i'm glad we got to see all the different shades of bucket on the album. as i've said earlier, chinese democracy is pretty much a buckethead tribute album. as much as we bitch about the final version of the album, there's a timeline where bucket is completely erased from the album. imagine that -- if dj and ron recorded every single guitar part.

instead, we get to see bucket at his best and most versatile.

you get his alien-sounding shredding killswitch solos on chinese democracy & better.
his beautiful flamenco work is all over if the world.
shackler's revenge is classic bucket riffing.

i'll never forget when shitty quality versions of IRS were being leaked and the one with the axl scream and bucket solo dropped. that solo still blows me away.

there was a time features what i truly believe is the greatest solo bucket ever put together.

in the past, one of bucket's biggest struggles was just instantly jumping into a chaotic solo with all this double tapping n' shit. i really think his time in guns helped him perfect the art of starting slow and building a solo to the fever pitch.

right after leaving guns, bucket came out with population override -- arguably his most beautiful, soulful and tender album. i don't think the timing there is a coincidence.

bucket definitely elevated the album, but i think working with guns elevated bucket as well.

that would fit with the speculation that duff was referring to the song on that howard stern interview in '96.

if the old band did lay down the original track, i could see ax re-working it with freese, finck, stinson and the rest of the gang.

i'd imagine it would have been one of the tracks slated for 2000 intensions.

the band has probably long since forgotten about this song, so i'd bet the only way we ever hear it is through a leak (what else is new?).

by the way, a '99 version of prostitute would be REALLY interesting to hear. that's gotta be at the top of my list of old demos & whatnot.

thanks fam! santa needs to hurry the fuck up!

despite some of the sonic weirdness, this version of madagascar is great and was ready for release, imo.

it's clear that the shift of vision/sound from the sean beaven 2000 intensions album warranted some drastic changes with the existing songs. the raw, unpolished demos were re-worked to sound more modern, full and polished. this definitely improved some of the tunes -- there was a time being the strongest example, catcher being the worst. as cool as the '99 version sound of twat sounds, that song needed finck and bucket to elevate it. but i don't see how this version of madagascar needed to be re-worked -- yeah, the rhythm guitar is weird at times, but the song was ready to go, brother.

it's crazy to think that axl had a stack of madagascar demos with labels like "madagascar version #53 (w/ extended outro feedback)."

the guy spent the prime of his career re-doing guitar and bass tracks, yet only re-recorded vocals a few times throughout the process of making the album. for a perfectionist, he sure seemed to ignore his own work a majority of the time. it's okay to go full mickey on songs like rhiad, this i love and if the world, but sure... let's spend a few years trying to nail the drum sound of chinese democracy.

in any case, hearing new shit is always great. as far as cd 2001 era shit goes, i'd LOVE to hear the blues, chinese democracy and an early prostitute, if the latter 2 are even out there.

WOOOOOOOO!

they also played the if the world remix! the fuckin' cheerleaders did a whole little dance routine to it.

we are truly living in a bizarro world.