Let's spin !

by Yome NetSan 4. December 2015

After a great Fare The Well and a spectacular Summer tour, the end of the year sounded a little too quite. But that was before I received lots of good LPs to spin...

 

New Year's Eve 1995:
Live At Madison Square Garden

 

Originaly released on 3 CD in 2005, Phish's New Year's Eve 1995 show made its way again to independent record stores on 6 LPs during the Record Store Day on 18th april 2015. This huge boxset is limited to 4500 copies and costs an arm. Of course, no store in France had it and it popped pretty quickly on eBay. Due to its already hish-sky price, scalpers can't charge much more but I've been reluctant to buy one of them over here. I waited several month to see if it would appear on Dry Goods but in september, I've been told by my contact at Phish Inc. that it won't be sold there. Thanksfully, this person managed to got me one of the remaning copies and sold it to me ! I finally received it on the 20th november, around the same time as the other vinyls bellow. But surprisingly, it ended on the Phish merchandise site on 3th december ! Grab it while you can !

The boxset is rather simple but quite nice. With six 12" discs, it's huge and, of course, heavy. It's also my first and only 6 LPs boxset. My second biggest one is David Gilmour's Live in Gdansk with 5 LPs.
All pictures and texts are taken from the original CD boxset but re-arranged on six sleeves and a leaflet. A download card is also included and, if you're lucky (if you're the first one actually), you can use mine : just find it on the pictures. One strange thing : the image used by Phish in february to hint at this release (a green square with the words "Side K : you Enjoy Myself"), isn't part of the boxset at all. Actually, the only green things on it are the tittle's letters and side numbers on the outside of the box.

I haven't got the chance to isolate myself for more than three and a half hours yet to proper listen to the music. I haven't listened to the show for many year actually as I haven't been impressed the first time I heard it. Maybe my expectations were too high knowing that Rolling Stone Magazine named it one of the "Greatest Concerts of the '90s", or maybe I wasn't in a good mood...

 Continue reading...

Digital hunt for analog treasures

by Yome NetSan 1. June 2013

With the Blossom 95 download, the Ventura boxset, Mike Gordon's The Egg and three releases for the Record Store Day, Phish knows how to keep us busy before summer tour !

After going under the rain on the 20th April to my local record store to buy the Pink Floyd's See Emily Play and other french 7", the second part of the treasure hunt began on the Internet. But this year, several surprises made the search more interesting and easier.

 

The first vinyl to reach my turn table was the vinyl edition of By My Side, a collection of ballads from Ben Harper. I found it in a french web store (Fargo) thanks to a tweet from Planète Vinyle, a french website about wax discs. But it turns out that I was in Morocco by that time and I couldn't order it right away. I had to wait my return to France a week and a half later, hoping that the disc would still be available. Luckly I made the order almost as I stepped of the plane and got my package the week later for a nice price (25€ including 3€ for shipping).

 

For the next two discs, I had to rely on good old eBay...

 

 

Trey Anastasio's Blue Ash And Other Suburbs is a nice looking 7" Picture Disc which also contains brand new music ! So new I couldn't tell by listening to the first instrumental track if I should spin it at 45 or 33RPM !

It seems like it's been limited to 1200 copies so it's no surprise it was not easy to find it a good price.

I finally got it for 38€ (half of this was shipping fees) instead of the original 15$. I know it's almost third time the price but I don't have a lot or choices, especially for shipping.

 

 

 

Continue reading...

This disc is turned and framed, it's seen much better days

by Yome NetSan 29. October 2012

I think I have a rather big Phish collection but I don't often show the items I buy. So here are some of the last Phish related vinyls and discs I recently received.

The last Marco Benevento record is as good as the previous ones is not better. Moreover Mike Gordon plays bass and mandolin on Escape Horse, a tune already released last year as a limited 7" disc.

Like most of us, I discovered Jennifer Hartswick with TAB, but the girl really need more recognition for his solo work. All of her 3 albums are absolutely great, very jazzy and funky, and her contribution to Everyone Orchestra's first studio album makes it feel like one of her own.

Continue reading...

15 years ago, my life changed forever

by Yome NetSan 12. July 2012

I was in Bellport on the 12th July 1997 when someone played a song that changed my life.

Phish instantly became one of the three bands I listened to the most at the time with k's Choice and Smashing Pumpkins. By the way, it's funny how those three bands are still there in my life and how they all split up and came back together at one point (although "coming back together" can be discussed in regards of the Pumpkins).

It's only very recently that I found the words to express why I love Phish jams.
While many bands can play inventive improvisations, they sound like if someone pressed the Pause button to let the guy play his solo and the music starts again where it left off.
With Phish, the jam moves on, travels, goes forward. At the end of a jam we're not where we were some minutes ago. We've been in a natural voyage and we arrived far further.

Anyway, a lot of things happened in 15 years.
The band evolved, went on hiatus, came back, broke up, came back again...
Meanwhile, I grew up, built my life, met my wife, learnt a lot, worked as much, bought a house, changed a lot but stayed the same in a way.
I often feel like I'm still 17... and then I look at my little boy...

 

In 15 years, I gathered a lot of Phish-related memories...

I remember trying to figure out what they were saying in You Enjoy Myself.
I remember writing to Eric about how I love Junta and the french talk in the background of Dinner and a Movie.

I remember spending nights reading setlists in the Helping Phriendly Book, a RTF file compiled by Phish.net. This was before the Phish Compagnion books (coincidentally, a Third Edition has just been announced today).
I remember translating the lyrics of Esther and Kissed by Mist into french poems.

I remember playing Sample in a Jar in a concert with my band, although I'd rather forget about it.
I remember trying to write down Trey's spoken diatribe in Icculus before realizing I could find all lyrics on the Internet.

I remember bouncing around the room when I recognized the beginning of Weekend at Burnsie's, the Simpson episode in which Phish play Run Like an Antelope.
I remember being amazed by my first mp3 CD player which cost 990 francs at the time (about 150€/$), very expensive for my student girlfriend's wallet).

I remember receiving my first ever Internet order : the Live in Vegas dvd.
I remember buying so much promo CDs on eBay for my collection that I couldn't even tell which one I had or not.

 

As I recently wrote, Internet is my only link to the band. With Phish, it's the thing that has actually changed my life the most in the last 15 years. I could not live without Internet today, just like I could not imagine living without Phish and all that ensued.
And for the first time, the Virtual Band became a little more real this year thanks to Mike Gordon visiting Amsterdam for Jam in the Dam. A disturbing experience.

 

Speaking of "all that ensued", the amount of new music I discovered thanks to Phish is quite astonishing. No other artist got me into so many other artists. My musical horizon is much wider now thanks to them.
Obviously, the first band that I think of is the Grateful Dead, which introduced me to Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, Bob Weir & Ratdog...
While I was looking for Phish mp3, I quickly came upon Nugs.net with its great NugsCast and Free Stash. Bands like Widespead Panic, String Cheese Incident, Gov't Mule, Lotus, moe. were new to my ears and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know them by now if I haven't heard Fee on that saturday night in Long Island.
I also heard for the first time about Talking Heads, Little Feat, Deodato or Frank Zappa with Phish covers.
The many side projects are an endless source of discoveries... Vida Blue, Pork Tornado, Oysterhead (which introduced me to Les Claypool), Trey's solo bands (who got me into the great Jennifer Hartswick) and Mike's collaborations like the Benevento/Russo Duo which leaded me to Marco Benevento, Garage a Trois, Everyone Orchestra...
And finally there's the musicians the band played with like Dave Matthews and Medesky, Martin and Wood, whom I had the pleasure to see in concert at Jazz à Vienne in 2005.

All of these artists are now regulary featured in my playlist, my turntable or my Playstation 3.

Everything started with Junta so I would have loved to celebrate this 15th anniversary with a listening session of the Pollock Edition vinyl but, well, you know...
Instead, I think I'll play a big Phishy concert full of covers with Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Set 1 : Sample in a jar > Chalkdust Torture > Down with Disease, Wilson > Scarlet Begonias > Llama, On the Road AgainStash > Bold as Love, Psycho Killer > Fire
Set 2 : Crosseyed and Painless > Tweezer > Space Oddity > Cold Rain and Snow
Encore : Frankenstein, Tubthumping

 

See you in 15 years phans !

More on Junta, the perfect gift for eBay sellers

by Yome NetSan 21. April 2012

This Junta Deluxe vinyl is really a gift made to eBay sellers because they can get the disc for $50 and sell it $250 ! I know it's my second article about this today but I'm really pissed. Right now, 108 discs are on sale on eBay and more than 100 have already be sold ! That's 4% of the 5000 made ! And it's growing !

But I'm not alone to get angry with the situation. Here are some of the comments on the official Junta photo album on Facebook. Some of them even say that local stores, the one for which Record Store Day has been created, charged $20 more just because they want to ! Shameful...

Please Phish, release all your catalogue on vinyl, but not for Record Store Day. You accessed the scalpers for your ticket show and that's good. But with this move, the real fans have to sell their kids to buy your disc while people whi don't give a fuck of your music make more money on one day than we do in a month !

Kevin Daly Please Phish, make these available to everybody. This 1 or 2 copies a city is ridiculous.

Paul Amodei ‎@ Gregg, I was that third guy in line at Cutlers. So lucky to get it but at a premium! $100. Kinda pissed Cutlers upcharged an extra $20 but whatever. Sorry you didn't get the Pollock man.

Jeremy Chapman I hate record store day. Fuck limited releases, fuck Ebay scalpers, and fuck the disappointment MOST of the true fans feel when they can't find the record they want even after waiting in line forever. I support my local and regional record stores 364 days out of the year but not on this day.

Morrison Tenenbaum Ebay scalpers are scum that deprive true fans. They would rather keep this record till death then sell it for a reasonable price. Losers.

Caroline Porter Mayfield Super pissed that we waited in line at 10pm for the store to open at 12am and some guy who couldn't even name one song from the album got the only copy in all if KC even after we begged him for it. Really sucks that greedy fuckers ruin the spirit of Record Store Day. Bet he's one of the assholes who put it up on eBay for $250. DICK!

Daniel Brown Only store in Memphis that had it was charging $99 and $199 for each edition. SO ridiculous.

Robert Matt Merry That's the problem. It was distributed extremely poorly. All the little cities that needed the extra money got 0 copies even though they all ordered it. Stores that sell it above srp or on ebay should be cut off from getting any more.

Ryan Kitchen i'm pretty disappointed by how many of these are already on ebay. Can we get a re-release of your albums on vinyl, phish? I'd love to buy an -everything phish- box set...for what it would cost to buy 2 of your albums on ebay currently.

Bernd Berndmann I tried to get one here in Germany but of course it was available nowhere. Once again it sucks big time to be a Phish fan in Europe.

Nathan Keel Make enough for all fans or not at all. You have the power to control the market and you choose not to. Shame.

Record Store Day (World Record Assholes ?)

by Yome NetSan 21. April 2012

It's not even noon in the USA but there's already a lot of Phish's Junta Deluxe vinyl on sale on eBay for twice the price, or more !!

The disc is exclusive for Record Store Day and the tag price are ‎$49.99 for the Deluxe, $79.99 for the Deluxe Pollock Edition.

Of course, it's not available in Europe...

I count 46 Junta on sale or sold, that's almost 1% !

 

Those seller are assholes, no more, no less.

And those who buy this disc for $250 are a bunch of fucking retarded !

 

Exclusive news : a Phish video game !

by Yome NetSan 29. March 2011

Part of my job as a web developper is that the company I work for/in change after each project. This way, I get to know different people and way to work depending of the size of the company. That’s why I work in a city 150 km from my house since november 2010.
One of my new co-worker has lived in Los Angeles for several years and still have many friends in the US. After asking her if she had someone who can get my the 3 limited editon vinyls from Phish and Mike Gordon released for the Record Store Day, she came back to me with some incredible news.
When she lived there, she actually befriended someone who recently moved to Massachusetts to work at Harmonix, Rock Band video games creators. This person was so surprised to know that a guy in France love Phish so much he ask half the planet to get 3 discs from Los Angeles, he when pretty talky about a current project in his company :
Rock Band : Phish !

I’ll try to get more informations about this in the following days because all that I know is that the game is planned to be released simultaneously with a very anticipated DVD/BluRay boxset from a very very famous show...




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