BEYOND THE POND PODCAST: THE STORAGE JAM W/ ROB MITCHUM
Beyond the Pond is a bi-weekly podcast in which Brian Brinkman (@sufferingjuke) and David Goldstein (@daveg924) use the music of Phish as a gateway to introduce the listener to many other bands, the vast majority of which are not jambands. An episode generally begins with a deep dive into a designated portion of Phish improvisation, and then can spin off to any variety of musical themes and other acts, the overarching purpose being introducing the listener to as many new and different bands as possible.
WEEKLY CATCH WITH OSIRIS #2: MID-HUDSON CIVIC CENTER - POUGHKEEPSIE, NY - 2/12/1993
[Welcome To Weekly Catch With Osiris! A weekly series brought to you from the team at Osiris. Each Wednesday we're going to bring you a historic Phish show from that week with some commentary. Our goal is to go beyond official releases and well-known shows to bring you some of the overlooked gems throughout Phish history. If you like what you find, we'd encourage you to check out the assortment of podcasts at the Osiris!]
Listen: Mid-Hudson Civic Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2/12/93
Very few Phish tours are about specific instruments. But the Spring 1993 tour is different. It is 100%, completely about the addition of Page's baby grand piano. From the first notes of "Loving Cup" on 2/3/93 from Portland, Maine, you hear what this tour will bring. And this show, from a few days later in upstate New York, gives tons of ivory ammunition to dig into.
MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 362
Welcome to the 362nd edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second of February! I cooked up this week's puzzle with assistance from fellow emeritus @justino; these clips are definitely tasty. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the two mystery clips. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!
Hint:
SUPPORT MOCKINGBIRD WITH AMAZON SMILE
There's still time to shop for Valentine's Day, so we wanted to remind you to please use Amazon Smile so that you can support the Mockingbird Foundation, the all-volunteer phan-run effort to support music education for children, with 400 grants made so far. Bookmark smile.amazon.com/ch/16-1529562 or click here:
TAKE THE BAIT - EPISODE 7. JAPAN. PART 3, 1999
[Take the Bait is spirited deliberation centered around the hyperbole of Phish’s music and fandom, passionately exuded via the written words of phish.net contributors @FunkyCFunkyDo and @n00b100. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of phish.net, The Mockingbird Foundation, or any fan… but we're pretty sure we’re right. Probably.]
Funky: Well, n00b, we sure did suck the fun out of Japan 2000. I mean, yes there was an all-time show in 6.14.00, and, yes, there were five extremely explorative jams in 6.16 “Runaway Jim,” 6.10 “Piper,” 6.10 “DWD,” 6.9 “Tweezer” and 6.15 “Ghost”… but the rest was pretty average, and, at times, disappointingly out of sync. Of course, I write all this with a healthy dose of envy, as neither of us were there, and going from the responses of a few who did attend (thank you for writing your responses, by the way, we sincerely do love feedback) the shows were extremely memorable, energetic, and downright fun, simply due to the facts that Phish was playing to an excited foreign audience in tiny, intimate venues. And that, the once-in-a-lifetime musical experience that only a couple thousand fans got to witness, undoubtedly, weighs heavier than any of our words written from the friendly confines of the .net HQ ::wipes Cheetos dust off fingers, swigs Mountain Dew::
VOTE FOR 2018'S JAM OF THE YEAR
It's time for the 2018 version of the annual Phish.net Jam of the Year (JOTY) competition! The seeding is done and the bracket is ready; this year, the four regions are named after the members of Kasvot Växt. The Horst region begins this week.
The first four weeks will have eight matchups each (sixteen songs), while subsequent weeks will have four matchups or fewer, with the Jam of the Year decided by April. Voting will take place in the Phish.net forum in dedicated weekly "***Official*** JOTY" threads, like this one for the first round. Just post your favorites for each head-to-head matchup in the thread for that round, and the dedicated JOTY staff will tally everything up. Each round's winners will be announced in the following round's announcement. Voting for the first round closes at 5 pm ET, Monday, February 11th, 2019, but you may vote for a later round even if you missed an earlier round.
You can find the first round match-ups and bracket after the jump.
WEEKLY CATCH WITH OSIRIS #1: THE FRONT - BURLINGTON, VT - 02/06/1989
[Welcome To Weekly Catch With Osiris! A weekly series brought to you from the team at the Osiris Podcast Network. Each Wednesday we're going to bring you a historic Phish show from that week, plus provide some context into the show in question. The goal here is to dig deep beyond official releases & well-known shows, to bring you some of the overlooked gems throughout Phish's 35+ year career. If you like what you find, we'd encourage you to check out the assortment of podcasts at the Osiris Podcast Network! ]
Listen: The Front - Burlington, VT - 02/06/1989
The year 1989 was an important one for Phish and not simply because it marked the end of the decade of their birth and led into the most celebrated period of their career. It saw the band headline The Paradise in Boston for the first time, close out their performance career at Goddard College, play their first 12/30 show in New York City, and play their first ever New Year's Eve show. It was a moment of transition for a band that in five years would transcend the NE Bar scene to become one of the preeminent national touring acts.
MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 361
Welcome to the 361st edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first* and easiest of February! The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!
*Reminder: For the first MJM of each month, only folks who have never won an MJM are allowed to answer before the hint. If you have never won an MJM, please answer as a blog comment below. If you have previously won an MJM, but you'd like to submit a guess before the hint, you may do so by PMing me; once the hint has been posted, everyone should answer on the blog. If that's confusing to you, check out the handy decision tree that @ucpete threw together to help guide you. If you're not sure if you've won before, check in the MJM Results spreadsheet linked below.
Answer: In back-to-back weeks, we have fresh MJMers with their first wins! @ckess22 chimed in not too long before the hint went live, correctly identifying the 8/10/97 Split Open and Melt - depsite the show being well known for another jam... no matter, he has earned himself a download code and enters the fray of newcomers seeking seven wins and the fabled emeritus status. Tune back in next week on the same bat-time, same bat-channel, for another offering in which the difficulty and number of jams doubles!
TAKE THE BAIT - EPISODE 6. JAPAN. PART 2, 2000
[Take the Bait is spirited deliberation centered around the hyperbole of Phish’s music and fandom, passionately exuded via the written words of phish.net contributors @FunkyCFunkyDo and @n00b100. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of phish.net, The Mockingbird Foundation, or any fan… but we're pretty sure we’re right. Probably.]
Funky: Perhaps it was just a bit unfair to our readers and listeners to (re)introduce Japanese Phish with an all-time, A+ show in 6.14.00. Perhaps. But, then again, would they have taken the bait ::he said it, he said the thing!:: on our three-part series surrounding Japanese Phish had we not led off with something so scrumtrulescent? By reading that sentence you have proved that we lured you back in, tempting you with more morsels of Japanese Phish, and we are not talking about sushi.
Before 6.14.00 ever happened, four shows preceded it, and after it happened, two more took place. So, the natural questions arise: how did Phish build to such dramatic, yet serene, soundscapes? And, what did they do for the proverbial encore? Answers abound, some of which make sense, some of which make little sense at all. If David Byrne were writing this, he’d simply say, “Stop making sense!” Good point - that’s where we will start.
BEYOND THE POND PODCAST: 25 YEARS LATER W/ CONRAD DOUCETTE
Beyond the Pond is a bi-weekly podcast in which Brian Brinkman (@sufferingjuke) and David Goldstein (@daveg924) use the music of Phish as a gateway to introduce the listener to many other bands, the vast majority of which are not jambands. An episode generally begins with a deep dive into a designated portion of Phish improvisation, and then can spin off to any variety of musical themes and other acts, the overarching purpose being introducing the listener to as many new and different bands as possible.
Mockingbird Announces Its 400th Grant!
The Mockingbird Foundation has announced fifteen new grants totaling $131,870 in support of music education for children. The grants come from Mockingbird’s 23rd round of competitive grant-making, are among the largest single rounds of grants in the Foundation’s history, and include the Foundation’s 400th grant.
The grants were enhanced by funds from Phish’s own WaterWheel Foundation, which allowed the board to double two of the grant requests, as well as the Kristy Anastasio Manning Memorial Fund, which provided 50% of one of the grants. Mockingbird also increased four grants beyond the requested amounts, having been particularly impressed by those applicants.
Follow the link for the official announcement.
Phish Announces Summer 2019 Tour
Phish will hit the road this summer with a 26-date tour beginning in St. Louis, MO and ending with their traditional Labor Day shows at Dick's. The ticket request window is open until Wednesday, January 16th – see here for ticketing information.
Trey, Fish Et Al. To Tour As GHOSTS OF THE FOREST In April 2019
That's right, Ghosts of the Forest, a new band led by Trey (featuring Jon Fishman, Jennifer Hartswick, Celisse Henderson, Tony Markellis, and Ray Paczkowski), will tour in April 2019.
They will play seven (7) shows on the east coast in April 2019. Please see Phish.com for more information.
Phish Studies Conference: Call For Proposals
Phish Studies: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Band, its Music, and its Fans
Oregon State University is pleased to announce the first peer-reviewed academic conference devoted to the music and fan culture of the improvisational rock band Phish. The conference will take place on Oregon State’s campus in Corvallis, Oregon, May 17-19, 2019.
For the past thirty-five years, Phish has been consistently building a fervent fan base and impressive live performance history, often working outside traditional avenues of the mainstream recording industry. They staged the world’s largest New Year’s Eve concert in December 1999 with a marathon seven-hour set, redefined the modern American music festival, and performed a record-setting thirteen night run at New York’s Madison Square Garden without repeating a single song during the summer of 2017. Despite these achievements, Phish has received far less scholarly attention than many other acts in popular music.
Bringing scholars together from diverse academic disciplines, we welcome a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches to the sonic, narrative, performative, visual, and cultural worlds of Phish, including but not limited to:
• Music and Lyrics: Compositional practice; Improvisational strategies; Band mythologies, including Gamehendge; Questions of genre; Historiography;
• Elements of Live Performance: Cover songs; Concert lighting; Venues; Fan space and place;
• Fan Culture: Fan communities (virtual, face-to-face); Fan art; Parking lots; Tape trading; Issues of race, gender, religion, sexuality, disability; Activism; Subcultural identities; Fan mythologies;
• Business: Business practices; Place within music industry; Tape trading; Early adoption of the internet; Media framing of Phish; Influence on American music festival culture; Influence on the jam band genre;
• Quantitative Analysis: Analyses of setlists, fan show ratings, tour itineraries.
Please submit abstracts of 250-500 words for either (a) individual 20-minute papers or (b) 90-minute panel proposals (three presenters minimum). Complete panel proposals should include an abstract for each panelist’s contribution as well as a 250-word (max.) justification for the panel. We encourage proposals from scholars at any stage of their career, including graduate students as well as scholars outside of academia. Abstracts should specify the presenter’s methodological and theoretical approach, summarize conclusions, and specify the broader academic implications of the research. Abstracts are due no later than January 15, 2019.
Participants will have the opportunity to submit revised versions of their presentations for an edited volume following the conference. For submission instructions and more information, go to http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/phish2019/
Program committee:
Dr. Stephanie Jenkins, Committee Chair (Philosophy)
Dr. Christina Allaback (Theater Studies)
Dr. Jnan Ananda Blau (Communication Studies)
Dr. Jacob A. Cohen (Musicology)
Dr. Natalie Dollar (Speech Communication)
Dr. Paul Jakus (Economics)
Dr. Elizabeth Yeager (American Studies)
Phish Fans Fund Vegas Music
The all-volunteer, fan-run Mockingbird Foundation is once again celebrating Phish tour by making unsolicited Tour Grants supporting a music program near each of the venues at which the band will perform.
In honor of Phish's upcoming shows at MGM Grand Garden Arena, October 31st and November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, we have sent a check for $2500 to Mater Academy MS in Las Vegas, NV. Mockingbird has now made 385 grants, covering all 50 states, and totalling more than $1.3M.
Watch for news posts here at Phish.net, or the evolving press release at mbird.org, for news on other "miracle" tour grants this fall. And please consider making a contribution, to help us give back to the communities we've touched.
Phish Fans Fund Rosemont School
The all-volunteer, fan-run Mockingbird Foundation is once again celebrating Phish tour by making unsolicited Tour Grants supporting a music program near each of the venues at which the band will perform.
In honor of Phish's upcoming shows at Allstate Arena on October 26th, 27th, and 28th, we have sent a check for $2500 to Rosemont SD78 in Rosemont, IL. Mockingbird has now made 384 grants, covering all 50 states, and totalling more than $1.3M.
Watch for news posts here at Phish.net, or the evolving press release at mbird.org, for news on other "miracle" tour grants this fall. And please consider making a contribution, to help us give back to the communities we've touched.
Phish Fans Fund Nashville Music
The all-volunteer, fan-run Mockingbird Foundation is once again celebrating Phish tour by making unsolicited Tour Grants supporting a music program near each of the venues at which the band will perform.
In honor of Phish's upcoming shows at Ascend Amphitheater on October 23rd and 24th, we have sent a check for $2500 to Music Makes Us in Nashville, TN.
Watch for news posts here at Phish.net, or the evolving press release at mbird.org, for news on other "miracle" tour grants this fall. And please consider making a contribution, to help us give back to the communities we've touched.
Phish Fans Fund Hampton School
The all-volunteer, fan-run Mockingbird Foundation is once again celebrating Phish tour by making unsolicited Tour Grants supporting a music program near each of the venues at which the band will perform.
In honor of Phish's shows at Hampton Coliseum, on October 19th, 20th, and 21st in Hampton, VA, we've sent a check for $2,500 to the band and chorus at Lindsay Middle School, part of Hampton City Schools.
Watch for news posts here at Phish.net, or the evolving press release at mbird.org, for news on other "miracle" tour grants this fall. And please consider making a contribution, to help us give back to the communities we've touched.
Phish Fans Fund Albany School
The all-volunteer, fan-run Mockingbird Foundation is once again celebrating Phish tour by making unsolicited Tour Grants supporting a music program near each of the venues at which the band will perform.
In honor of Phish's shows at Times Union Center, tonight and tomorrow in Albany, NY, we've sent a check for $2,500 to The Free School, the longest-running inner city independent alternative school in the country.
Watch for news posts here at Phish.net, or the evolving press release at mbird.org, for news on other "miracle" tour grants this fall. And please consider making a contribution, to help us give back to the communities we've touched.
Henrietta Joins The Faculty
Phish drummer Jon Fishman, who was elected Lincolnville selectman last year, has now "joined the faculty roster" at Bay Chamber Music School.
Trey and Mike (Las Vegas, Oct. 31, 2018)
Trey and Mike (Las Vegas, Oct. 31, 2018)
Phish.net
The Mockingbird Foundation
