Phish - Recommendations?

As most of you know, I'm a bit of a dyed in the wool 'old school' prog fan, but I keep hearing more and more of the American band, Phish.

From what I can make out, they're definitely progressive in their outlook, very good musicians individually and in a group context and appears to have a huge following.

The only reason I've avoided taking a chance on them in the past is they're always referred to as a 'jam' band, and most fans seem to go for the live albums, rather than the studio ones - not difficult with Phish, as they appear to have a couple of dozen live albums to choose from, so they seem to be of the same opinion as their fans.

Now I'm not against bands jamming at all - so long as they can keep it together; The Allman Brothers were a classic case of a band who could happily wander off into long improvised sections, but the core of the song stayed true, so it remained listenable. On the other side of the coin, you have bands like The Grateful Dead who, despite every effort on my part to try to "get" them, bore me rigid (and I've tried several albums over many stages of their career).

So then - Phish... give me an overview; do you think someone with a love of 'classic' 1970s rock, but a broad spectrum of additional musical tastes (which do not include Grateful Dead type jamming) could get into them - if so, where to start?

Cheers guys.

JG

I'm going to repost what I wrote in another thread. Phish is an incredible band though an introduction to their later part of their career may give a bad first impression:

"As far as Phish goes (and if you're into jazz fusion) I would try either Junta (tends to generally be a fan favorite), LAWN BOY (which is my favorite), A Picture of Nectar, or Rift. Those are their first four albums and are all fantastic for more of a jazz fusion-ish (acid funk?) type sound. It's very hard to pinpoint them to one genre.

Everything they've done though has been quality music (in my opinion.) Billy Breathes is incredible for a soft rock acoustic-ish album and Story of a Ghost is one of my favorites (as it's a cohesive concept album.


As for single songs if you're not that interested in purchasing/downloading an entire album: Reba (incredible prog instrumental section, vocals at the beginning are strange), Stash (Santana-ish, very good), Split Open and Melt (strange acid-funkish), Mound (interesting blend of funk, blues, country, jazz)

and for a great instrumental (or 99% instrumental)- THE DIVIDED SKY <---highly recommended (though not very jazz-fusiony. Just very emotionally powerful)"


Their styles range from anything thats jazzy, jazz fusion, country, prog, funk, acid/psychedellic funk, rock, acoustic mellow rock, bluegrass, metal (though just 1 or 2 tracks and probably anything else that can be thought of. The problem, generally with hearing only one song by phish is that it may be the one 3 minute country song they threw on the album, or the 5 minute acid funk part with spoken word vocal. It's very hard to describe them but I did the best I could.

Enjoy !

Oh wait! The one thing I wanted to clear up is the seemingly continuous comparison that Phish gets to the Grateful Dead. Apart from their extensive and incredible live shows, they have not too much in common. Phish is much more adventurous in my opinion (though their music is more modern sounding.) They also have VERY cohesive studio works that are intricately written NOTE for NOTE and generally not just jamming. They have two concept albums too (Rift and The Story of a Ghost) that are both fantastic too if thats your thing. Alright enough talking for me.

Jim from another old schooler, you should try RIFT! intelligent and well done. I have heard most of their catelog and this one stands out above the rest, IMO.

Coincidentally I've been trying to find a studio album by Phish, and the local 2nd hand had two this afternoon, at 4 quid each  (and a hint of sale or return). I tossed a coin and came away with Slip Stitch & Pass - yet to find out what I bought myself.  Until this album I had only heard the live recordings of the complete White Album and Quadraphenia covers - and IMHO the vocals are off-putting.

This whole subject of jam is a confusion to me - so having a real attempt to make sense of the term and the music (s). Hooked on the jazz rock end of the genre, e.g. Medeski Martin & Woods, Motet and Garaj Mahal - and just in the jazz fusion field those 3 are widely different. Umphrey's McGee is more prog-like . However, one PA member has sampled me with Robert Randolph & The Family Band  who call themselves gospel or spiritual jam... Check out the US indie label/promoters Home Grown: from whom I bought a live Garaj Mahal recording and a double sampler of ~18 jam band of various shades playing live. The package of CDs reached the UK with a magazine providing details of~50 bands  promoted one way or other by Home Grown - and musically there is broad range of styles although there seems to be both more  blue grass and soul jam bands than the straight rock jam bands.

Found a cheap double live CD by The String Cheese Incident (Carnival 99) on Amazon UK  and was disappointed by the mix of blue grass and jazz rock fusion on the set. Bela Fleck & Co - really have the edge.

Edited by Dick Heath - January 27 2007 at 15:42

FragileDT wrote: ^^^ "Slip Stich and Pass" is a live album. It's a very good live album in my opinion, but doesn't showcase the brilliance of phish in the studio for me.

OK, guys, you've convinced me; I'll try them - Dallas & Fragile, be it on your heads if I'm wasting my money here, but I've just ordered 'Rift' from Amazon.

It'd better be good - I paid nearly £4.00 for it

Jim Garten wrote: OK, guys, you've convinced me; I'll try them - Dallas & Fragile, be it on your heads if I'm wasting my money here, but I've just ordered 'Rift' from Amazon. It'd better be good - I paid nearly £4.00 for it

Dick Heath wrote: FragileDT wrote: Dick Heath wrote: FragileDT wrote: ^^^ "Slip Stich and Pass" is a live album. It's a very good live album in my opinion, but doesn't showcase the brilliance of phish in the studio for me.   So I've just discovered!!!! The liner notes are written in a script that is difficult to read - still not bad and so a track up on next Thursday's radio show. Just out of curiosity, which track are you putting up?   Weigh

Ahh, weigh is a great track.

Jim,  after Rift you may find a let down, I have been through many of their recordings and some touch on Rift's intelligence none seem to capture them in the studio like that one. I compare it with Buddy Guy's blues collection only Stone Crazy(the french one, not the compilation, captures Buddy in his glory, very impressive, but the rest falls into just OK. Or maybe their godfathers the Grateful Dead, enormous catalog and I find Garcia's solo Garcia(which was also the core to there best live performances) as being the pinnacle and everything else is downhill. IMO

Edited by DallasBryan - February 25 2007 at 14:47

Edited by DallasBryan - February 25 2007 at 03:59