From: DORIVERS@vassar.bitnet
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish
Subject: File DORIVERS.MAIL received for you by Virginia.BITNET
Date: 7 Apr 92 04:11:22 GMT
Reply-To: DORIVERS@vassar.bitnet
Organization: The Internet

=========================================================================
Date:     Tue,  7 Apr 1992 00:01 EST
From:     <DORIVERS@VASSAR>
Subject:  vassar mis. news review
To:       phish@virginia
Original_To:  BITNET%"phish@virginia"

The following is a very non-objective review I wrote for the school paper here
in Poughkeepsie, ny in case any of you keep track of these sorts of things

        In their quest for acceptance, frustrated rock n'roll musicians will
often exert a great dealoof energy asserting their originality.  Perhaps as a
result of the dwindling American attention span or perhaps as a result of the
mass adolescent defection to hip-hop, under-talented and over-ostentatious
musicians have bludgeoned their way to the forefront of the rock n'roll
avant-garde.  This genre has been obscurely labelled as "alternative music."
With few exceptions these underdog bands, ironically nurtured by established
institutions such as MTV's 120 minutes, contribute more to the aspirin industry
than to anyone's aural enchantment.  Forced to choose between the pop/hip-hop
institution and the diabolical alternative, the disciple of true rock n'roll-or
of the good melody for that matter-can often be heard belching out a resonant
"none of the above."
        Phish is a band than can never be accused of over-asserting anything.
The haggard lads from the University of Vermont refuse to resort to annoying
modern conventions in order to target the foolish and fickle mainstream.
Perhaps that is why 'A Picture of Nectar' is the band's first effort to be
picked up on a major label, despite the fact that it has been together for 8
and a half years and that it has developed an outrageous cult following of
people that literally follow them (a la The Greatful Dead) all over the
country.
        Those who are familiar with Phish's music might notice a slight
increase in intensity of their sound on 'Nectar'.  While in earlier recordings
he relied almost solely on piano, keyboardis Page McConnell applies large doses
of hammond organ on many of the new tracks.  Otherwise, the sound of the new
album remains consistent with the band's previous work 'Lawn Boy'.
        As for those experiencing Phish for the first time, expect the
unexpected.  Don't be surprised when you hear a Dizzy Gillespie tune stuck
between funk jams and country western ditties.  When you are dealing with a
band whose frequent concert cover tunes include "Rocky Top Tenessee", "Take the
A Train" "Highway to Hell" and "Somewhere over the Rainbow", it's no wonder
that the new album bridges such eclectic genres.  The use of contrasting styles
on the album is convincing because of the sheer virtuosic ablilties of the four
musicians.  (i.e. the jazzy tunes on 'Nectar' don't sound like a rock band
trying to play jazz, but instead sound like true bassanova jazz.
        The album's character is also shaped by the fact that all four members
write at least one of the 16 tracks, each throwing a new monkeywrench into
Phish's already schizophrenic sound.  Most of the music is written by guitarist
Trey Anastasio, whose melodic ear is impeccable by any songwriter's standards.
Moreover, Trey proves on this album that he is capable of writing strong songs
which feature keyboards more than guitar.  First track, "Llama" is a good
example of this.
        Bassist Mike Gordon brings to 'Nectar' his passion for bluegrass via
the lovable "poor heart".  Keyboardist McConnell puts in his two cents with the
Harry Connick-esque "magilla".  But the track which most defies description is
percussionist jon fishman's "faht".  The eccentric fishman, who occasionally
dresses up as Captain Marvel and plays a VACCUUM CLEANER on stage, begins
"FAHT" with a simple pastoral melody played on nothing put acoustic guitar and
piano.  Gradually, you begin to hear such pastoral noises as wind and
twittering birds.  AS the four bar pattern repeats again and again, the distant
birds slowly metamorphosize into the urban clamor of traffic and tugboats.
Finally the piece ends by crescendoing into a flatulent blast of a large
steamboat.
        The album's lyrics are usually random and nonsensical, yet somehow
poignant and poetic.  Lewis Carroll's "Jabberworcky" is undoubtedly an
influence on lyricist Tom Marshall.  As in Carrol's "Jabberwocky", the band
enjoys adding new vocabulary to the English language.  These new utterances
include: "blastoplast", "rhinothropic", "taboot", and my personal favorite,
"dogmatogram".  Furthermore, passages such as, "Zipping thru the forest with
the curdling fleas/To grow with them spindles, the Mutant I Seize/ I Capture
the Dead Beast who falls to his knees/And cries to his cohorts asleep in the
trees...", might understandably lead one to believe that these boys played a
bit too much dungeons and dragons in their youths.
        There are so many sexual superlatives which have been used by fans to
describe Phish.  Among the most concise are, "more fun than sex in guacomole"
and "Carmen Miranda and Frank Zappa having non-gravitational intercourse".
Vassar student Paul Mifsud '95 simply remarked, "this is such hick music!"
        Virtually everyone agrees that Phish is a true original at a time when
original artists are hard to come by.  So if you have grown disgusted with the
pop/hip hop establishment and the cast of characters of Mtv's 120 minutes don't
strike you as a viable alternative.  Pick up a copy of Phish's 'A Picture of
Nectar'.
-Dominic Rivers, Vassar College Miscellany News
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish