What do you think of Spinal clock?

[beau810]

EGGMAN - Shadows between the Sky is one of my favorites because of the mellowness and simplicity something you dont get to often from the bucketed one.  I suggest checking it out when your worn out and dont want to do anything but chill and listen to music... that is my favorite time to listen to it.  You might just fall in love with it.  And I agree Sled Ride is the stand out song on the record.

[Bucketdog]

Skeleton Dance and Whale on This stand out for me...

it\'s a banjo album..one instrument...i didn\'t expect anything else but i\'m happy that Bucket tried this one out too...

peace

It\'s not a real banjo... A real banjo is much harder to play.....

[slunkatron]

It\'s not a real banjo... A real banjo is much harder to play.....

Eh?  The Banjo is, all things considered, a relatively easy instrument to play.  

[Nubbins]

^^I would never say the 5 string banjo is an easy instrument to play. Easy to play well at least.

[beau810]

A Banjo is very difficult to play because of the tuning of it as well as the plucking string...  fun to play around on but to play it right is a total different story!

[Trev_dog]

Yes indeed,
I think Gelatin nerve is a secret or something because it\'s just one note all the time ...

Hahaha no way! Back when people were discussing the samples I talked about Gelatin Nerve.

P.S. I think it would be better to get a different sample of Gelatin Nerve hahaha I cant stop laughing from listening to this one imagining a 4 minute song of what the sample is like.

[Jowaxe]

EGGMAN - Shadows between the Sky is one of my favorites because of the mellowness and simplicity something you dont get to often from the bucketed one.  I suggest checking it out when your worn out and dont want to do anything but chill and listen to music... that is my favorite time to listen to it.  You might just fall in love with it.  And I agree Sled Ride is the stand out song on the record.

I\'m with Egg on this one. I was pumped when i first heard it but that wore off fairly quickly for me. I just never find myself being in the mood for that album...

That said, i\'ve always been a fan of the heavier stuff like Giant Robot, Day of the Robot, Cobra Strike, CCOH etc....

[dewclaw]

Banjo is super easy to sound bad, real bad. Learning the banjo is hard on the ears.

Bucket does great on this avant garde banjo disc though.

[Bucketdog]

Banjo is super easy to sound bad, real bad. Learning the banjo is hard on the ears.

^^ what the hell are you talking about?
 :-/

[badgerbot]

I find that the Buckethead albums I play day and after day and year after year don\'t end up being the ones that folks talk about on the boards.  If you count individual CDs, I\'ve got almost 100 buckets.  The albums I really find myself listening to all day long while working and playing are not the usual answer to "I\'m a new Buckethead fan, which albums should I get first?"  I write a lot as an attorney and author and I do it all while listening to Buckethead.  This may give me more patience for slower experimental material.  Anyhow, coming up on two weeks of banjo binging, I\'ve listened to the Clock every day so far.  The musician I admire the most is also the only guitarist I\'ve ever heard of making an all banjo album.  The Clock is a treasured part of my large collection of the Bucket playing every style and genre and scale and note and rhythm I can imagine, much to my delight.  I think it will stand the test of time for me.  It has so far.

[russtolium]

I\'m surprised no one has compared it to Cyborg Slunks, as that album is pretty much the closest thing to Spinal Clock stylistically, although SC is definitely more minimalist in comparison.

Things I like :
- Banjo!
- Minimalist approach, just banjo, occasional bass, and lots of reverb
- Arguably some of the most atmospheric tracks I\'ve heard from him outside of DCK stuff (especially Lafayette\'s Landing)
- Brings back some of the characteristic weirdness missing from a lot of his \'safer\' Monti produced albums recently

As far as what I don\'t like, I echo the thoughts of others. I think the album starts great and ends great, but there\'s a lot of loose baggage floating around in the middle. It\'s like a zipper with bent and missing teeth in the center. In my opinion this album would be a lot stronger by isolating the wandering noodley bits to one or two songs and expanding on the styles shown at the beginning and end of the album. I would have been particularly interested in hearing another track or two of heavier sounding riffs that you hear in \'Bayou By You\'.

I\'d hardly consider this my least favorite album of his that I\'ve owned (that honor went to Frankenstein Brothers) as it shows a lot of potential... but it would have been nice to see that potential realized since there\'s no telling if he\'ll do any other banjo-centric work, and hearing him manning a different instrument is a real breath of fresh air. Speaking of which, looks like a bass album is coming down the pipes (something I\'ve waited for forever). Fingers crossed...

[DisembodiedLoaf]

It\'s not a real banjo... A real banjo is much harder to play.....

Are you sure? I think it\'s a banjitar (which is not a banjo). I don\'t think it\'s an all banjo album. A banjo can be hooked up to an acoustic pickup and have effects added, but the low pitchness and timbre of parts sound like a bass or guitar. "9 banjo binges" does not say "all banjo" to me.

As for the releases since \'09:

SotP is pretty solid in my opinion.
ARDitR is really good, but gets stale in the middle.
FF and NiaSS are cool for being unique, but I\'m not a huge fan of them.
SbtS is awesome. The major songs make me happy. The placement of the minor songs give it a bad flow.
BR has too much noodling.
SC has no flaws. Go through what Buckethead did and then release a structured, PG type album. I don\'t like noodling much, but it works on SC. It\'s a bit more unique and has some emotion.
KR and BaH: I fear they will be noodly.

Yes, it is disappointing to see all these spontaneous noodle albums come out. Then again, you have to consider that Bucket isn\'t touring this year and has to support himself. To do that, he makes more albums, including LE\'s and improvising makes it faster to do so. Plus, using CD jackets saves money.

I\'m not too worried. He\'s probably going to put out something mind-blowing by the end of the year.

He\'s most likely touring next year which means: 4 awesome albums, instead of 11 meh albums.

A Banjo is very difficult to play because of the tuning of it as well as the plucking string...  fun to play around on but to play it right is a total different story!

The tuning is like a very messed up guitar tuning. Take off the low E string. Tune the a string down to g and the remaining e string down to d. Tune that g-string up an octave, tightening and shortening it. If you try playing a guitar song on it, you will be messed up. That short g-string will confuse you for one thing.

What\'s pretty easy is to learn tenor banjo, after playing mandolin. Need to get mine fixed! Me do own banjo binge!

[robotpie3000]

Fellow bucketbots, I just have to be honest with you. After the release of Shadows Between the Sky I was really excited for a new CD.

When I heard Spinal Clock on youtube, I wasn\'t really that impressed. There are too much silence in the tracks, which kinda annoyed me. Maybe I was just expecting a country-style sounding album. The Banjo sounds were kinda cool, I liked them. However, amidst the low quality CD some songs like Skeleton Dance just stand out, like Aunt Suzie within Cyborg Slunks or She Sells Sea Shells by the Slaughterhouse within Kaleidoscalp.  

But I will never let Buckethead down because I know he has great ideas and I am sure that he will release another more solid album in the future.

[Best Regards]

Okay im weird....
I thought it was amazing.

[Whale_On_This]

Okay im weird....
I thought it was amazing.

Embrace thy weirdness bot.