Buckethead

Buckethead is one of the most bizarre and enigmatic figures in American underground and experimental music since ParliamentFunkadelic birthed their bevy of cosmic characters in the mid70s An accomplished multiinstrumentalist best known for his virtuosic command of the electric guitar  Buckethead is one of the instruments most recognizable contemporary innovators his rapidfire riffing nearrobotic fretwork and idiosyncratic lead lines combining elements of Yngwie Malmsteen Adrian Belew Slayers Kerry King PFunks Eddie Hazel and avantimprov artist John Zorns Scudattack sax abuse His first group the San Franciscobased metalfunk combine the Deli Creeps were a regional success but disbanded before they could release anything Bucketheads solo career has been more productive thanks mostly to the motivation of Zorn and Bill Laswell the latter of whom Buckethead has also recorded and toured with in Praxis Laswell has also produced a number of Bucketheads solo albums including Dreamatorium and Day Of The Robot and included him on more than a dozen oneoff recordings with the likes of Hakim Bey Bootsy Collins Anton Fier Jonas Hellborg and Bernie Worrell  In addition to releases including 1998s Colma Buckethead has also contributed soundtrack material to such films as Last Action Hero and Street Fighter  Buckethead returned in 1999 with Monsters And Robots after which he joined the shortlived reformation of Guns N Roses A steady stream of releases followed into the 21st century ranging from the contemplative Electric Tears to a more electronicarock hybrid and collaborations with San Franciscos underground hiphop scene  In the following decade he averaged a few releases a year teaming up with dozens of artists including Les Claypool Iggy Pop and Mike Patton and in 2008 he collaborated with actormusician Viggo Mortensen for Pandemoniumfromamerica A dizzying string of releases would follow before the actor and the enigmatic guitarist worked together again in 2011 on Reunion The following year Buckethead released Electric Sea a followup to his 2002 album Electric Tears