''Giant Robot'' is the second studio album by avant-garde guitarist

Buckethead Brian Patrick Carroll (born May 13, 1969), known professionally as Buckethead, is an American guitarist. He has received critical acclaim for his innovative and virtuosic electric guitar playing. Buckethead's extensive solo discography currentl ...

(not to be confused with the 1996 ''Giant Robot'', also featuring Buckethead) and loosely following the same "amusement park" concept as his previous album ''( Bucketheadland)''. It has some re-recorded songs from Buckethead's band

Deli Creeps The Deli Creeps were an avant-garde metal band consisting of singer Maximum Bob (singer), Maximum Bob, guitarist Buckethead, drummer Pinchface and various bass players, most recently Dan Monti, Daniel Monti. Though Buckethead is the only member ...

, as well his earlier

demo tape A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed for ...

''Bucketheadland Blueprints''. ''Giant Robot'' has a more professional sound than its predecessor in terms of recording and production value; the re-recorded tracks have lost their initial "basement" or "video game" sounding beats and guitar licks. As with ''Bucketheadland'', the album was originally only released in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Unlike later Buckethead solo albums, the

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, wo ...

-produced ''Giant Robot'' contains many vocal contributions from guests such as

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...

Bill Moseley William Moseley (born November 11, 1951) is an American actor, primarily known for his performances in horror films. His best-known roles include Chop Top in '' The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2'' (1986), Otis B. Driftwood in Rob Zombie's ''Firefly ...

, Throatrake and

Julian Schnabel Julian Schnabel (born October 26, 1951) is an American painter and filmmaker. In the 1980s, he received international attention for his "plate paintings"—with broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings. Since the 1990s, he has been a ...

's kids Stella and Vito. The album also features many high-profile instrumentalists such as

Sly Dunbar Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie. Biography Dunbar began playing at 15 in a ba ...

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s before joining the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Collins established himse ...

and

Karl Berger Karl Hans Berger (March 30, 1935 – April 9, 2023) was a German-American jazz pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. He was a leading figure in jazz improvisation from the 1960s when he settled in the United States for life. He founde ...

. The reason " Binge and Grab" is noted as being an "instrumental version" is because it was originally a

song with lyrics by Maximum Bob. There is no known studio recording of the Deli Creeps version but there are many bootleg copies from live shows which can be found among collectors. The track "

Pure Imagination "Pure Imagination" is a song from the 1971 film ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory''. It was written by British composers Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie. It was sung by Gene Wilder, who played the character of ...

" features an introduction message that recalls Mudbone, a character that regularly appeared in the

stand-up Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

routines of comedian

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Known for reaching a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, he is widely regarded ...

. The cover art features a shadow of a giant robot and sets the tone for the music on the album. The original release contained a comic inside the booklet. Overall, the music has been described as "an equally unique sound from P-Funkadelic grooves, shoddy sci-fi dialogue samples and the wickedest six-string shredding this side of

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai ( ; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a Transcription (music), transc ...

." The album was re-issued in 2000 through

CyberOctave Higher Octave Music is a sub-label imprint of Narada Productions. Since 2013, it is part of Universal Music Group's Capitol Music Group, which is located in Los Angeles. History Higher Octave was acquired by Virgin Records on behalf of EMI in 19 ...

, making it more widely available.

Track listing

Welcome to Bucketheadland

"Welcome to Bucketheadland" is the second song of the album and was produced by

. An earlier version of the song, the

produced "Park Theme", can be found on Buckethead's 1992 debut album '' Bucketheadland'', featuring a different voice-over reciting of the song's title, as well as some other spoken words and a more "electronic feel", due to the use of a

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

in contrast to the drumming of

P-funk Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American musical collective, music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton (funk musician), George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament (band), Parliame ...

Jerome Brailey Jerome Eugene "Bigfoot" Brailey (born August 20, 1950) is an American drummer, best known for his work with P-Funk, which included the bands Parliament, Funkadelic, and numerous related projects. Brailey is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of ...

on the 1994 version. Another version, "Park Theme Extension", is included on the second disc of ''Bucketheadland'' (the "dance remixes"), being longer and more

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

orientated. In 2007 Buckethead re-issued his 1991 demo tape ''Bucketheadland Blueprints'' with what might be the original version of the theme, "Intro to Bucketheadland". The song is used as the official theme to Buckethead's fictional "abusement" park Bucketheadland whose concept spans several of the artist's releases up to present. It is a fan-favourite and therefore often played as the last encore at concerts. ''

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' was an American print magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade ...

'' wrote: " can leave you wondering if uckethead'stongue is in his cheek or in his frontal lobes."

Influences

"Welcome to Bucketheadland" is highly influenced by early 1980s

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

, incorporating a main riff reminiscent of

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and the virtuosity of their guit ...

's "

Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" is a song by American rock band Van Halen. It was released in September 1978 as the fourth US single from their 1978 debut album, ''Van Halen''. This song is one of the few David Lee Roth-era songs that subsequent rep ...

" as well as using a bridge which reminds of the first guitar bars and 16th triplet note pull off runs of "

Crazy Train "Crazy Train" is the debut solo single by English heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, released in 1980 from his debut album as a solo artist, '' Blizzard of Ozz'' (1980). The song was written by Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, and Bob Daisley. The lyri ...

" by

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...

. The song also contains a riff very similar to "Rattlesnake Shake" by

Skid Row A skid row, also called skid road, is an impoverished area, typically urban, in English-speaking North America whose inhabitants are mostly poor people " on the skids". This specifically refers to people who are poor or homeless, considered disre ...

. Osbourne's then guitar player

Randy Rhoads Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American guitarist. He was the co-founder and original guitarist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, and the guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo albu ...

reportedly influenced Buckethead's playing.

Binge and Grab

Binge and Grab is a song written and originally performed by the

. Deli Creeps guitarist

's version ''Giant Robot'' is more commonly known. The Deli Creeps never recorded the song in the studio, but regularly played the song live. Live performances of the song were included on the '' Young Buckethead'' DVDs.

Buckethead version

recorded an instrumental version for his second album, which also featured reinterpretations of the Deli Creeps' songs "Smilin' Charlie" (known as "Post Office Buddy" on the album) and "Random Killing" (known as "I Come In Peace" on the album). The song met mixed reviews, ranging from "unironic 80s arena rocker" to getting high marks. The song is often mentioned as a fan favorite, becoming somewhat of a signature song, along with "

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

" and "Nottingham Lace".50 fastest guitarists of all time, ''Guitar World'', November 2008

Personnel

;Musical personnel *

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s (all tracks),

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

(tracks 3, 5, 17 and 19) *

–

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

s (tracks 1, 5, 8, 15, 17 and 19),

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

*Throatrake –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

(tracks 4, 7, 10 and 19) *

– vocals (tracks 3 and 11) *

– vocals (tracks 4 and 17) *Stella Schnabel – vocals (tracks 6 and 14) *Moma Collins – vocals (track 5) *Julian Schnabel – vocals (track 14) *Vito Schnabel – vocals (track 14) *Kristen Gray – vocals (track 17) *

– bass (tracks 2, 4, 7 and 8), vocals (tracks 5) *

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(tracks 2, 4, 7, 8, 14 and 15) *

Ted Parsons Ted Parsons is an American drummer most notable for his membership in rock/metal bands such as Swans, Prong, Godflesh, Killing Joke, and Jesu. Biography Parsons' early career began in 1985 with Swans, when he contributed to their ''Holy ...

– drums (tracks 5, 10, 11 and 17) *

Pinchface Michael Andrew Hakopian, better known as Pinchface is an American drummer known for his work with the Deli Creeps, Giant Robot II, and the Cornbugs. He has also appeared on numerous Buckethead albums, such as '' Population Override'' and '' Gia ...

– drums (tracks 3 and 18) *

–

string arrangement The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...

s (tracks 6, 13 and 14) *

–

drum programming Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These mu ...

(track 19) ;Production personnel *Oz Fritz –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, mixing *Imad Mansour – engineering assistance *

Howie Weinberg Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer. Over the course of his career, he has received over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize. Career Weinberg mastered Herbie Ha ...

– mastering ;Additional personnel *Stephen Walker –

artwork A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

(booklet) *Jam Suzuki – artwork (comic) *Mike Belongie –

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

References

{{Authority control 1994 albums Buckethead albums Albums produced by Bill Laswell