2008 didn't have as many amazing albums as 2007 did such as In Rainbows, or Strawberry Jam, but I feel that 2008 had a very wide variety of genres represented with good albums. Here are the albums that I truly enjoyed in 2008 and a couple that I highly disliked.
Top Albums (No Particular Order) - Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago - Frightened Rabbit-Midnight Organ Fight - My Morning Jacket -Evil Urges - Cut Copy- In Ghost Colours - Mike Gordon- The Green Sparrow - Fleet Foxes- s/t - Dr Dog- Fate - Sigur Ros- Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - DJ/rupture- Uproot Honorable Mention
- Deerhunter- Microcastle - Vampire Weekend- s/t - TVOTR- Dear Science - Hold Steady- Stay Positive - STS9- Peaceblaster - David Byrne and Brian Eno- Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
A Couple Albums I Hated - Lil' Wayne- Tha Carter III - Lotus- Hammerstrike - Girl Talk- Feed The Animals - Kanye West- 808's and Heartbreaks - Fuck Buttons- Street Horrrsing
So we already know that Phish is going to release their tour dates early 2009. There are already rumors being spread though about Bonnaroo, as well as possible early June dates in Camden to be part of the early summer tour. There's also rumors of returns to Red Rocks around July 30th to August 2, which means that Phish and the city of Morrison have cleared things up since '96. There's also possible appearance rumors for the NOLA Jazz Fest. Obviously nothing is set in stone but those are the rumors coming from good sources. There's also been very high speculation about The Dead's summer run and there became more promise today when this awesome video surfaced from someone inside The Dead's regime.
The Dead have played two shows together in the last year, both being for Barack Obama. The first show on Febuary 4 only consisted of Weir, Lesh and Hart and was entitled "Deadheads for Obama" that was set at the legendary Warfield. The second show on October 13th had the full lineup. Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Micky Hart were joined by Bill Kreutzmann, Warren Haynes, and Jeff Chimenti at Penn State for another Obama rally entitled "Change Rocks"
The Dead hasn't released any announcements, dates or lineups dealing with their tour, besides the supposed spring tour from April to May 2009. This summer will be very exciting and filled with great shows if everything works out.
Get Weirder Here's another video that The Dead just released on 12/24
Set One 1. Holidaze Toast 2. Intro 3. Dr. Feelgood > 4. Professor Wormbog 5. Higgins 6. The Fuzz > 7. Blue Echo > 8. Gulf Stream > 9. Blue Echo > 10. Rocker (part 2) Set Two 1. Intro 2. Prowler > 3. The Bottom Half > 4. Voices Inside My Head > 5. The Bottom Half 6. Making Flippy Floppy > 7. Jimmy Stewart > 8. Partyin’ Peeps 9. Mulche’s Odyssey 10. Encore Break 11. Slacker Download/Stream
Rolling Stone reports Phish will headline Bonnaroo 2009. NO! PLEASE NO! Why would you play Bonnaroo? Bonnaroo is on an extreme decline with headliners such as Metallica and Kanye West last year. KANYE AND METALLICA! Phish, you're better than this, 1000 times better than this. Phish can put on their own great festival such as Went, IT, Cypress or any other the other great festivals that attracted over 60,000 people. The only positive to playing Bonnaroo would be the possibility of reviving the jam-roots that Bonnaroo was started on, but the Bonnaroo now is so far from their roots, I doubt it can go back.
Last week Bon Iver preformed "Skinny Love" on the Late Show With David Letterman. If you've never heard Justin Vernon and the rest of Bon Iver, I highly, highly recommend it. Bon Iver released For Emma, Forever Ago in 2007 after spending three months in a remote cabin in Wisconsin producing the LP. For Emma, Forever Ago recieved amazing reviews from everyone from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork. Bon Iver will release the highly anticipated EP Blood Bank on January 20th, 2009. Jagjaguwar (Iver's label) released the statement about Blood Bank saying; "As much as Emma is about the cold, the Blood Bank collection is about the warmth that gets you through it. You can feel the air move. Like a fire you've been stoking for hours and finally got to sustain itself, the heat blisters your face while your back is frozen solid."
Although I'm starting to get real sick of traditional Christmas music being played WAY too early in the season, I decided to post this great set that My Morning Jacket did for Louisville's WFPK 91.9 FM on December 21, 2001. Jim James and the rest of My Morning Jacket do some great original holiday songs that they have written such as Christmas Time Is Here Again (Bring Out the Joy!) and Xmas Curtian as well as some of their traditional songs such as Come Closer and I Will Sing You Songs.
My Morning Jacket :: Christmas Special (Live on WFPK 91.9 FM)
(Credit Scott Bernstein From Glide Magazine) Today marks the 13th anniversary of the Albany You Enjoy Myself. On that night in Upstate New York, Phish stepped their game up to a whole new level.
Years later this jam is still the most incredible improvisation I’ve ever witnessed. And just in case you haven’t heard this particular version, or if you simply want to re-live the good ol’ days from the capital, here's a link to the YouTube playlist of the 34 minutes and 9 seconds of goodness. YEM Playlist.
The show starts with a first set that is extremely tight yet features minimal improvisation. Many shows during this time period had similar agendas: the first set focused on the compositional aspect of Trey’s music, while the second set was all about the jams. You can tell that there was a very great vibe in the arena as the second set started. The band opened the set with Timber Ho!. Timber featured the first real improvisation of the night, and Page really added some magnificent fills to Trey’s solo. As the song ended, Trey obviously was waiting for Mike for a discussion. The band started playing Wilson, and Trey began using the Beavis and Butthead remote that he's been known to use. When he would trigger the device, Beavis and Butthead would say “Asswipe!,” “This Sucks!,” or “You Dumbass!” The energy from the Beavis and Butthead gag lent itself to a romp through Wilson. A stellar Gumbo followed, and then innocently enough You Enjoy Myself began.
You Enjoy Myself was the song Phish played the most in their career. Certainly each version was different, but for the most part one version wouldn’t stray too much from another structurally. This night was different as the band left the typical YEM jam terrain with a quickness. Here is the best review I have read about this version, as written by Charlie Dirksen.
From: Charlie Dirksen 12/9/95 The Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY
Flawlessly perfect opening. The “pre-Nirvana” section begins around 1:15 with Fishman rapidly swiiishing the hi-hat. Trey, Page and Mike ominously sustain some eerie notes, presumably trying modestly to create a Vibration of Life effect (very modestly… no effect occurs). Watery-effects around 3:15 from someone (presumably Trey). Sounds like machinery operating under water. Floyd-like in its majesty. Page begins building up to the Nirvana segment (and Trey joins him, as usual)…
“Nirvana” at 4:15. This segment is typically gorgeous. Page’s soloing is as delightful, free and as Kind as it ever gets. Mike’s solo section begins at almost 5 minutes, and Mike is surprisingly chipper, playing an unusually high number of notes and in a rather upbeat, HAPPY TO SEE YOU AGAIN fashion. The pre-charge section begins immediately thereafter, and it sounds like the trampolines are brought out on stage by Brad Sands at this time (as usual; crowd goes nuts). First shot at The Note at 6:11 — Trey nails it and immediately begins masterfully soloing about it. Second shot at the Note occurs at 6:54, and it is perfectly sustained.
“Boy” at 7:27, after a great scream (crowd is realllly into this). More watery-machine-like effects from Trey in the WUDMTF segment (Page funks out on the ‘moog a little bit). Very funky, tightly played section. Page noodles on the organ. At roughly 9:38 the trampolines section begins with Page taking charge. I hear signaling from Mike for the trampolines moves… Page’s soloing is steady, patient for the first ten to twenty seconds, but he tears it up around 10:30 or so, and starts progressively getting more funky. Sounds like Trey is chording a bit while on the tramps with Mike (and not screwing anything up). Page is primarily sustaining around 11 minutes, and then Trey begins soloing around
11:05 to *really* open the jam segment. Trey, almost from the start, seems to have an Idea for this groove. The entire jam segment of this version of YEM seems to tell a story (what is that story telling you!?) right from the start. Trey begins melodiously soloing right from 11:10 on. By around 12 minutes or so, he launches into a preciously enchanting, mesmerizing double-stop groove — it sounds like he’s playing several notes *at once* in here! Like he’s got several hands hammering the frets!
The accompaniment from the others is so perfect and so strong. This is one of a handful of YEM jam segments in Phish history where they are truly making MUSIC, in my opinion, and aren’t merely jamming away in a masturbatory fashion. They jam in this version like their livelihood really depended on it. Page builds on the theme initiated and danced around by Trey, and at 13:58 Mike casually steps forward to a more prominent section of the mix. Trey gets low on his ‘doc in melodious accompaniment, and Page slides into the organ’s lower octaves, too. At 14:35 Trey begins repeating That Damn Note on his ‘doc that makes me teary-eyed whenever I hear it now (some people consider the repetition of this note effectively a tease of “Shaft”). Mike and Page groooooooooovily… I mean ULTRA-GROOOVILY funk beneath Trey’s repetitive “soloing.” This ultra-funky — yet melodiously enchanting — grooves continues steadily.. DANCE AWAY!!!!
At 17:04 Trey begins one of the most awe-inspiring, teary-eyed solos that I’ve ever heard him perform. There might as well be two fucking guitarists playing in here in perfect accompaniment (see Dicky and Warren of the old ABB). EVERYTHING CLICKS so IMPECCABLY around 18 minutes that I get shivers and teary-eyed in spell-bound wonder whenever I hear this, or even THINK ABOUT IT. This is one of those jams so glorious and so magnificent (especially around 18:36) that whenever I hear it I lift my arms up to the sky and Praise JAH!!! Whomever said that Phish has no soul has obviously not heard this jam segment… a jam segment that is EVIDENCE, in my opinion, that Phish can enchant and bewilder and inspire to the same degree AND EXTENT as the Grateful Dead could and did and still do on tape (at least, in my opinion).
It should go without saying that everyone’s accompaniment of Trey’s passionate soloing in this segment is *PERFECT*. Add this to the jams that Phish has performed that sound like melodious, composed music. If there was ever something fit for a *live* CD, it is this version of You Enjoy Myself in its entirety (it puts the “A Live One” version to shame, imo).
This amazingly charming groove ends around 20:19, when Mike again becomes much more pronounced. He steps out soloing masterfully around 20:44, funking away with Fish (and light, occasionaly chording from Page). [Editor's Note: My Wellesley-educated composition majoring girlfriend just noted that I would have FAILED out of Wellesley had I dared employ the word "funking" in any critico-musical context.] Trey is on the percussion kit now, grooving away (and not merely playing along with Fish either.. Trey actually FILLS in here for a change, instead of playing on all the downbeats matching Fish). Mike finishes up around 23 minutes, and instead of launching into the closing vocal jam segment, they basically begin yet another jam segment.
At 23:20 Trey starts teasing THAT DAMN NOTE again (”Shaft” tease I suppose) Page GETS DOWN on the moooooog a bit in here, funking away mightily. Fish keeps the beat steady, and Mike adds some dankly phaaaat licks to Page’s mooglicious soloing. Trey is still playing that NOTE over and over again, when at 25:07, he queries “Who’s the black private dick who’s the sex machine to all the chicks” (SHAAAAAFT). The groove gets progressively quieter until, around 26 minutes, it is only Fish lightly whisking the hi-hat. Fish drops out completely at 26:06, and the
SILENT JAM BEGINS. If you haven’t heard of the SILENT JAM, it has occurred a couple times now (e.g., see Funky Bitch from 12/30/96). Basically, the band jams on their instruments without making a sound, and the non-jaded part of the crowd goes crazy with excitement and glee (the jaded folks laugh, sit down, laugh a little more, and then say “Good one.. enough already” before leaving to get another beer).
At basically 27:30 Trey slowly and steadily begins chording again, and the others also return to their instruments, creating a soaring crescendo that climbs and EXPLODES around 27:52 back into a spectacular closing You Enjoy Myself jam!!!!!!! This is the closing of YEM jam segments that all should be measured against. It is thrilling, triumphant, masterfully played and just Generally Kicks Ass. At 29 minutes, however, it also just DIES OUT… basically flops. Still, a good close, but this would have truly been **THE** perfect close to the jam if it had only continued passionately right up until the closing WUDTMF segment, in my opinion.
At 29:32 the closing WUDMTF segment begins without any accompaniment (well, the crowd is clapping obnoxiously… but stops within twenty seconds). I’m honestly sick to death of vocal jams, but around 30:58 Trey appears to say some things (before adding “Asswipe” from that Beavis and Butthead device in there a few times). Mike’s chanting at first sounded like a possible segue into Yerushalim el Zahav, fwiw. Definitely a good vocal jam, but I can’t “review” these for shit (obviously). Trey is rapidly vocalizing mouthy-sounds, while the others chant. Sorta. Everyone crescendo’s and begins practically screaming around 33:10. . . then they all quiet down again.. then crescendo and SCREEEEEAM yet again. Blah. Total time 34:09.
Strong vocal jam, but certainly not one of the MOST interesting, in my opinion. But the jam segment of this YEM — not to mention the masterfully played opening, BMGS/WUDMTF, tramps and bass&drums segments — make this version a HEAR AT ALL COSTS You Enjoy Myself. “N/R” rating easily… but it is also easily an “A” as well. Inarguably one of the greatest versions of YEM, all things considered, in all of Phishstory.
A Amazing. Get it. Not only is the jamming spectacular, but there MAY be some interesting teases of other tunes, and especially creative & glorious segments of the jam, that make this a must-have version, and should impress your friends and neighbors. N/R Not rated. This basically means the version is insane, and it wouldn’t be fair to rate it. I would recommend, strongly, that you hear it for yourself. I may have liked, or disliked, it immensely.
In my opinion, you haven’t heard “You Enjoy Myself,” until you have heard the 12/9/95 Albany version.
Robert Banks (born 1974), better known as Banksy, is a well-known yet somewhat anonymous English graffiti artist from a little village near Bristol. His artworks are often satirical pieces of art which encompass topics from politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique, has appeared in London and in cities around the world.
Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist in the late 1990s as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), often assisting writers Kato and Tes. In 1998 he arranged the enormous 'Walls On Fire' graffiti jam on the site of the future '@t Bristol' development. The weekend long event drew artists from all over the UK and Europe and his organisation of the event established his name within the European graffiti scene. By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a 'piece'. He claims he changed to stencilling whilst he was hiding from the police under a train carriage, and soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London
Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or pro-freedom. Subjects include animals such as monkeys and rats, policemen, soldiers, children and the elderly. He also makes stickers (the Neighbourhood Watch subvert) and sculpture (the murdered phonebox), and was responsible for the cover art of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank.
I always wonder to myself, what if I kept with the musical instruments that I was forced to play as a child? Where would I be now? We hear the term 'child protege' thrown around a lot and personally I feel a true child protege is very hard to come by, but these kids do the term justice. I stumbled upon this video of these kids today and was extremely impressed. The guitarist I know is still in middle school and the drummer and bassist are both sophmores in high school.....yeah, middle school.
Not sure who you kids are, but if you can knock out a YEM like this, then I bow down to you.
The band that's given us so much over the years is celebrating the 25th anniversary of their first show together in a small cafeteria in the University of Vermont. From the first note of their first song played together (Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress) to the emotional Curtain (With) at Coventry in 2004, Phish made their phans laugh, smile, dance, and most of all; happy and we thank the Trey, Mike, Page and Fish for it all.
With all the talk about the upcoming shows in Hampton, sit back and relive some of the magic that happened in the first 20 years with this video.
1987 Fluffhead (Rehearsal/ Dorm Room?) 1987 Fishman Drumz Video 1987 Picture of Page 5-20-87 Run Like an Antelope 1988 David Bowie (Junta) 1988 Contact (Junta recording sessions with kids singing and Trey conducting) 89/90? Asse Festival w/ Fishman falling on his face 5-26-89? Halley’s Comet (w/ Nancy) 89/90? Possum 89/90? Donna Lee 89/90? Letter to Jimmy Page 10-31-89 AC/DC Bag 10-31-89 Finalist #4 Tweedil Dee & Tweedil Dumb 7-21-91 Arrowhead Introductions 7-21-91 Mike’s Song (w/ Giant Country Horns) 7-21-91 Hydrogen (w/ Trey & Mike doing the dance) ?/?/91? ?Jam? snippet ?/?/92? Runaway Jim ?/?/92? (possibly 3-13-92) Split Open & Melt 3-13-92 Fishman on bagpipes for Love You 3-13-92 Secret Language Instructions (d’oh!) 3-13-92 Contact (w/ Mike on bagpipes) 4-17-92 Brother (w/ Steve McConnell, Mike’s Brother and several crew members jumping into a bathtub onstage) ?/?/92/93? Hey Hole Musical Excercises ?/?/93 Leprechaun Rehearsal ‘93 Marley! Summer ‘93 (possibly 7-24-93) Trey & Mike on Glide’s for Glide Summer ‘93 Rocky Top 8-2-93 Mike’s Song (w/ Joe Rooney) 8-8-93 Band & Friends launch water balloons into the parking lot from bleachers 8/?/93 Fish on vacuum while Trey cools him off with stage fan 8-28-93 Crimes of the Mind (w/ The Dude of Life) ‘93 snippet of Mike saying something about the first hotel billed??? (w/ image of an outlet???) 12-31-93 Down with Disease jam (w/ Frank Zappa’s spirit walking on stage! ) 10,11 ‘93 Lifeboy; Hoist recording sessions 5-3-94 If i Could (w/ Alison Krauss) 7-8-94 N2O 10-31-94 Blackbird 10-31-94 Birthday Jam (Brad Sands B-Day) 11-?-94 Blue & Lonesome Rehearsal (w/ Rev. Jeff Mosier) 11-19-94 Pig in a Pen (Parking Lot Jam) 12-30-94 Late Show with David Letterman 12-31-94 Auld Lang Syne on the Hot Dog 6-16-95 Runaway Jam! 9-30-95 Page makes a move (w/ White Rabbit Jam) 10-31-95 I’ve Had Enough 10-31-95 Love Reign O’er Me 10-31-95 YEM 10-31-95 My Generation (w/ Instrument Distruction) 11-11-95 HYHU Fish bow w/ Elvis Cape 11-11-95 Acoustic Army 11-25-95 Rotation Jam 11-28-95 Fish pays respects to Cl. Bruce Hampton 12-11-95 Dog Gone Dog’s (Boo’s & Cheer’s) 12-31-95 Mikes Song? 12-31-95 Phish Time Factory/ Auld Lang Syne 12-31-95 Weekapaug Groove & snippet of jam 2-6 ‘96 Stange Design; Bearsville Studios 2-6 ‘96 Free; Bearsville Studios 8-5-96 Waste 8-5-96 Mike’s Song 8-15/16-96 Introducing Jim Pollock 8-17-96 Flatbed Truck Jam 11-16-96 The Vibration of Life 11-16-96 Kung>Catapult 12-6-96 Suzy Greenberg 12-31-96 Amazing Grace (w/ Boston Community Choir) ?/?/97 Philadelphia reporter refering to a picture of Trey in a Flyers jersey as Eric Clapton ?/?/97 Some old guy in a suit and tie reciting the lyrics to Scent of a Mule 6-6-97 Ghost; “Bradstock” 7-21-97 Multi-Instrument Jam (w/ LeRoi Moore) 8-8-97 Sugar Blue on Messin’ with the Kid 8-17-97 Art Tower set a blaze 7-16-98 Fast Enough for you 10-17-98 Never 10-30-98 Long Cool Women 12-31-98 1999 7-30-99 Japanese Introduction 7-30-99 Chalk Dust Torture 10-8-99 We’re not gonna take it (w/ Tom Marshall) 10/99-2/00 Farmhouse in the barn 12-31-99 In the Hot Dog (shot from Mike’s camera) 1-1-00 After Midnight 1-1-00 Fishman dozing off 1-1-00 Roses are Free 6-22-00 Backstage Rehearsals 6-22-00 Freebird (w/ Wynonna Judd) 9-29-00 Rappers Delight (w/ Kid Rock) 10-7-00 YEM vocal jam (End of my childhood ) 12-31-02 Seven Below 8-3-03 Tower Set “Great Gag in the Sky”
Mention
Everyone crescendo’s and begins practically screaming around 33:10. . . then they all quiet down again.. then crescendo and SCREEEEEAM yet again. Blah. Total time 34:09.
