Search - Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains :: The Big Eyeball in the Sky

Musical Genius

Michael Young | Atlanta, GA, USA | 10/10/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For a while now, I have been immersing myself in as much as I possibly can of some of (I believe to be) the best music produced. Among the really cool, artistically weird (or is it weirdly artistic?) bands I have grown to know and love are Primus, Praxis, and Parliament. Thus, needless to say when I heard that the once-impromptu Bonnaroo band was making an album, I jumped at the possibility. Fortunately, this album met my expectations and exceeded them. Let's take a look, shall we?



Buckethead: What could be a more wonderful way to start an album than with Bernie Worrell's happy circus organ music? Other than that this track has some great lyrics delving into the mysterious being that is Buckethead. His solo at the end of the track is just beautiful.



Thai Noodles: Great bass line, and the lyrics are really catchy.



Tyranny of the Hunt: Aside from Buckethead's awesome guitar line in this song, this is probably my least favorite song on the album if only for the fact that I don't really understand much of the story line (as I have been accustomed to do by listening to Les).



Elephant Ghost: Killer jam, especially on the part of Brain. I just wish it a) had a central melody and b) were a lot longer.



Hip Shot from the Slab: Hehe, I love this song so much, if only for Gabby La La's great backup vocals and the return (ala My Name is Mud) of Les's redneck insanity.



Junior: Groovy anti-Bush song. Will get stuck in your head for days and days.



Scott Taylor: This track tires me out near the end, but Bernie's keys are on target and sounding great the whole way through, so it's okay.



The Big Eyeball in the Sky: The best lyrics of any song on the album, with Les satirizing the corporations and media that control so much of our lives.



Jackalope: This song makes me laugh so much everytime I hear it. It is obviously the work of a few mad geniuses, and that's what makes it so cool, especially Buckethead's atonal guitar licks.



48 Hours To Go: Nice pre-apocalyptic vocals by Les, with a funky Parliament-esque groove.



Ignorance is Bliss: The jam this song gets into is so cool that it outweighs any boredom induced by the slow tempo at the beginning of the song. Cool way to end an album.



All in all, if you have a passion for things a little off-center or just want to hear what all the hype about these guys is about, check this album out because, if nothing more, it's a change from the everyday music you hear on the radio. However, there's one thing better than this album: see this band live!!! I cannot even begin to tell you how cool their live show is. The musicality of this band is beyond measure, but this album does a great job of showcasing them. Can't wait to see what they do next."

Claypool

Claypool Fan | California | 11/03/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"All of the members of this band are really good. The level of musicianship on this album is really high. I just recently saw them live and it was really refreshing to see a group of really talented people playing together. Anyone who doesn't like this album probably bought it because they are a Primus fan, and were dissappointed because it isn't quite as hard as Primus usually is, but it's still quirky. C2B3 is NOT Primus, if Les Claypool wanted it to be Primusesque then he would have made another Primus album. Even though I think it's plenty Primusesque. Les Claypool's side projects are jam bands, and if you don't like jam bands then you shouldn't invest in any of them. I would recommend this album to anyone who really appreciates Claypool's skill (as well as everyone else in the band's skill), even if they don't necessarily enjoy Primus too much."

More like 3.75 for an amazing combination that doesn't alway

Mr. Richard K. Weems | Fair Lawn, NJ USA | 01/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Follow this math:



75% of this group is 60% of the Praxis lineup that probably made one of the most amazing albums of ALL TIME--_Transmutation_. Combine this with 1/3 of Primus, and you get Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains.



Just listing the RELEVANT resumes of the lineup of this group would take up far more space and time than I'm inclined to write right now. Fair to say that the names connect to such bands as Primus, Funkadelic, Guns 'n' Roses, and all of these guys have hooked up with Bill Laswell at one point or another, but one thing that is clear is that you have a LOT of groundbreakers. Aside from the way Les Claypool reinvented the whole fretboard and possibilities of bass, and how Bernie Worrell brought keyboards into the space age, and the fact that anthropologists will still be studying the Buckethead phenomena for centuries, these four (including Brain) sound like a dream combination. And for songs like the phenomenal instrumental "Elephant Ghost" and "Tyranny of the Hunt" and the incredibly redneck "Hip Shot from the Slab," they all come together for unbelivable sounds.



But sometimes the personalities step in the way of the playing. Claypool, bless his heart, has an affinity for promoting the myth of Bucketheadland, but it lets the KFCed one setp out a little too much from the group, and the song becomes disjointed. In the Praxis days, Worrell, Buckethead and Brain fused into and amazing sound that used the best of everyone while letting no one take away from the essence of the song, but Bernie Brains can't quite retain the same magic.

"