Giant Robot

...Do YOU want some slaw?

Welcome, ladies and germs, to Giant Robot! This album is legendary among Buckethead fans for its ability to be insanely enjoyable as a piece of music, a piece of humor, or even as a twisted up story. This album features Buckethead himself playing all sorts of his earlier ideas, including a big selection of cool riffs and some delightfully whacked noodling. It also has guest spots filled with dudes like Bootsy Collins, Iggy Pop, Maximum Bob, Bill Laswell, and of course - Pinchface! This album doesn't exactly stand up to other conventional, less-weird albums in terms of quality so it seriously struggles to be a masterpiece all by its self, but that doesn't stop it from being an essential Buckethead album that is tons of fun.

Giant Robot is Buckethead's second studio album, and his first to really make any sort of musical impact in any way. The debut was, well, it was a mess. This album isn't exactly a concept album like that one was but it listens very much like a concept album of its own. Taking into account that this was at the very beginning of Big B's career, you can expect a complete melting pot of styles, songs, and ideas strewn about the whole album. You've got music ranging from old school metal type songs to personalized covers of film soundtracks with lots of tracks dedicated to goofy dialogue thrown in the mix with varying success in terms of entertainment value. This album is also a mess, but there's still a lot of quality to be found within. It's a fun mess; turns out that's a perfect way to describe a lot of Bucky's work: a fun mess.

The best moments of Giant Robot are definitely songs like the cheerful "Binge and Grab" with its blistering solo, wicked bass work, and that super joyful main lick. This song was originally a Deli Creeps track, if I recall correctly, but the best version is the one on this album for sure. Big B's famous "Park Theme" is back on this album, with a much, much better production job and "welcome" voice dub - this song is also a Buckethead classic with its burly riffing and awesome "Crazy Train"-esque riff (and Centipede Woman!! heahheah!). Other highlights include the totally freaking sick cover of the "Star Wars" theme and the stunningly gorgeous "I Love My Parents" with its mesmerizing orchestration backing up Big B's soulful plucking.

The whole thing isn't golden though, it does indeed have some awesome little tracks to split things apart like the mad funky bass solo in "Robot Transmission", the hilariously demented yet enjoyable "Onions Unleashed" (a scarecrow's life can be pretty mo-not-o-nous!), or the spacey, atmospheric, and strangely hypnotic "Pure Imagination", but there is a lot of lame filler. Tracks like "Aquabot", "I Come in Peace", and "Buckethead's Chamber of Horrors" are pretty much wastes of time with their seemingly lazy musicianship and over-reliance on the dialogue between the characters. Same thing applies to "Chicken" and the cover of Disney's "Pirate's Life for Me" which are really just pointless. That said, the maniacal experimentation mixed with the shockingly effective musicianship that shows up sporadically make for an exciting listen most of the time. Just be prepared to skip a few of the weirder songs.

So after listening to this album, you'll learn a lot of stuff: either that you love or hate Buckethead, he is in fact a total psycho, and parts of the Star Wars theme make badass metal riffs. Buckethead's early material really was unusual, but if you have a taste for wacky avant-garde, experimental, or just goofy music, you'll love this album. That said, that doesn't mean your casual music fan won't like this either. This album manages to be a blast to listen to; it's wildly entertaining with its plethora of funky solos, metal riffs, and just all-around sense of fun. If you're getting into Buckethead, this is essential listening, but if you're in it for his more conventional stuff - you can skip this and go right to Colma. And when you go to sleep, er, when ya try to go to sleep, I want you to think about that nice, regular guy that you could'a met and had a really nice life with at the post office. But you went the wrong way...

I will be honest here. I discovered Buckethead while playing Guitar Hero II. Yes, you can laugh now. Done? Good. Anyway, I was playing and saw this ''Jordan'' song that was among the available bonus material. Of course, as the kid I was, it completely blew me away, and that was the beginning of it all. I started to do my research about this Buckethead guy, who he was, what he did and all this chicken thing that surrounded him. His impressive playing and all that mysterious halo hanging above him was enough to convert me into one of his followers. It took me a time to comprehend and understand his music and to catch up with his numerous releases, but in a nutshell, I’m listening to Buckethead because of GH II, and I’m not even ashamed of it.

Giant Robot is Buckethead’s second album and also one of the first ones I listened to. As for the music itself, I’ll get it's problems out of the way right now, so as to concentrate on what’s good about Giant Robot. The main issue concerning this album is that it constantly feels as a jam session rather than a cohesive production, as many of his later works do. Bucky’s songwriting is lousy and uncreative at times, just chugging away palm-muted power chords over drum beats. Take ''Buckethead’s Toy Store'' for instance. This song could’ve been a lot more effective had it been cut to half of its length (it’s 8 minutes as it is) as while the riffs are rather forgettable, it has a nice clean arpeggio section towards its second half, which would've worked a lot better coupled with the opening grooves. The bass improvisation should’ve also been cut shorter. Some other tracks are just made up of sound effects and ambience keyboards, like ''Warweb'' and ''Pure Imagination''. Atmosphere would be an important concept on Bukcethead’s music, but Giant Robot doesn’t quite deliver the goods in that area. Most of this album's flaws come from the fact that it has too many filler and improvisations or experimentations with sound effects, which overshadows Buckethead’s talent for songwriting.

So now that there are no more defects to talk about, I can concentrate on what’s good about Giant Robot. Buckethead’s second album already showed his burgeoning songwriter skills. Songs on Giant Robot range from bluesy tracks like ''Aquabot'' or the stomping ''I Come in Peace'' to pure metal anthems like the classic ''Welcome to Bucketheadland'' and its great solo at the end, more thundering numbers like ''Buckethead’s Chamber of Horrors'' or ''Buckethead’s TV Show'' and its galloping pace and power metal vibe. His version of Deli Creeps’ ''Binge and Grab'' is yet another standout, with its uplifting and jovial vibe and featuring another killer and famous solo by the man of the bucket. ''I Love My Parents'' on the other hand, is another interesting song in that it anticipates Buckethead’s eye for soft and mellow atmospheres through which you can almost feel the feelings conveyed on songs of this kind. The man really knows how to write heartfelt and emotional songs that evoke powerful feelings through well-thought out keyboard sections. I’d also like to remark the groovy assault of ''Post Office Buddy'' and the telephone dialogue between Post Office Buddy and his ''crush''.

Ultimately, Giant Robot is a giant bag of riffs, solos, bass and drum grooves, sound effects, weird atmospheres, and a lot more. You have to sit down, listen to it and pick up the parts you like the most, because as I said before, there’s a lot of filler and improvisation overshadowing the actual songs. It’s certainly not one of Bucky’s best albums when you compare it to later works, but it’s a decent enough early demonstration of his songwriting and playing skills, and should be given recognition because of that.

Giant Robot is the second album by Buckethead and the first to get reasonable distribution in the US; for many years it’s the only one I ever saw in stores anyway. It is, like many of his later albums would be, a wildly eclectic/uneven listen, dancing between heavy metal, hard rock, and funk with orchestral and other weird interludes aplenty. The closest analogue to this early stuff is Primus as far as the general headspace in which it was conceived, but while the fanbases are probably compatible, it’s not a great indication of the kind of sound to expect. It’s best just to hear the guy’s albums for yourself and on that note, Giant Robot is a pretty decent introduction to his work at large, containing many of the bits and pieces that would constitute the nearly innumerable future works.

To be honest though, I rarely listen to this album beyond the halfway point. Not that any of the material is genuinely unlikeable in and of itself, but the general weirdness of its creator shines through more then on some other albums and it wears (on this listener, at least) as the album goes on. Most of the songs consist of a few relatively simple riffs that fit together rather nicely in a recursive arrangement, but there’s a lot of distracting sampling that breaks up the flow. Unlike some later albums, these aren’t taken from obscure B-movies, but are original narrations. “I Come in Peace”, “Post Office Buddy”, and even the likeable slow jam that is “Last Train to Bucketheadland” suffer from these inclusions. The various weird short tracks are like this too; kinda quaint at first, but most of these will be skipped for basically every subsequent listen. Again, this is where the Primus/Les Claypool comparison comes into play. Those that can tolerate his oddness for extended periods will probably be able to get into this much more easily instead of those of us just wading through the muck for the occasional off-the-wall shredding and choice licks.

Still, there are a few absolute classics on Giant Robot worth pursuing; tracks that would probably feature prominently on a Greatest Hits album were one to have existed. “Welcome to Bucketheadland” is the archetypical Buckethead tune: quick, catchy metal riffs with weird bass underneath simply arranged with a slick solo to top it. “Buckethead’s Toy Store” is a long funky bass jam (a good reminder that the dude is as handy with a 4-string as with a 6) with some of the most memorable melodies on the album, even if it does get interrupted occasionally. “Binge and Grab” is one of the catchiest of all his straightforward rock tracks, though the main melody is vaguely similar to .38 Special’s “Hold on Loosely”. Great solo in the bridge too. And while I don’t play these as often, the Star Wars and TV show themes are also pretty neat.

These days I’m much more partial to later Buckethead albums, but this was my introduction. I never gelled with everything on it, but it certainly got me interested enough to work my way deeper down the rabbit hole. I suppose that deserves at least one thumb up.