Buckethead - From The Coop

Early demos from mysterious shredder found for the insane

Brian Carroll, as he is almost never known, is a professional nutter who plays shred guitar at incredible speeds while wearing a KFC bucket on his head, hence his stage name. After playing with Guns N’Roses and Colonel Claypool’s Bucket Of Bernie Brains, he’s settled into the role of technical lead guitarist, playing small clubs in a trio and attracting crowds of guitar geeks in awe of his sweet picking.

From The Coop is a collection of demos from his days as a budding guitarist, recorded in his home studio and ranging in audio quality from medium to terrible. The set still has value if you’re a guitar student or a fan of his wilfully abstruse music: on this evidence, Carroll’s skills on the banjo and classical guitar were highly evolved years ago, as was his nutty songwriting. Space Mountain is a standout from Carroll’s early days, with his ridiculously fast and fluid arpeggios moving at such a speed that they sound like one flow of sound. Funk Tune is self-explanatory, eschewing metal calisthenics for a fat groove, and Return Of Augustus Gloop is a trippy song from leftfield that hints at his future work with Claypool. Mad as a box of frogs.

2 stars 2 stars

Avabella | CD 321

Reviewed by Joel McIver
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