I've heard about Buckethead, and about Praxis somewhat and what I hear intrigues me. Particularly the Praxis album "Transmutation" has some pretty interesting reviews. Anyone out there into them or know anything about them?

Yeah, Buckethead is interesting for sure. I don't really know about Praxis. Checkout, "Welcome to Buckethead Land", his website, and any of his other crazy albums. Also, Fantomas.

'Praxis' were a purely studio band (I believe) formed by master producer/ bass player Bill Laswell in the early '90s. Their main members were Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell from P-Funk, Buckethead, and Brain from some heavy metal band whose name I've forgotten. Their music was basically a collision of funk, thrash metal and hip-hop beats. Most of the tracks are instrumental, tho Boots does the odd vocal (such as 'Animal Behaviour' on the 'Transmutation' album, which is probably their best effort overall).

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of their stuff, other than the odd track/ part of a track that sound 'P-Funky' (like 'Animal Behaviour', which sounds like Funkadelic if they'd still been going in the early '90s.)

I would recommend another Bill Laswell/ P-Funk album, 'Funkronomicon'. This is an awesome compilation of Laswell-produced funk/ funk rock, featuring the likes of Bootsy, Bernie Worrell, George Clinton himself, and Eddie Hazel, the legendary Funkadelic guitarist. There are even appearances from Maceo Parker and Bobby Byrd from James Brown's band. Praxis' 'Animal Behaviour' is on there, and there's even a small appearance from Sly Stone (if you can find him!)! This is a terrific album, and overall comes off as a kind of memorial to Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Hazel, who died before completing a new album with Laswell, of which the completed tracks appear here. Believe me, this is some of the best stuff these guys have done in the last 20 years.

Personally I love 'Funkronomicon' while the Praxis stuff, I rarely play. Too thrash metally for my tastes. But if you dig avante thrash/funk/hip-hop ...

Hope this helps!

Transmutation is a pretty cool album, but I don't get it out really at all.

go try and find Lord of the Harvest by Zillatron. Its buckethead, Bootsy and bernie worrell. Some of the coolist shit you will ever hear. Colma is also good, showing another side of buckethead. I have that praxis album as well, its probably my least favorite of the stuff he's played on, but its still pretty good