It's no news, the new Phish studio album has been announced back in october 2013 during the Halloween show (more from me about that soon). Tentatively titled Wingsuit, the Phishbill (downloadable here) explained the concept of an album "from the future". The band went in studio with Bob Ezrin in november and the final product, now called Fuego, has been announced last wednesday for a release date on the 24th june.

We can't really talk about the music right now except for what we heard on Halloween and the first song revealed, Waiting all night. In this new song, you can really hear the work done on the sound of the band and the voice harmonies. We also know which songs played in Atlantic City didn't make it to the record. A song like Snow is really difficult to play and sing on stage but can be a lovely tune if worked well in a studio. That's why I personnaly think they would have fit right. I hope for a future b-sides release like Party Time.
Anyway, I'm glade to read that the album will feature guest vocalists and horns. I'm all for a studio album that doesn't sound like the concert. I didn't really enjoyed Joy at the time because the songs were played just like on stage but missed the jams. It seems we won't have such things this time around.

But what stroke me is, of course, the cover art. At first glance, it looks like a photoshoped picture but after a closer look, it's a photo-realistic psychedelic painting of six giant men, standing around an enormous fire explosion in a country landscape. Before you see the tiny houses at the men's feet, you can't have a true sense of the scale of the image.

Fuego Vinyl edition

Paco Pomet 'The test' (Oil on canvas. 80x120cm. 2013)

The original painting is called The Test from the spanish artist Paco Pomet. His web site showcases his surrealistic work in high-resolutions scans. I really like his style, combining vintage-looking black and white imagery with funky colored strange event. As of today, we know he provided two more paitings for the record package and release merchandising (the vinyl record slipmat and the limited litograph). While browsing his gallery, I noticed several other paintings that could fit the theme like Blues and Deserción (2014) or Sin título and La tempestad (2012).

Fuego Record Player Slipmat

Paco Pomet 'Sunday' (Oil on canvas. 120x160cm. 2012)

Which ones do you think they'll use ? I'll try to give away a Fuego CD to one of you (randomly picked) who'd make a good guess.
This contest is for European fans only and suggestions must be made in the comments here before the 10th june (or before if the album package is released or leaked prior to this date).

A lithograph taken from the album package

Paco Pomet 'Eden' (Oil on canvas. 130x170cm. 2013)

By the way, do you think we have a pattern or a theme here ? Fuego means fire in spanish and we have a spanish painter who likes to put fire explosions on old-looking pictures.

Too bad there won't be a release party in Barcelona this summer...

 

 

• After Trey Anastasio's Bar 17 and Phish's Party Time, the next Trey studio album Traveler (announced for the 16th october 2012) will be the third studio album to feature the song Let Me Lie. Each version is different and you can listen to the last one here : http://diffuser.fm/trey-anastasio-let-me-lie/

 

• The cover art for Trey's 7" vinyl Scabbard and next LP Traveler can be repeated indefinetly like a wallpaper ! The right border continues on the left side and it's the same for top and bottom. I can't wait to see the bonus 7" !

 

• It's the first time that a cover (Clint Eastwood) appears on a Phish or a solo studio album, if you don't count Nothing and Heavy Things that was played by Tom Marshall's Amfibian and Let Me Lie (I wouldn't call them "covers"). Mike Gordon's collaborations with Leo Kottke and Steamroller Wheelies did feature covers but they're not technically "solo records".

 

• The album's title track isn't featured in the vinyl version of Traveler while it's in the CD. The full length music shouldn't fit on one disc and that's why there's a bonus 7" disc with this song and Greyhound Rising.

Traveler, Trey's newest studio album, was co-produced with Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Jónsi) at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT. Musicians include Trey Anastasio Band, Mates of State's Kori Gardner, The National's Bryan Devendorf and Matt Berninger, and Icelandic percussionist Samuli Kosminen.
Pressed on gold colored 180 gram vinyl, the album comes with a Traveler bonus 7" as well as a download card for an MP3 version of the album.
All pre-orders containing the new album will receive one Limited Edition Traveler Lithograph. The print measures 8"x5" and is signed by Trey. All orders will be shipped to protect the LE print.


Track List:

Side A:
Corona
Let Me Lie
Frost
Land of Nod
Pigtail

Side B:
Scabbard
Clint Eastwood
Architect
Valentine

Bonus 7"

Side A:
Traveler

Side B:
Greyhound Rising

Source : http://treyanastasio.shop.musictoday.com/Dept.aspx?cp=943_57958

I'm still waiting for my Joy box (among other items in the same order).

I sent an email to Dry goods (with other emails found on the Phish.com contact page as CC) today.

Hello Dry Goods,

I'd like to know when will my order #24332894 be shipped ?
It has been pushed back because of the Joy Box and I received the following email stating that it will ship during the first week of November. It's know the 17th november and I got no news.

You can understand that a $225 order made on 11th August and not shipped on the 17th November might be quite annoying for a "valued" international customer.
And yet, I paid $59 for shipping only !
I remember that it was written on the Pre-order Joy page that the Box will be shipped on a first-ordered/first-shipped basis. I think that I order it on the first day the Joy box was listed and I read on multiple message boards over the Internet that people got an email when it was shipped and have already received their order !

I'm glad I choose 12-18 month as size of the baby items I ordered. My July-borned baby would have been too tall if I had choose the size depending on the date I should have received my order...
Oh and a shirt included in my order is on sale know and cost $5 less...

My second "fear" about my order is that I hope the items will be very well protected in the parcel than with my last orders. I don't want to wait several month for the Joy Box for finally received it crushed...

I received the Mike Gordon's Green Sparrow vinyl and Trey Anastasio Original Broadway Style and Time Turns Elastic vinyls with crushed corners because of a too small parcel. I emailed you several times about this issue with pictures of the vinyls but I got no answer.

Oh and I'm still waiting for an answer for my october 2008 email about a 10% off coupon I got because of the delay of the Green Sparrow vinyl that never worked (see far bellow)...

I'm a great Phish fans and a long time Dry Goods customer. I got used of not having the choice to buy Phish items elsewhere because I'm french and paying a very very expensive price for shipping.
I'm sorry to say that but since Dry Goods is managed by Music Today, the customer service is very poor.
I find insulting that, as a "gift" for my patience, you give me a reduction coupon for a next order, on which you will own money anyway !

I'm sorry to become a little bit angry but you can understand that this situation is getting on my nerves...

I'm waiting patiently for your answer.

 

[UPDATE on 18th November] I don't know if my yesterday eMail has anything to do with it but...

Your order has been shipped by IMEX STANDARD.

[UPDATE on 23th November] I received today an answer for my mail. It's a standard answer for not received item from Dry Goods, I had word-by-word the same answer when I asked about my Clifford Ball dvd several month ago. By the way, it's ridiculous to pay 59$ for shipping and not having a tracking system...

Our records indicate that your order shipped on 11/17/09. International orders ship via IMEX Bulk. We are not provided individual tracking numbers. Regardless of delivery location and due to recent border restrictions, International delivery can sometimes take up to 24 business days. IMEX delivers to your local mail carrier who then delivers to the address provided with your order. If you do not receive your order by the 24th business day, please check with your local post office as they may be holding your order. If you are unable to locate your order, please verify with us your correct shipping address and we will investigate your delivery issue.

If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us.

I wanted to keep this one for a latter post about my collection but the announcement yesterday that Phish will play a full acoustic set during Festival 8 made me dust off this CD earlier.

This is a 1 track promo CD edited by Electra Records showcasing an acoustic radio show Phish did on the 3rd November 1998 in Boulder, CO. The radio is KBCO and the show is part of the "Live in Studio C" serie.

The first link with Festival 8 is that it's an acoustic set. The songs played (Driver, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Possum and Roggae) are perfect for this outfit. It's also funny to see that they choose thoose songs so that each band member can sing : Trey on Driver, Page on Vevet Sea, Mike on Possum and Fish (with the 3 others) on Roggae.

The second link takes place during the interviews between songs. The show is recorded right after the 1998 Halloween show, where the band covered the Velvet Underground's album Loaded, and a show at the E Centre in West Valley City, where they covered Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon ! As they say during the interview, the surprise for the next day show in Denver is that they will not cover an entier album !

Several FM sources have been circulated since 1998 and I remember heavily listening to the show when I was a student in Valence. But db.etree.org doesn't list the Promo CD source. I got this CD quite easily on eBay, like most of my Promo CD I'll present latter, but I can't remember when. There was a time when I bought many many CD on eBay and didn't track what I received and when.

So here is this show in mp3 320kbs direct download or Flac Torrent.

11-03-98 KBCO (97.3 FM) Studios, Boulder, CO

01 Intro
02 Driver
03 Interview
04 Wading in the Velvet Sea
05 Interview
06 Possum
07 Interview
08 Roggae
09 Outro

Acoustic.
Played between 4:30 pm and 5:00 pm for KBCO's "Studio C" series, where musicians coming to the Denver area are interviewed and perform live on the radio.

Source : Electra Records Promo CD
Promo CD > WAV > Tracking with Creative Wave Studio > Flac

While we're at it, the Facebook group about Festival 8 has released a bunch of photos of the Empire Polo Club where the festival will take place.

I'm a collector. That means when I like something, I can't help but collecting everything about it. My collections span from video games (Nintendo, WipEout, Castlevania...) to Coffee mugs, Michael Jackson and of course Phish.

I will use this little journal to showcase my Phish collection and I'll start with what I started with : the studio CDs.

I discovered Phish during summer holidays in Long Island, on the 12th July 1997. I traveled from France to USA with my best friend/sister and her own sister. During my stay, I listened to a lot of new music like Bob Marley, Les Miserables or Jimmy Buffet along with what I used to listen a lot at the time like k's Choice or the Smashing Pumpkins. I also met several fine peoples and eventualy went to a party one night in a friend's home. At some point, a guy put a song that instantly catched my ears. It had a nice groove and funny melody. After the song, they switched CDs so I could borrow the showcase organiser. Man ! Even the disc is nice to look at ! I was Junta, disc 1. I asked which song as just been played. It was Fee and I was hooked.
Some days latter (16th July to be precise), I bought the double CD and stepped onto the Phish World (I've already told this little story on my other french web site).

When I came back to France, I realised that Phish was really famous in the US but completly unknown here, so finding new CD wasn't really easy. I wasn't into file downloading yet and didn't know the taping policy of the band. I didn't even noticed they had just did 2 tours in Europe, the last european show in Spain played just the day before I heard Fee for the first time ! My only fix was my only CD.

Near Christmas 1997, I found in a shop in Geneva, Switzerland, another double CD : A Live One (not in the picture as it's a live album). I then discovered the improvisation side of Phish. I listened furiously.
The following albums I got was Rift and Hoist that my brother's girlfriend brought back for me from her USA trip during summer 1998. 

At this time, one can wonder why I didn't catch a show during Phish's Europe summer tour in 1998. There are several reasons. Beeing a student, I wasn't very rich as so couldn't go too far away for a concert. The 9 european shows this summer were in Denmark, Czech Republic and Spain. That beeing said, I also met the woman of my life this summer so my mind wasn't into going to a concert (at least without her as we went to the Paleo Festival to see k's Choice). That's the way I missed the last european Phish shows.

During my studies in Valence, France (not to be confused with Valence, Spain), while discovering at last the magic of mp3 downloading, I encountered The Story of the Ghost and Farmhouse in the local Fnac shop. Several years later, I surprisely got The Siket Disc and Billy Breathes for two consecutive christmas. My parents found them in the same (and now closed) Geneva shop where I found A Live One several years before.

Once I got free to buy stuffs from Dry Goods (aka once I earned enough money with my job), I complete my collection with The White Tape and Round Room. I guess I got Lawn Boy and A Picture of Nectar this way as I don't remember how I got them...

My last Phish studio album was of course Undermind which I pre-ordered as soon as I could and received on the 18th June 2004 (as seen here and here). I listened to it at full power in my living room, while drinking a honey flavored beer.

Soon, my collection will grow bigger with Joy as I ordered the regular, vinyl and Box editions from Dry Goods and I hope to received them by the end of October.

Still no news of confirmed dates for upcoming shows. Everybody oversea is waiting for fall and NYE dates to be announced. Maybe this week as it's when we'll see the official release of the news Phish Album : Joy. Although it has been leaked over the web for 2 weeks now and is streaming on Myspace since last week, a release date is a release date. Oh and there's this funny website that let you generate your own Joy live album : http://www.wecanstillhavejoy.com [no longer active]

I like the new album but it doesn't feel like an album. I mean It has been mostly recorded live (except for Time Turns Elastic, which I love) and it really sounds like this. It can seems silly when speaking of Phish but when I listen to a studio album, I don't want it to sound live. I love Billy Breathes of The Story of the Ghost because it has sounds and feels which are only in the studio album and not in the live version of the songs. On Undermind, songs like Scents and Subtle Sounds (Intro) or Secret Smile are really unique. When I listened to the news songs during this summer tour, I was waiting to hear the studio version, expecting another approach of the tunes. When I heard the album, I thought "Well, that's good songs and they are well played but just like in concert, minus the jams"...

So my favorite studio version is Time Turns Elastic, Kill Devil Falls and Stealing Times for the Faulty Plan are close seconds. I love the Light intro (the only studio-only part of the record), but I'm not fond of the segued and the actual song.

...one song from each studio album, it'd be the following.

Junta : Fee
Lawn Boy : The Squirming coil
A Picture of Nectar : The Landlady
Rift : Horn
Hoist : Dog-Faced Boy
Billy Breathes : Waste
The Story of the Ghost : Water in the Sky
Farmhouse : Sleep
Round Room: All of These Dreams
Undermind : Scents and Subtle Sounds (Intro)
Joy : Time Turns Elastic (juging between this and Backwards Down the Number Line)

Ok I'm talking studio version here. That's why I can't really tell about Joy as I've only heard 2 studio versions yet.
And I'd rather listen to a Divided Sky, a Stash or a Maze in a show...