Welcome to the 144th edition of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday. You should all know how the story goes by now -- the first contestant to correctly identify this week's song and date will win an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. Each contestant gets one guess per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Gentlemen, gentlewomen, start your engines...
Tuesday Hint: Being familiar with the longest version of Gotta Jibboo that Phish has played to date can help you determine which year this week's MJM comes from. Be warned, however -- this hint is not as straightforward as you might think it is.
IT can be good to take a break. You catch your breath, relax your limbs, clear your head... feed your soul. Five months into 2013, as we near July and Phish's impending Summer Tour, the highlights of their 2012 MSG New Year's run still sound fresh and fantastic, even if my $0.02 about them are not.
Lake Tahoe is looking an awful lot like
Gamehendge as Evil King Wilson plays his winning hand on this
gorgeous new print created by master printmaker AJ Masthay for the
upcoming Phamily Poker Classic 3 charity poker tournament. This
5-color
linoleum block print was hand-crafted in an edition of 150, and
the only way to get one is by joining the tournament at Harveys Lake
Tahoe on July 31st. Held to benefit The Mockingbird Foundation, the Phamily Poker
Classic 3 features a generous cash prize pool, great bonus prizes,
and one of these stunning prints for each player.
Our plan is to
give each player the print number that corresponds to their final position
in the tourney. So, for example, if you bust out in 100th place, your print
will be #100. But for those with the luck and skill to make the final
table, we have something special. AJ has created a unique Final Table
Variant of the print ... an edition of only 10 ... on a special wavy
metallic paper that really pops. Check it
out here! The only way you're going to get one of these beauties is
by making the final table, so get practicing your cards!
I realized yesterday, that I probably haven't listened to Phish in a month. That is, actively listening, thinking about Phish's music. Then I got to thinking… have I listened to Phish this year? Have I distanced myself from the music purposefully? Do I not like Phish anymore? I mean, shit, I don't think I'm gonna go to any shows this summer. And I'm kinda ok with that. So what gives?
Welcome to the 143rd edition of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday! As always, the first contestant to correctly identify this week's song and date will win an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules: one guess per person per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Enjoy!
Wednesday Answer: For a moment, I'd deluded myself into thinking that this week's choice had fooled the contestants just long enough to at least earn a hint-aided loss. With a scant eight hours left, however, they proved once again how ridiculously great and knowledgeable they truly are. (Or how miserably awful the Blog's been at choosing clips.)
Fall 1998 was certainly not the most consistent tour Phish has ever played, but it did provide numerous underrated gems -- MJM #143's 11/4/98 Piper being one example. Three-time winner @PhreePhish wins this week's MP3 download. Mazel Tov!
Following the great reception
(and quick sellout) of AJ Masthay's Famous
Mockingbird print, created to celebrate the upcoming publication
of The Phish Companion, 3rd Edition, we are excited to
announce the release of two new Famous Mockingbird pins
from Masthay Studios. The 1 1/2 inch hard enamel pins are available in
both antique silver and antique gold colored metals, each individually
numbered out of an edition of 200 and backstamped with the Masthay Studios
logo.
The Famous Mockingbird pins will be
available from the Phish.net Store and Masthay Studios on Tuesday, May 7th at 12 noon
ET. Pins are $15 each including shipping, or a matching numbered set
(one gold and one silver) for $25 shipped.
A generous portion of
the proceeds go to The Mockingbird
Foundation. Thank you AJ for your support and gorgeous artwork!
On this lovely seis de mayo, I'd like to welcome you to the 142nd chapter of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday! As always, the first contestant to correctly identify this week's song and date will win an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: one guess per person per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, and the answer will be posted on Wednesday.
Buena suerte!
Wednesday Answer: By correctly identifying the 10/8/99 Halley's Comet this week's MP3 download goes to @mcgrupp81, who's now recorded three MJM wins. Bravo!
Weak ticket sales prompted a quick hook for the show, but Hands on A Hardbody is starting strong in the Broadway awards season. This morning, Trey captured a Tony nomination in his first foray into writing for the stage, sharing a nod for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Stage with Amanda Green. (Amanda wrote the lyrics, while the two share credit for the music). While it's not a part of this particular award, Trey also is credited with writing the orchestrations (along with old partner Don Hart), a big part of the overal musical effect.
Welcome to the 141st episode of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday! We're a scant 5,637,600 seconds or so from lights down in Bangor. If you've got a spare sixty to waste, give this one a listen. If you recognize which song and show it was culled from, post your guess in the comments. Because MJM Headquarters was the big winner last week, the first contestant to correctly identify this week's song and date will win TWO MP3 downloads, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: one guess per person per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, and the answer will be posted on Wednesday.
Good luck!
Wednesday Answer: No luck was needed, as @westbrook identified the 8/24/93 Vancouver Soundcheck Jam (the first 10:00 of that YouTube) within the first two minutes of the contest, and wins a pair of MP3 downloads. Although, considering that @yunkfunk also answered correctly within seconds of the winning comment, perhaps a bit of luck was involved. Regardless, the Blog was thoroughly flogged -- per usual, you contestants are truly on your game.
Episode #142, next Monday. Same Phish time. Same Phish channel.
Greetings, and welcome to the 140th episode of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday! Including today's edition, we're still eleven Mystery Jam Mondays away from the opening show of Phish's 2013 Summer Tour, which should provide you ample opportunity to fill up that road playlist.
That's because, per usual, we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, and the answer will be posted on Wednesday.
Best of luck!
Tuesday Hint: The streak of fourteen straight MJMs that have not needed a Tuesday hint has been snapped! It remains to be seen, however, if the Blog can put an end to its winless streak of twenty-five. Here's your clue: along the lines of what @ucpete alluded to, there are MJMs which are topical, and MJMs which are not. This week's MJM falls into the former group.
Wednesday Answer: With the win, I'd like to congratulate -- the Blog! It was a true nail-biter, as many of you were able to pin down either the era or the location, but ultimately no one was able to put it all together and name the 12/31/94 Chalk Dust Torture, played at the old Boston Garden, and chosen in the wake of the utter chaos that enveloped Boston last week. Check out the end of that track for the post-outro evil spaciness that ultimately fades into a soothing Horse > Silent.
Stay tuned for next week's one hundred and forty-first Mystery Jam Monday, when the Blog attempts to put together its first two-win streak and improve its current record of 8-114-14[1].
[1] That would be 8 wins, 114 losses, and 14 hint-aided losses. And yes -- when falling to 106 games below .500, you're damned right we're counting hint-aided losses separately from the garden-variety ass-whuppings we typically suffer.
20 years ago today, I did an interview with Mike Gordon for rec.music.phish. Phish was in Ann Arbor for a two-day run at the Michigan Theater and we sat down in his hotel room before the 4/18 show to talk about a number of things. My favorite part was the discussion about his songwriting. He had with him his songwriting book that had pretty much everything he had written up to that point. This interview includes the first public peeks at Simple and Scent Of A Mule (before they were even songs), some unused lyrics from Mound, and even some never-recorded lyrics. We had a very fun discussion and it gives a rare peek into the songwriting mind of Mike Gordon. Click on the "read more" link to see the interview.
Welcome to the 139th edition of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday. I am truly honored to be your new victim host, and hope I can be the Andrew Luck to @lumpblockclod's Peyton Manning. Rather than his Curtis Painter.
Despite the change in personnel, most things around here will remain the same. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...
Wednesday Answer: My dreams of an undefeated reign have been destroyed. By identifying the 8/10/04 AC/DC Bag -- a song about Gamehendge's accountant Mr. Palmer that was posted on Tax Day, I'd like to note -- this week's MP3 download goes to @PhreePhish, who's put together an impressive run of two wins over the last four weeks.
Join us here next Monday for the one hundred and fortieth installment of Mystery Jam Monday.
Summer in Saratoga: A Rock Art Exhibition, a poster show featuring
Phish artists from around the country will be held on Saturday July
6th from 10:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m. at The Saratoga Hilton in downtown Saratoga Springs, New
York. Developed and produced by a group of artists and fans known as The
Mothership Art Collective, this poster show will be held in the
middle of a weekend of Phish, who play three nights at Saratoga Performing
Arts Center, July 5th-7th.
Phish poster shows have been held over the years with great success, as
unique posters made for the Phish shows that weekend and stop on the tour
feature some of the best concert art being produced today. ‘Summer in
Saratoga’ is the second event produced by The Mothership Art
Collective, a group within the Phish community, comprised of artists and
organizations who promote the art inspired by the band Phish. Their initial
poster show, ‘First Tube’, was held in Atlantic City, New
Jersey on June 16th, 2012 and was a
success for all who participated in the event and raised $2000 to benefit
The Mockingbird Foundation. The eclectic artists featured at this poster
show displays the broad scope of Phish related art and capture the
inspiration of the band in their art. The creative fan base that Phish has
makes for amazing art inspired by the band, the locales and the music. The
collective works hard to bring an art show to the Phish touring public each
year.
In keeping with the great tradition and success of past poster shows,
Summer in Saratoga will offer free entry to all patrons, tubes available
for purchase, charitable donations from the event made to The Mockingbird Foundation
and a wide array of artists with posters to fit any budget. Artists will be
announced in early May, as well as any special edition works that will only
be available at the show, which will be posted on www.mothershipartcollective.orgin
early June.
"Hands on a Hardbody will close on Broadway April
13, its producers announced on April 8.
Previews for the populist show — inspired by the recently re-released
1997 film documentary of the same name — began Feb. 23 at the
Brooks Atkinson Theatre. It opened March 21. The musical was commissioned
by La Jolla Playhouse, which produced its pre-Broadway premiere in 2012.
Reviews were mixed-to-positive, but box office for the ensemble show was
anemic in previews, hovering around $200,000 a week, with an average ticket
price of about $32.
By closing, it will have played 28 previews and 28 regular
performances.
Critics found the show appealingly small-scaled, human and likable, if
modest to a fault.
"Although it's far from fully loaded in a conventional
sense," said the New York
Times (3/21/13), "this scrappy, sincere new musical brings a
fresh, handmade feeling to Broadway, which mostly traffics in the machine
tooled. Burrowing into the troubled hearts of its characters, it draws a
clear-eyed portrait of an America that's a far cry from the fantasyland
of most commercial musicals. Hands on a Hardbody simply sings forth a story
of endurance, hardship and the dimming American dream, which increasingly
seems to hover on the distant horizon like some last-ditch motel whose neon
lights are blinking out one by one."
The Brooks Atkinson is at 256 W.
47th Street. Tickets range from $55-$155, and are available at the Brooks
Atkinson Theatre box office and at Ticketmaster.com or at (877) 250-2929.
For those American dreamers who might not be able to pay top price for the
show, Hands On a Hardbody has a discount "rush
ticket" policy: A limited number of $32 rush tickets (price includes
$2 facility fee) are available for every performance. These rush tickets,
which are available to all patrons, are cash only and can be purchased at
the box office only, beginning at 10 AM the day of the performance. There
is a limit of two tickets per person.
On July 31 in Harvey's poker room in Lake Tahoe, organizers Kevin Young
and Jamey Brill, with the assistance of other volunteers, will be running a
poker tournament for the benefit of The
Mockingbird Foundation.
"The Phamily Poker Classic 3" is a Texas Hold Em Event, as both
of the prior "Classics" were in Tahoe in 2011 and in Atlantic
City in 2010. Seats are very limited, because the tournament will only take
place on the afternoon of July 31, beginning at 1:00pm. The chip stacks and
blinds will be structured to ensure that no one misses a note of Phish
(i.e., the tournament will end before showtime, as the previous tournaments
did).
The entry fee will be $140 and at least half of that amount will go
directly into the prize pool. Similar to past events, there will also be
non-cash prizes that will be raffled off throughout the tournament. Part of
the buy-in will be used to cover expenses/costs, and the remainder will be
donated to The Mockingbird Foundation.
In addition, every player in the Phamily Poker Classic 3 will receive a
limited edition, custom poster designed by AJ Masthay. The participants at
the final table also will get a special signed/numbered edition different
from the rest, and will receive a numbered poster based on the number that
they're eliminated (e.g., second place will receive poster numbered
"2").
We hope that you will join us again and make this event as special as the
previous Phamily Poker Classic tournaments, which raised over $10,000 for
The Mockingbird Foundation. With your continued support, we can keep these
events happening and support a great cause.
The Mockingbird Foundation - that all-volunteer nonprofit of Phish fans
that runs Phish.net, The Phish Companion, et al. - has announced five
new "emergency" grants to support restoration of music programs
impacted by Hurricane Sandy last October.
We are excited to announce that AJ
Masthay's recent print celebrating the upcoming release of The
Phish Companion, 3rd Edition will go on sale this Friday, March 15
at noon EDT (9am PDT) on the artist's website (http://masthaystudios.bigcartel.com/). This limited
edition of 150 prints on navy blue paper is a six-color linoleum block
print, and costs $40. There is a limit of one print per customer.
In addition, a number of Artist's Proofs, special variants, and
AJ's original color sketch and printing plates will be for sale, with a
generous portion of the proceeds to benefit The Mockingbird Foundation. These also go on sale this
Friday, March 15 at noon EDT (9am PDT) on the
artist's website.
In addition to the majority of the 150 prints, the following print variants
and original art will also be available on Friday.
Silver and Gold Leaf
Variant Edition size: 6 Price: $150
OG Sketch by AJ
Masthay
Original drawing used for print
Only one! Price: $1000
OG
Plate by AJ Masthay Original hand carved
linoleum
printing plate
Only one! Price: $500
Artist's Proofs
AP - Navy blue edition
15 available
Price: $60
AP - Grey edition
5 available
Price: $100
We apologize for the frustration caused by our attempted sale last week,
and expect that by selling via the artist's site these problems will be
avoided. All prints will be sold this Friday, March 15 at noon EDT (9am
PDT) on the artist's website. Thank you for supporting The Mockingbird Foundation.
Phish has announced their Summer 2013 tour. Starting on July 3rd in Bangor,
Maine, the 25-show tour will cross the country before wrapping up with a
three-night run at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City,
Colorado. The Phish Tickets ticket
request period has begun, and ends on Sunday, March 24th at 11:59pm EDT.
For more information, visit http://www.phish.com/summer2013/. To request tickets,
visit http://tickets.phish.com/.
In an interview airing tomorrow, Sunday, March 10, on the long-running
CBS "Sunday Morning" talk show,
Trey tells host Anthony Mason that "we
always felt like lepers", but that "I was at the concerts and
people were having a great time". A very short clip of
that interview can be seen on the CBS Sunday Morning website here.
The "Sunday Morning" show runs from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. EST (check
your local listings). As we all know,Trey is rarely interviewed, so
this is worth watching, or setting your DVR to record.
UPDATE (3/10/13 1:40 p.m.): For those of you who
missed it, the entire interview is now up on the CBS "Sunday
Morning" show website here.
Today (March 8), as announced, we attempted to put on sale a
limited edition poster. While we at Phish.net worked closely with our
e-commerce partner to be ready for the sale, we did not anticipate the
exceptionally high demand for this print. About five minutes before the
sale time, the volume of web traffic overwhelmed our store’s web,
database and e-mail servers, and to many customers the store appeared
unavailable.
About 30 minutes after the planned sale time, seeing that there was no
quick fix for the server problems and believing no posters had been sold,
Mockingbird Foundation Board President Marco Walsh made the decision to
postpone the sale. We later learned that a small number of customers had
been able to successfully complete an order.
Who knew selling a few posters could be so difficult? Here’s what
we’re going to do:
On Friday, March 15, at noon EST (9am PST), the majority of prints will be
sold to customers directly from artist AJ Masthay’s website at www.masthaystudios.com. Purchases will be limited to
one poster per person.
In addition, a very small number of print variants and artists proofs will
go on sale at the same time.
Any orders for a single print that were successfully completed (with order
confirmation e-mail) on 3/8 will be honored.
Any orders for two prints that were successfully completed on 3/8 will be
reduced to one print, and a partial refund will be given.
Any duplicate orders by the same person will be canceled and your money
refunded. We will fulfill one order for a single print.
We sincerely apologize for any frustration that this experience has caused.
We will be the first to admit that, as an all-volunteer charity, selling
posters is not our strong suit. While we understand that all may not be
satisfied, we think the fairest solution is to limit print sales to one per
person, try again to sell prints next week using a different web store, and
partially honor (one print only) those few orders that were completed on
3/8.
While we trusted that adequate resources were in place for a successful
sale, we were embarrassed to learn the hard way that this was not the case.
Masthay Design has recently upgraded their servers specifically to support
sales to highly dedicated, Internet-savvy Phish fans. Having seen him
successfully hold several popular poster sales, we are fairly confident
that we can sell the rest of the posters without a hitch.
Again, we sincerely apologize for any frustrations caused by today’s
botched attempt to sell a poster, and hope you’ll bear with us as we
do all we can to get this right for next week. Thank you very much for your
patience and understanding, and for supporting The Mockingbird
Foundation.
Mystery Jam Monday Part 144
Today (March 8), as announced, we attempted to put on sale a
limited edition poster. While we at Phish.net worked closely with our
e-commerce partner to be ready for the sale, we did not anticipate the
exceptionally high demand for this print. About five minutes before the
sale time, the volume of web traffic overwhelmed our store’s web,
database and e-mail servers, and to many customers the store appeared
unavailable.