Nun chuka kata by Buckethead

      So I'm starting a new series where I write more about music, in particular writing about favorite songs and/or songs that I think people should hear. The first song for this series is Buckethead's Nun chuka kata.

     This is a great tune that sounds like a pure heavy metal climax that mixes the music up with techno and hip hop beats. At the same time it sounds like a pure quiet gentle sort of sound. The guitars are pure rock and roll power chords but the lead guitar parts are these harmonious melodies that sound sad and euphoric. What he's doing is this tremolo guitar riff for all the melodies. It sounds like a countdown to something that was once great. The whole tune is kind of a linear progression until the end where Bucket plays a super fast orgasmic guitar solo. This is the stuff that Big B has been known for all his life since he was young guy first featured in Guitar World. He's doing a ton of 3-4 per string scales and trying to add some melody in there with the flare. There's even some bluesy lead guitar stuff that sounds like Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page but with Big B's gymnast-like technical prowess. It sounds like he just recorded this tune live, especially the guitar solo. Although the solo shows a lot of grandiose guitar technique it still sounds very sloppy in parts which is strange because all his newer guitar solos all sound flawless on record.
     I heard this song when I was around 18-19 and at the time it was one of the greatest rock guitar instrumentals I've ever heard. And trust me I've heard a lot of instrumental shred guitar stuff back in my day. I've since moved on from shred and rock and now mainly focus on jazz. But when I hear a song like this it brings me back to my shred guitar phase. I've even seen Buckethead in concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I went with a friend and I can say that although Buckethead played amazing, sounded great, and looked cool he only played for about 45 minutes and the show was over. For a while I heard that he was retiring from music but recently I heard he's playing a concert in Milwaukee again. The album that this song is on is Monsters and Robots and its the final song on the album, probably the best. 

Latest Guitar World

     So I just got the latest Guitar World at before I left work. It's pretty sick! It features Eddie Van Halen on the cover and focuses on his gear but the issue also focuses on John Mclaughlin, probably my favorite guitarist of all time! The issue is already gold to me because its the first issue in 2016 but because they had people vote and rank guitarists, albums, best live acts, and most anticipated albums and stuff. It was interesting to see who's who and who won all the rewards and stuff. I'm really not surprised by anything there but I was surprised to see that Marty Friedman wasn't on the best shredders list. Marty is a true master 'shredder' guitar player and although he didn't put out any new albums I think he should've been on there. Instead, Joe Satriani got best metal album and best shred guitar player. He deserves it I guess because his new album Shockwave Supernova is a beast of an instrumental guitar album.
     Anyways, the meat and potatoes of this magazine was reading all about Eddie Van Halen's guitar gear and John Mclaughlin. Eddie is.....well Eddie. He's still alive and kicking and he's playing his ass off playing with David Lee Roth, his son on bass, and his brother on drums. He's had a reawakening in the music scene becoming more popular than ever recently. His playing has only gotten better with time and everything he's been through.
     The part about John Mclaughlin was all great stuff. Nothing new to me that I didn't know but it was cool reading quotes from John about Miles, Paco De Lucia, and Carlos Santana. The thing about John is that he's probably the greatest and most talented guitarist on the planet. He was around when all the musical greats were still among us. Now he's part of what we have left from that time. This guy's jammed with Hendrix, played on tons of Miles Davis records, and jammed with the speed and ferocity with the likes of Paco and Al Di Meola. I hope to hear his new album sometime soon. I might just buy it when I can. His latest record is called Black Light and its him with his band the Fourth Dimension. I like how Guitar World described the music-as cubist bebop, which to me sounds like a really scientific form of jazz. I've heard two tracks so far and I didn't really like what I heard. It sounded to me too much like pre-recorded kind of stuff, basically it sounds like smooth jazz to me. Its crazy because I know John detests smooth jazz. Maybe the whole record isn't like these two songs I heard. Another cool highlight on John Mclaughlin was that they labeled, described, and had pictures of every single guitar that John used during all his infamous musical periods. Way cool!