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LISTEN TO JON FISHMAN'S 2 1/2 HOUR BRUCE HAMPTON TRIBUTE
Phish drummer Jon Fishman recently started a two hour weekly radio show on WBFY in Belfast, Maine. The program, now officially called The Errant Path, airs every Wednesday from 9-11pm Eastern Time. You can tune in from the radio station's website, or from places like TuneIn Radio. The usual format is Fishman talking about music and playing some hand selected musical gems, however his show on May 3rd, 2017 was a special episode.
AMAZON DONATING 5% TO NON-PROFITS TODAY, 3/16/17
Today only, March 16, 2017, Amazon is donating 5% of eligible purchases to non-profits. The Mockingbird Foundation is one of the groups you can choose. 5% is 10x their normal donation so you can really make a big impact with your purchases today! Go to smile.amazon.com and search for Mockingbird Foundation. You can also bookmark the page and use it every time you shop at Amazon and a small portion of your purchases go to us! Thank you for your continued support.
GORGE 1: 7 LAYER DIP
The Gorge. Just saying the words brings to mind something larger than life. A venue that still uses a name that does not sell energy or internet or banking is rare enough, but this place is easily in the upper echelon of rock music venues in the world. Every time I return to The Gorge, soaking in the big-ness of it all still amazes as much as it did the very first time I stepped over that hill. Phish’s 15th appearance in the high desert of eastern Washington brought possibly the set of the tour so far with what I like to call the “7 Layer Dip” approach. Set two’s “Crosseyed and Painless” opener provided the base for layering the rest of the set’s songs upon, and mixed in with each other, which yielded quite a tasty musical blend.
Making the trek to The Gorge invariably involves an elevated level of planning and just plain dealing. Whether you are camping on site or staying in one of the nearby riverside resort areas, you pretty much need to bring everything you need for the whole weekend. There is scant to no shade on the entire property, temperatures can vary wildly from day to night, and the wind can pack a big punch. It’s a relatively harsh environment juxtaposed against one of North America’s most majestic wonders, the mighty Columbia River.
photo Brian Feller
JON FISHMAN TO INTRODUCE MISLEAD DOCUMENTARY IN VT
On Wednesday, October 21st, the Burlington Lead Program and The Lead Safe America Foundation (a 501©3 nonprofit for childhood lead poisoning prevention) are collaborating to host a free, open-to-the-public special engagement preview screening of the upcoming documentary feature film on childhood lead poisoning "MisLEAD: America's Secret Epidemic" in Burlington, Vermont at the Main Street Landing Filmhouse.
Jon Fishman will be introducing the film and speaking on the post-screening discussion panel as a local parent of a lead poisoned child.
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/547285018761183
Trailer: http://www.MisLEADMovie.com/
There is a second event on Friday October 23rd in Brattleboro, VT. Jon Fishman will also appear at that one. https://www.facebook.com/events/1692565317629494/
BUNNY RADIO IS BACK!
What would a Phish festival be without The Bunny! It went live Thursday morning and will broadcast for the whole weekend of Magnaball. It will air its usual great mix of eclectic music, Magna-news, archival Phish tracks and of course, all of the live music sets of Phish music including sound checks. You can reach the Bunny in a few different ways:
Mixlr: http://mixlr.com/thebunny
LivePhish: http://webcast.livephish.com/Summer-2015-Webcasts-Magnaball.html
SiriusXM JamOn Channel 29, beginning at 9pm Eastern Time Thursday
Locally in the Watkins Glen area on WNGZ 104.9FM and also via their website: http://www.cbelmira.com/wingz/listen-live/
Once again they are asking you to Feed The Bunny - send in your station IDs and funny bumpers, which may get aired on The Bunny live. Go to http://feedthebunny.com/
Follow The Bunny on Facebook and Twitter:
https://www.facebook.com/bunnyradio
THIS WEEK IN PHISHSTORY: MAY 1992
What is it about late April/early May? Are creative juices flowing due to the changing of the seasons? Whatever it is, I am a fan. Let’s look at history. May 6, 1965, Keith Richards first came up with the lick for “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” one of the biggest hits from the Rolling Stones. The first week or two of May 1977 is widely regarded as one of the biggest musical peaks of the Grateful Dead, and May 8th is a Deadhead Holy Day. The Beatles “Let It Be” was released May 8, 1970. Umphrey’s McGee stretches the boundaries of both improvisation and fan interaction with their UMBowls in late April/early May. Phish has many great gigs in May including, but not limited to, 5/24/88, 5/8/93, 5/27/94, 5/22/00, 5/27/11. And of course one of the most famous and loved Phish shows of all time, 5/7/94 The Bomb Factory. Today I will discuss a week long stretch of shows, from May 1st through May 7th, 1992.
READING CANNED FOOD DRIVE TONIGHT!
Phish Fall Tour makes a stop in Reading, PA tonight. According to the 2011 US Census, Reading at the time was the nation's poorest city, with over 40% of its residents living at or below the poverty line. It has since lost that title to Camden, NJ but remains one of our nation's most impoverished places. Phish fans can help, thanks to the efforts of .net user @YorkVilleBeerLover. See the forum thread that got it off the ground here.
The Greater Berks Food Bank will have donation bins right inside the venue entrance, so make a quick stop at the grocery store before you hit the lot and bring some canned food donations! It's cheap, it's easy, and it helps those who need it.
Things that are acceptable include any unopened, non-perishable food items (canned, boxed, bagged, bottled) as well as unopened personal hygiene items (soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste).
They cannot accept the following items:
- Home-made foods (canned jellies, canned vegetables, cookies, etc.)
- Expired, opened, or damaged items (damage that would affect the quality or safety of the product – rusted cans, cans with dents along the rims, bagged items with tears, etc.)
- Items with no labels
If you are not going, read this post after the gig, or otherwise can't help at the show but want to donate cash, you can do that here.
Spread the word and hopefully we can show the city of Reading that Phish fans want to make a difference.
20 YEARS LATER: REMEMBERING THE MURAT
As you all might know, August 1993 is one of the more hallowed months in Phish history. There was a palpable shift in the type of music Phish was making that expressed itself in more exploratory jams, increased risk-taking, and a big payoff from years of listening exercises, day-long practice sessions, and maturing songwriting. I was fortunate enough to see some of these great 1993 shows and the memories have stuck with me to this day. On this, the 20th anniversary of 8/13/93, one of the first shows where a particular song came to define a moment, I hope you will indulge me in a bit of reflection.
MORE HEAT: GORGE 2 RECAP
The conclusion of Phish’s 7th set of shows at the Gorge brought more heat, reverence for the beauty, and some serious exploration and jams. I am not one to try and pigeon-hole a show as “best of 3.0” or “best start to finish show of the year” but it’s hard to argue with the playing on both nights of this run, and night 2 has some pretty goosebump-inducing moments and a second set that should stand the test of time.
George, Washington is about as close to the middle of nowhere that you can find, and an odd but beautiful place for a music venue. The dramatic scenery surrounding the stage is awe-inspiring and humbling. Contrast that with the nearly inhospitable heat and dryness of the high desert summer landscape, and you have the tension and release that mirrors what a lot of Phish music attempts to achieve. It is a must-see venue for Phish fans, and this year many finally checked it off their bucket list.
REVISITING TAHOE
The Outdoor Arena at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Casino and Resort is one of the smallest venues Phish currently plays at around 7000 seats. Built on an old parking lot sandwiched between the Harvey’s hotel tower and a golf course, it sits only a few feet inside the Nevada State Line and about 900 feet from the shore of Lake Tahoe. As of June 2013 Phish has only made one stop there, for two shows in August of 2011. They are scheduled for two more shows this summer, July 30th and 31st. It’s one of only 3 venues in Nevada that Phish has ever played; the other two being the Alladin Theater and the Thomas & Mack Center, both in Las Vegas. Since they have only played one recent set of shows at Harvey’s, there is no grand history. But, there are some things that make this venue unique and particularly enjoyable.
MIKE GORDON INTERVIEW 4/18/1993
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.
-Brian Feller 4/18/2013
PHISH RELEASES 5/3/93 NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ TO BENEFIT SANDY VICTIMS
Phish has released another gem from the archives, 5/3/93 New Brunswick, NJ as a benefit for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Download the mp3, FLAC, or ALAC version of the show here. Recorded by Paul Languedoc and remastered by Fred Kevorkian, this show is from the last days of a very strong spring tour by Phish, and includes a stellar 2nd set.
OFFICIAL VIDEOS OF PHISH'S RIG TOURS
Phish has released high definition videos of all four band member's rig tours, as seen on recent webcasts. You can check them out on their official Vimeo site or as a playlist on their Youtube channel.
TYPE II CAST YEMSG EPISODE
For those of you not familiar with the Type II Cast, it is a Phish fan podcast that discusses current Phish shows with occasional special episodes dedicated to various Phishy topics. For this week's episode discussing Phish's New Year's run at Madison Square Garden, they invited me to be their guest alongside usual panel members Steve Olker, Josh Korin, and .Net's Chris Glushko. We gathered together virtually on Monday, January 7th, armed with a pile of great audio clips from the run, to share our thoughts on both individual songs and the shows as individual entities and as part of a run of shows. Two hours of quality Phish nerdery ensued. Chris was kind enough to put together rankings of these shows compared to the other multi-night NYE runs starting in 1995, which we discussed as well.
We dedicated this show to the memory of Robert Ekchart, aka Barefoot Bob, a beloved Phish fan who lost his battle with cancer earlier that day.
Click on over to the Type II Cast site to listen, or you can download the mp3 here (right click save as).
You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes by clicking here.
Enjoy!
HELP KICKSTART THE FIRST EVERYONE ORCHESTRA CD
For the last ten years, The Everyone Orchestra and its ever-rotating cast of characters has pushed the envelope of improvised music across the world. Musicians from many of the greatest bands of our time have entered Matt Butler's world of conducted improvisation and the results are always entertaining. Jon Fishman of Phish has been part of the EO experience many times, and was enlisted by Matt for the first-ever EO studio project, The Brooklyn Sessions.
Matt assembled a masterful collection of musicians in a Brooklyn recording studio in January 2011 for two days of conducted improvised jams. In addition to Fishman, the stellar group includes many players associated with Phish side-projects. Along with Matt as Conductor, the lineup is: Jon Fishman (Phish), Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), Al Schnier (moe.), Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green) Steve Kimock, Marco Benevento, Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), Jamie Masefield (Jazz Mandolin Project) and Jans Ingber (The Motet).
I asked Matt how the studio experience differed from being in front of a live audience. "While we didn't have the audience energy to feed off of, the environment was relaxed and intimate which brought out really interesting performances from all the players. I let solos run even longer than usual and let jams go on a little longer too. I focused on letting these master musicians interact and have a really fun time while we created the music. I also pushed the envelope musically and we tried pulling off some really difficult concepts. Some worked better than others, but as a group process, since we weren't 'performing' it was all valid efforts in our time in the 'creative sandbox'."
The completely self-funded project is near completion, but needs additional financial support to reach the finished product. Here is Matt's introductory video for the Kickstarter project, which includes some nice jam segments:
If you donate to the project, you get at minimum a free digital download of the CD when it is released. Higher donation amounts come with even more goodies. For more information, additional behind-the-scenes video and to donate to the project, click here.
PHISH ON SPOTIFY
The online music service Spotify has taken the US by storm since being made available in mid-July 2011. It boasts catalogs of music from most of the major labels and some independant and smaller labels as well. In addition, sites like digster.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, and Rhinofy have made it easy to find great playlists and become exposed to all sorts of music you have never heard of as well as music you have not listened to in years. One of Spotify's great features is the ability to share playlists and subscribe to other playlists very easily. The Facbook connect feature gives you quick access to all of your Facebook friends' playlists which you can listen and even subscribe to.
Phish has quite an extensive selection of music available on Spotify. Any of the livephish.com shows that have been re-released in remastered form are there, as are all of the other official live releases like Colorado 88, Live at The Roxy, Vegas 96 and more. The entire original Live Phish CD series is there as well, all 20 shows.
To make it easier to discover what Phish is available on Spotify, I have created some playlists that are public and can be subscribed to. There are also a couple of Phish-related playlists that exist and I have included links to those as well. Two of them are collaborative playlists, which means any user can add tracks to it.
Here are the links for my Phish Spotify playlists:
Phish Halloween "Musical Customes"
Phish Covers (a collaborative list of cover songs Phish has played live)
and here are some playlists that are Phish-related, or created by someone else:
The Covers of Phish (collaborative playlist of original versions of songs Phish has covered, created by Thomas Meyer)
Phish Soundchecks (created by Drew Hitz)
Bunny Radio Tracks from SuperBall IX (created by Eric Wyman)
Phish Covers (songs Phish has covered, created by FeeTheProdigy)
GORGE TRAFFIC ALERT
Seattle's annual Seafair festival concludes this weekend and includes performances by the Blue Angels. The Federal Aviation Administration requires the closure of Interstate 90 while the Blue Angels perform for the safety of both drivers and pilots. If you are travelling from Seattle to the Gorge for Phish this weekend, be aware of these bridge closures as it may add time to your drive. Note there are closures Sunday as well so if you are driving back to Seattle after the shows you may be affected as well.
Interstate 90 will be closed to all vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, eastbound and westbound, mainline and express lanes, between Interstate 5 in Seattle to Island Crest Way on Mercer Island:
- Thursday, Aug. 4: 9:45 a.m. - noon & 1:15 - 2:30 p.m., (Practice)
- Friday, Aug. 5: 12:45 p.m. - 2:40 p.m., (Practice)
- Saturday, Aug. 6: 12:45 p.m. - 2:40 p.m., (Full show)
- Sunday, Aug. 7: 12:45 p.m. - 2:40 p.m., (Full show)
'TWO SOUNDCHECKS' LIMITED EDITION VINYL
From Phish.com:
In support of Record Store Day, Phish will release Two Soundchecks, a Limited Edition 7-inch vinyl record that will be available exclusively at participating independently owned record stores across the country. 'Two Soundchecks' marks the band's first ever live vinyl release and their first release in conjunction with Record Store Day.
This 7-inch is limited to 2,000 hand-numbered copies, and once they are gone they are gone. The A-Side is an instrumental jam culled from the soundcheck of Phish's third show of a sold out three-night stand at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. The B-Side is an especially exotic soundcheck from Hartford, CT in 2009, featuring Trey on Bass, and Fish on drums. This Limited Edition 7-inch was created exclusively for Record Store Day.
Two Soundchecks will be available in stores only beginning April 16th, 2011. For a complete list of participating record stores, please click here.
NEW LIMITED LIVEPHISH SUMMER 2010 SHOWS RELEASED
Phish released the 2nd round of summer 2010 shows in remastered format today. These hand-picked shows were remastered for this release by Fred Kevorkian and are available on iTunes and hard copy CD at select music stores. So far there is no published list of music stores that will carry the CDs. The three shows chosen for this release are:
8/6/2010 Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA iTunes Link
8/7/2010 Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA iTunes Link
8/13/2010 Verizon Wireless Music Center (formerly Deer Creek), Noblesville, IN iTunes Link
Has anyone compared the LivePhish.com downloads to these fresh remasters? We would love to hear your opinions in the comments.
FISHMAN IN STUDIO W/ EVERYONE ORCHESTRA
Matt Butler, the mastermind behind the Everyone Orchestra will be taking the EO concept into the studio for the first time in the 10 years of its existence. The recording sessions will take place January 17th and 18th, 2011 in Brooklyn and will feature the following lineup:
Jon Fishman, Reed Mathis, Al Schnier, Jeff Coffin, Marco Beneveto, Steve Kimock, Jennifer Hartswick, Jans Ingber, and Jamie Masefield.
If you are not familiar with the Everyone Orchestra, here is a quick bio:
The Everyone Orchestra is a revolving cast of stellar musicians brought together by drummer/conductor Matt Butler for concerts, festival super jams and special benefit events. EO performances are designed to create space for each performer’s musical personality to shine, engage the audience as participants in the jam and to facilitate a massive celebratory coming together featuring a conductor directing both musicians and audience alike in interactive, lively, and highly danceable movements.
Everyone Orchestra, You Enjoy Myself Pt. 1: (Youtube)
Everyone Orchestra, You Enjoy Myself Pt. 2: (Youtube)
Everyone Orchestra, You Enjoy Myself Pt. 3: (Youtube)
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