Bootsy Collins and Buckethead Team Up for Science Faxtion

Bootsy Collins' latest project, Science Faxtion, sees the funk great merging his unmistakable bass once again with guitarist Buckethead and drummer Brain — all of whom previously played in Praxis. But for their forthcoming debut on Mascot Records, Living on Another Frequency (which should be dropping sometime in September), their goal is new.

"We wanted to challenge artists and people in the music business," Collins says. "We want to go somewhere where people haven't been yet. It's like taking that first shuttle to Venus — you don't know what that trip is going to be like, you just know you're going. People have taken the experience out of the experience, and we're trying to put that back into music and make it fun."

According to the group's singer-guitarist, Greg Hampton — who also co-wrote and co-produced Alice Cooper's latest LP, Along Came a Spider — Science Faxtion began more straightforward. "It started off that it was going to be a funk record. But we started exploring this concept of the future in 2099, that entails man being melded with computer, and how music will be made." Tracks such as first single "Looking for Eden," "Life is in Deliver," "At Any Cost" and "What It Is" (which features Chuck D), certainly rock hard with an unmistakably futuristic funk sound. "We're going to use technology, before technology uses us," adds Collins. "Because that's where we're headed. We're the Paul Reveres — 'The British are coming, the British are coming! Technology is here!' "

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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