it all makes up one giant entity. You can't rate Six Flags based on one shitty popcorn stand! Just as such, not everyone will like the 300-ft drop roller coaster and not everyone will like the children's carousel, but the inclusion of these two attractions is still important for the full experience. Maybe there's a bathroom stall so decrepit and ugly that everyone hates it, but it's still a component of the park's character. See what I mean?
Therefore, this undertaking is my newest dumbass idea: I'm going to make my way through Bucketheadland, one Pike at a time, and write about my journey. It will at times be analytical, at times be loose and free-form. Sometimes I'll talk about the music itself. Sometimes I'll tell anecdotes or relay whimsical thoughts that the music draws out of me. Maybe I'll talk about my personal life. Maybe I'll even talk about other bands and artists. I imagine it will be generally unstructured, but I want it to be. Maybe this will end up being one big therapy session! Who knows! Even I don't know what's going to happen!
What I do know is that I'm not going to assign a rating to any album, I'm not going to pigeonhole any of the music onto an arbitrary scale of "good" to "bad", and I'm not going to fuss on any details or minutiae.
I'm just going to have a fun day at the park. This is the Bucketheadland Trip Report.
[02-18-19] Pike #1: It's Alive
