bob bucko
Dubuque
"So this Iowan guitarist+ floats like a butterfly (Ignatz style power drift on the lead off track) and can sting like a bee (Sonny Sharrock moves I shit you not on the closer while nodding towards Albert Ayler). You want screamo flail-out that ends up in soothing sax balm. Blammo, track #3. Harmonic pinching banjoesque country? Try “I Can’t Live At Home In This World Anymore.” How about one track that goes from Guided By Voices rattle ballad right into tweaked out electronic helicopter popcorn funk with the television on? That would be “Love Psalm/Luv Psalm.” Definitely feel love/luv on this whole release KFJC loves its weirdos, especially the chameleons, and this release from Bob Bucko Jr nails the home-spun heart-felt bizarro as well as anything we’ve added this year." -Thurston Hunger, KFJC
"From Iowa comes BBJR, that’s BOB BUCKO JR. to you, a very prolific underground free jazzer/experimental sound artist/folkster. Bucko’s guitar is his most dangerous weapon though, and he employs it throughout his most recent recording HOW TO FUCK ALL YOUR CO-WORKERS IN ONE SITTING out in 2012 on the very consistently interestingly cool CAPTCHA RECORDS based out of Chicago. Definitely a baked lo-fi excursion found here with stinkin’ rock moves balanced out by wayward guitar led sound exploration. Insanely enough I come away from this perhaps having enjoyed Bob’s take on “Amazing Grace” most of all amongst the tunes found here. And considering that upon generally hearing this song I want to jump out the nearest window, this is a feat. The mangled, through the grinder, improv guitar bomb that Bob detonates inside the warm body of the song is inspired stuff truly. Bob Bucko Jr. saver of songs, also has a label of his own for you to check out, Personal Archives." - bostonhassle.com
"I've saved my favorite of these records for last. I'm going to get right to the point with "Tearjerker": this LP was released in an edition of 100 by Captcha Records last summer, and the fact that some physical copies still seem to be available is quite surprising to me. This has quickly become one of my favorite records of the last year and is a must-hear for fans of avant/outsider music. Totally grab this LP while you still can. You'll be one of the lucky ones who will have the 2010s equivalent of a first printing of early Faust, AMM or This Heat someday." - Scott Scholz, Killed in Cars/Words on Sounds
"Another Portland lesser-known comes to light this week with Captcha's release of the enigmatic experimentalist--Bob Bucko, Jr. better known by the official shorthand BBJr.--who's all over the free-music map from jazz to drone to noise, and ruling in each area and every adjacent territory he crosses. More than any full LP that has successfully thwarted recognizable songform in its entirety, Tearjerker has captivated me from start to finish more than anything since Olde English Spelling Bee issued Zephyrus by Squim four years ago, if not since 2009 when Weird Forest dropped Maurizio Bianchi's Das Platinzeitalter. This has got more of an old-school ESP-Disk vibe to it that's totally timeless." - Rick Ele, KDVS
“Our buds at Captcha Records dug deep into the cornfields to find native Iowan gonzo experimenter Bob Bucko Jr., BBJr, has graced us with "Tearjerker", an album full off chaos, strangeness and accidental beauty. Largely improvised, "Tearjerker" weaves in bombastic drumming, dissected guitar noodling, melodic keyboard drones, whispered mantras, entrancing loops and a little sax skronk thrown in here and there. Where side A of this LP is at times frightening and unnerving; full-on frantic free jazz bug-out, Side B comes around to a lulling, hypnotically melodic and engrossing listen. This is the kind of record that one finds something new on each repeated listen; the kind of record where the time of day or night when one is listening could influence what one hears. For fans of outsider patch-worked improvised stumbled upon genius.” - Permanent Records
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