COLONEL CLAYPOOL'S BUCKET OF BERNIE BRAINS (C2B3)

Overview

Premiered as a then one-time-only performance at the Bonnaroo Festival on 06/22/02, the band consists of longtime collaborators Brain and Buckethead, plus legendary keyboard virtuoso Bernie Worrell (of Parliament Funkadelic and Talking Heads fame) - this is essentially the Praxis lineup with Les instead of Bootsy Collins (see Brain page). The success of their all improvisational Bonnaroo set prompted 5 other, essentially all improv shows in late 2002 and early 2003, including an appearance in 5/03 at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Besides band jams, these early shows usually included a solo from each band member (including a set opener by Bernie), and at least one jam each with Les on upright and Whamola. This early penchant for stand alone jams continued into the fall 2004 tour, with free standing improvs and solo numbers interspersed between composed pieces; and makes this band unique amongst Claypool projects.

In 2004 C2B3 released The Big Eyeball In the Sky, which was followed by a full tour in fall 2004. The sets ranged from 90 min to over 2 hours, and usually included several mid set performances on upright, followed by a drum/Whamola jam, giving the sets a slower middle segment (Claypool has followed a similar pattern in his other solo projects). Bernie's influence was notable not only in his opening solos and funky, layered melodic and harmonic lines in both composed pieces and jams, but also in the first time performance of several classic P-Funk songs by Claypool. Like prior Frog Brigade tours with Galactic, moe. and Deadweight, this tour was notable for a fertile musical cross pollination with opening band Gabby La La. Gabby recapitulated her album guest appearances by sitting in on vocals for all renditions of Hip Shot From the Slab and Big Eyeball In the Sky, as well as on sitar for all renditions of Elephant Ghost; while various members of C2B3 sat in with her band on multiple occasions. Following this tour, Gabby La La joined the Fancy Band, and C2B3 material crept into Frog Brigade, Fancy Band and Holy Mackerel setlists.

Just like the 2003-4 Primus tours, the 2004 C2B3 tour was made available for official download from c2b3live.com, thus official live versions of nearly the entire repertoire are available.

Instrumentation

Les Claypool - see Claypool's Unusual Instruments

Live Repertoire

The Big Eyeball In the Sky

Released Live Originals

Unreleased Originals

Includes the majority of the first 6 shows from 2002-3 (mostly band and individual jams) and the opening night of the fall 2004 tour (9/24), which for some reason was not made available on c2b3live.com.

Other Les Claypool Band Material

Covers Teases Vocal Teases/Lyrics Official Video

Guest Performers

DJ Disk (turntables)

G Dubya (vocals, Melodica) Gabby La La (see Fancy Band for more details) - Appeared on every fall 2004 performance of Hip Shot and Big Eyeball on vocals, and on every performance of Elephant Ghost on sitar.
Dawn Silva (vocals) - Has performed with P-Funk, Bride of Frankenstein and Sly and the Family Stone. Skerik (sax)

Special Shows

Historically Important Shows

Radio/TV Appearances - None known.
Classic Shows


ELECTRIC APRICOT

Overview

A spoof band that played some real shows in order to provide material for the Quest for Festeroo movie (and accompanying album) that poked fun at the jam band scene, the quartet (under aliases) included Adam Gates on bass, Brian Kehoe on guitar, Jonathan Korty on keyboards and Claypool (as Lapland "Lapdog" Miclovik) on drums; all four members sang. The band played a series of shows in summer 2005, including an appearance at the High Sierra festival, and several other scattered shows. All of the songs live included a healthy dose of jamming. 

Instrumentation

Claypool is the drummer!

Live Repertoire

Quest For Festeroo

·         Back Roads of My Mind - Premiered 05/25/05

·         Hey Are You Going To Burning Man? - Premiered 05/25/05, various parts of this show up most often during the actual movie.

·         Sugar Train Blues - Premiered 05/25/05

·         Uncle Petes Party - Premiered 05/25/05

·         Yog Sagoff- Premiered 05/25/05, this lengthy, multi part piece has a 70s Spinal Tap, prog rock vibe that makes it stand out from the rest of the bluegrass/blues based, Dead like material. The album cut is a live rendition.

 

Unreleased Originals

·         Future - Premiered 05/25/05

·         Pancakes - Premiered 05/25/05

 

Covers - None to date.

 

Teases - None to date.

 

Vocal Teases/Lyrics - None to date.

 

Official Video - Quest for Festeroo movie: although the actual amount of live video footage within the movie is relatively modest, bits of Apricot songs provide some of the musical soundtrack, and there is spoof footage of them rehearsing Burning Man ad nauseam in the studio.

 

Guest Performers

None to date.

 

Special Shows

Historically Important Shows

·         07/02/05 - Band makes its only appearance at sizable festival in High Sierra (the rest of the shows are at smallish clubs); this performance serves as the basis for the live Burning Man in the movie as the band completes its mission by performing at Festeroo. Les had premiered the Fancy Band 2 nights earlier.

 

TV/Radio Appearances - none to date

 

Classic Shows

·         05/25/05 - Les stated in interviews that this show was particularly enjoyable, and that part of the audience was in on the secret, while others thought Apricot was just a good bar band.