From: PDUMAS%COLGATEU.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: St. Mikes
Hey there!
Well, they're out... those new songs. I think I'll get used to them...
except for the one called something like Too Fast For You.....(?)
Well, you know it. I mean when Rift comes out, this will be the
tune to have little teeny-boppers listening to Phish. This is the
one which will have every idiot flicking on their lighters during
the show. It just doesn't seem very Phishy.... at all!
Well, they're rock stars now.... I should just shut up and let them
write what they want.
All in all, Bobby Gillespie and I had a great time. I dropped down
for the language during Antelope..... everyone around me just stood
there.... I felt like such a weirdo.... I guess it hasn't caught on
everywhere.
See you soon,
Peace, love, happiness, and all that good stuff to you all
Peter
High times, hard times
Downtown Julie Brown
-HELMET
From: Joshua Rappaport ST801423@brownvm.brown.edu
Subject: St. Mike's/ Fishman's new song
Hey Y'all--
First off, I think that Fishman's new song was listed
inorrectly in
the list for last nigh's show which was posted. It is called (I believe)
"Lengthwise", and the lyrics (as far as we can tell from the tape) are:
"When you're here. I sleep lengthwise`
when you're gone, I sleep diagonal in my bed"
Isn't that sweet? Fish (in his new dress! Eyeball man!) Did an
excellent dancehall/dub style rendition, and some great electrolux. He
certainly redeemed himself for screwing up the end of Maze...
The rest of the show...what can I say?? The best Poor Heart ever, the
best Mike's Groove I've ever heard, a Divided Sky that blew the roof off...
The Big Ball Jam will hopefully become a regular occurence this tour. My only
question is...why the cactus picture on Mike's amp?
It was cheering to see a veritable forest of Nakamichi 300's around the
soundboard. I counted close to 20 tapers...
Here's to the tour kickoff, and let's keep those DATs rolling.
Peace!
--Joshua
From: kell0040@student.tc.umn.edu ()
Subject: Phish news
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 04:00:42 GMT
Headline: Guitar group Phish nets scads of new fan
Publish Date: 11/19/1992
By Jon Hunt
The music of Phish can be difficult to understand.
The Burlington, Vermont-based group spins complex and convoluted webs
of music in wild, tangled patterns. It's hard to play, and hard to
get into. And -- like a spider's web -- it's incomprehensibly
beautiful.
``On the new record, there's a really complex fugue (a musical form
based on repetition of a single theme) based on the All Things
Considered theme,'' explains guitarist Trey Anastasio from a hotel in
Nashville, where the band has just completed their newest LP, Rift.
``If I was successful -- and I think I was -- listeners should be
able to follow the theme in infinite variety and infinite sameness.
It should be very glorious.''
Rift follows Phish's extremely successful and diverse major-label
debut, A Picture of Nectar. Anastasio promises even greater heights
and innovation on their latest LP.
``The new one is better than Nectar, by a long shot,'' Anastasio
says. ``In terms of how high you can go, if you thought Nectar pushed
the boundaries, this new one will go even higher. Because now,'' he
pauses for dramatic effect, ``we have a concept.''
The central idea of Rift, said Anastasio, is more firmly grounded in
real life than the cornucopia of surrealism in Nectar.
``It takes place in one night's worth of dreaming of one guy,'' he
explains. ``It's just a chart of this guy's dreams. Each song is one
dream. It's quite unlike anything we've ever done before. It's a real
departure.''
Phish will have a hard time topping the success of Nectar. Following
the release of that album, the band (which also counts as members
bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist Page McConnell, and drummer Jon
Fishman) suddenly found itself a huge touring organization, spawning
a following as intense -- and almost as large -- as the Grateful
Dead's.
``We'd just been touring around,'' Anastasio says. ``We'd built up
quite a fan base close to home. It just grew from there.''
Not bad for a group who, ten years ago, were music-school students
``sleeping on floors'' and trying to pay the bills in a ``cover
band'' that played everybody else's hits.
``Oh, we were way more college rock back in the old days,'' Anastasio
laughs. ``We used to play mostly covers. We did everything from (The
Hollies') 'Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress' to (AC-DC's)'Highway to
Hell.'''
But Anastasio, a Goddard graduate in composition, was writing his
complex compositions from the very beginning.
``From the start, we were doing original stuff,'' he says. ``It just
takes a long time to build up enough stuff to where you're playing
all originals. We started out with, I think, about two original
pieces. Now, Mike (Gordon) just made a list of all the pieces we
play, and there's more than a hundred. Most of them are original.''
The cover tunes still get played at the group's incendiary live gigs,
however -- and some even stranger ones have been added, including a
version of Nirvana's Top-40 hit ``Smells Like Teen Spirit.''
``Well, it's a good song, isn't it? Isn't it?'' Anastasio jokes.
Besides the cover versions, their bizarre live sets also include
performing flat on their backs (with legs kicking in the air), brief
choreography, a solo played on an Electrolux vacuum, and a song
played with the entire band bouncing up and down on trampolines.
``That jokey stuff just worms its way into the set,'' Anastasio
explains. ``I spend every waking hour of every day of the year with
the band. When you spend that much time with people, you start doing
stuff to crack each other up. That stuff suddenly appears on stage
for that very reason -- to make the other band members laugh.''
Anastasio says the band takes a total of two days off per year --
every other day is spent in the studio, on tour, or in intense
rehearsal. But he says he wouldn't want it any other way.
``On the two days I do take off, all I can think about is the band,''
he said. ``I can't get away. I don't want to get away. I just love it
-- playing live, working on music, the whole creative process. I love
writing music.''
``If you love music as I do, it's all-consuming. There's nothing else
to do. And, frankly, nothing else you want to do.''
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