From: ST101137@brownvm.brown.edu (Lee Silverman)
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish
Subject: The Full FAQ
Date: 2 Oct 92 14:55:43 GMT
Reply-To: ST101137@brownvm.brown.edu
Organization: The Internet

This file is one of a collection of files I keep at Phish-Archives.
It hasn't been updated in a long time, so if anyone has any suggestions,
please email them to me.  This version is the FULL version of the FAQ,
not the one that's usually posted to the net.  Enjoy!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Frequently Asked questions, and some answers:
Last Update: 05 May 92

1.  What files are available from phish-archives?
2.  How can I get those files besides sending mail?
3.  How do you pronounce Junta?
4.  Can you give me some basic background info?
5.  How do I post to the Phish-net?  Change Subscription?
6.  What is The Helping Phriendly Book?
7.  What is "Mike's Groove"?
8.  What are they saying in "You Enjoy Myself"?
9.  What is the correct title for "Hall and Solace?"
10. What is a tape tree and how does it work?
11. Where can I get copies of the old digests?
12. How can I get a Phish.Net T-Shirt?
13. What is Gamhenge?
14. Can you tell me about Page's Organ Setup?
15. Can you suggest some REALLY high quality phish tapes?
16. What can you tell me about Trey's Guitar setup?
------------------------------------------------------------
1. What files are available from Phish-Archives?

There are 7 Phish.net Philes:
The Netter's List:A list of all the people on the Phish net.
The FAQ list: The file you're reading right now.
The Lyrics DataBase:A collection of all the lyrics posted to the net.
The Stories Collection:All the interesting phish-related or net-related
    stories that have been posted to the net.  Highlights include
    The Ness Story, and tales from shows like Townsend.
The Interviews file: Transcripts of interviews with the band.
    Plus two reviews of PON from the Boston Phoenix.
The Helping Phriendly Book:A collection of setlists and song titles.
The Chords File:A collection of posts to the net containing
    Chords for a few songs.
------------------------------------------------------------------
2. How can I get the files other than sending mail?

The only way is via FTP.  This explanation is meant for those who
are already familiar with the workings of FTP.  If you don't know FTP,
it's easier for you to simply mail in a request than to figure it out.

For those of you who do know FTP, here's how it works:
-FTP to Brownvm.Brown.EDU.  (128.148.128.40)
-Log in as anonymous
-Send your userid as a password.

Ok.  So now you're in.  Don't bother trying to do an LS at this point;
the VM Mainframe won't show you a list of available directories.
Simply change to the Phish directory by typing the following somewhat
obscure command:
cd ST101137.201
(Brief explanation: ST101137 is my account number, 201 is the disk #)
The 201 disk contains only the official "Phish.Net" files.  There
is also a 202 disk (cd ST101137.202) that contains tape lists
and other non-official stuff.

Now you can do an LS, and see what's available.  All the files will
have names in the format  #######.#######
Files ######.PHISH are the standard net.files: Stories, Interviews,
 Lyrics, FAQ, and HPB.
Files ######.TREE are copies of all the trees that I know of running on
 the PHISH NET ONLY!!!
Other files should be pretty obvious.

If you want to have something put on the FTP server, send mail to
ST101137@Brownvm.Brown.edu and we'll figure out how to get it.
---------------------------------------------------------------
3. How do you pronounce "Junta?"

From: Shelly Culbertson <shell@gandalf.berkeley.EDU>:
I asked Page about this when I interviewed him in Arcata;
he told me that it is pronounced "junta", not "hunta", because it
is a friend's nickname and doesn't have anything to do with South
American governments.  (Ed: That is, JUN as in JUNgle, TA as is
pasTA.)

From: "Cassidy J. Curtis" <cjc@cs.brown.edu>
Beg to differ with you, but on my earliest tape (6/23/89) Trey
distinctly says, "This next song is from our new album, ZHunta". Like
in French. (Ed: Like Zha Zha Gabor?)

From: Matt Laurence <mlaurenc@world.std.com>
Also, in talking to John Paluska, it turns out the name of the
first album is, conclusively prononced "Djunta", not "hunta."
All the band members I've talked to call it that, and John P.
confirmed it. (Ed: Hmmm...)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. "Can you give me some basic background info about the band?"

See the Phish Stories file or the Interviews File from
Phish-Archives for interviews with Page and Trey that have
tons of history in them.

Other stuff:
The address for the (paper) mailing list is:
Phish
57 Harvard Street, 2nd floor
Waltham, Mass.  02154

hotline:  (617) 647-5521
------------------------------------------------------
5. How do I post to the phish.net?

If you have access to NetNews, simply post to rec.music.phish.

If you do not, but have access to e-mail, use these addresses:
The service addresses, to which questions about the list itself
and requests to be added to or deleted from it should be
directed, are as follows:

    Internet: Phish-Request@fuggles.acc.Virginia.EDU
              Phish-Request@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU
    BITNET:   Phish-RQ@Virginia
    UUCP:     ...!uunet!virginia!phish-request

You can send mail to the entire list via one of these addresses:

    Internet: Phish@fuggles.acc.Virginia.EDU
              Phish@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU
    BITNET:   Phish@Virginia
    UUCP:     ...!uunet!virginia!phish
------------------------------------------------------
6. "What is the Helping Phriendly Book?"

The title "Helping Friendly Book" is from the Gamhenge tale;
it's a book filled with everything the Lizards needed to know to
live their lives in peace and harmony.  A few folks on the net
have put together a compilation of setlists and other info about
the band and somehow decided to name it after this all
encompasing book!  So it's called the Helping Phriendly Book,
and its most up-to-date version is available on request from
Phish-Archives, or by FTP.  Also, it is quite obvious from
reading the Book that it is far from complete.  If you have
dates or setlists please send them to Shelly Culbertson
<shell@gandalf.berkeley.edu>.  Thanks!
-----------------------------------------------------------
7. "What is `Mike's Groove?'"

Mike's groove is a shortened title for a combination of three
songs:  Mike's Song -> I Am Hydrogen -> Weekapaug Groove.
According to Phish's manager, these songs will never be played
independently.  Most tapers still label the three seperately.
-------------------------------------------------------------
8. What are they saying in "You Enjoy Myself?"
From: Richard Stern <rstern@col.hp.com>:

On the subject of the lyric in "You Enjoy Myself" it seems that the
original line was:

"Wash your feet, they drive me to frenzy"  (Pronounced Fu-ren-zee)

But this has been changed in recent years.  When we were hanging
out with Page and Trey in Colorado during the March tour, we asked
them what the line was and they wouldn't tell us, but they admitted
that it was in two different languages.  After Trey told us
that he had spent some time being a wandering minstrel in Europe,
we concluded that the line was:

"Wash-a-you feets and drive me to Firenze"

But recently someone (was it John Greene?) posted that Trey (I
think) told him that it was "Uffitze" and not "you feets."
Uffitze is a part of Florence (Firenze) near the Ponte
Vecchia (sp?) most known for the Uffitze Gallery, and named
after the wealthy and powerful Uffitze family.So, we have:

"Wash-a-Uffitze and drive me to Firenze"

To me, this seems right even though it doesn't make much sense.
They definitely play with this line while they sing it,
though, and sometimes it sounds more like the original "wash
your feet....."
And more:

To add still more confusion on the You Enjoy Myself lyric.....
Trey told me that Urfitze (pardon the spelling) is a square in
Firenze.  So the lyric goes "Wash-a-Urfitze and drive me to
Firenze".  The "a" after the "wash" is kind of like an
Italian accent.  See?
---------------------------------------------
9. On my tapes I have seen three different titles for the same
song.  Can someone end my confusion by stating the real name of
the song with the titles of All Night Long, Halt & Solace, and
Paul & Silas?

John Friedman, keeper of the Helping Phriendly Book, answers:

"Well, this has been an open question for sometime now."

Trey has been cited to have said that it is "Hall In Solace."  I
spoke with some bluegrass aphishanadoes about this, and they
sort of giggled when I mentioned "Hall In Solace."  "Oh, you
mean 'Paul and Silas,'" they said.  In fact, you can find "Paul
and Silas" on "The Earl Scruggs Revue."  Shelly recently asked
Trey about "Hall In Solace," and he said that he had been going
by a recording only.

In summary, Phish has been singing "Hall In Solace," but the
real tune is "Paul and Silas."

I'll be leaving it as "Hall In Solace" in the HPB, for now,
since that's what Phish sings.
-----------------------------------------------------------
10. "What is a tape tree and how does it work?"
From Lee Silverman  <ST101137@brownvm.brown.edu>

  A Tape Tree is a way of distributing a popular tape to a large
number of people.  By using a tape tree, rather than having one
person make 75 copies of a tape, everyone gets their tapes
faster and there's much less work involved for the owner of the
tapes.
  The basic Premise is this:  I have a tape that everyone wants.
So I post to the net, saying that I'm running a tree.  In that post
I include a form for people to fill out and send back to me.  (most
of the info on these forms gets used, so always fill the whole
thing out!)  After about a week of waiting, I compile all the
replies into a "tree," where I arrange to make copies for 5 or so
people.  Each of those 5 people is given a list of 5 other people
whom they are to make tapes for.  Each of them makes copies for 5
people, and so on depending on how big the tree is.
  Usually the people who are higher up in trees are the people with
the best taping equipment, so the tapes lose less of their sound
quality.  If you are on a tree you have one or two
responsibilities:  The first is to get the tapes (this applies
to everyone).  You do this by either sending blanks to, or
trading with, the person above you.  (Whether you send blanks or
trade generally has little to do with your placement within the
tree).  The second responsibility you *may* have will be to copy
the tapes for a certain number of other people.  They may either
trade with you or just send blanks.  At that point your role in
the tree has been fulfilled.
   If you want specific info on how to set up a tree, write me
Pandion <ST101137@brownvm.brown.edu> for some suggestions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Where can I get copies of old digests?

Darcy Gibbons of Harvard is the phish.net.archivist.  You can
e-mail her a request at <gibbons@isr.harvard.edu>.
-------------------------------------------------------------
12. THE PHISHNET T-SHIRT!

The Phirst Ophishial PhishNet T-shirt has been around now since
Christmas, 1991, and there are still plenty available!

For those who have not yet been subjected to the rampant
advertisements on the Net, the shirt is a twelve color image
(done as 4-color process for you tech-heads out there) on a
white, 100% cotton heavyweight Fruit Of The Loom shirt (beats
Beefy-Ts for long-lastivity), and is available in Large, Extra
Large, and a very few XXLs for those who really need them.

The design depicts a large, blissed-out phish with a big grin
and a propeller beanie, lovingly rendered in bright,
smile-inducing colors.  The word PHISH above and NET below are
done in multi-color "wood blocks", with a Phish logo block to
add credibility.  The net address is printed along the bottom of
the shirt to show your allegiance.  All in non-fade color that's
guaranteed to induce wrenching vertigoid hallucinations.

To order your PhishNet shirt, send a check or money order (or
cash, if you dare!) for $14.00 for each shirt, made payable to
Matt Laurence to:

Matt Laurence
11 John Poulter Rd.
Lexington, MA 02173

These shirts have been officially christened and approved by the
band, and have been receiving rave reviews from Phishheads
everywhere.  So get psyched to join the ranks of the initiated
and get your PhishNet shirt as soon as possible!
------------------------------------------------
13.  What is Gamhenge?

   When people refer to Gamhenge, they are usually refering to Trey's
senior thesis project from Goddard College.  The project is
entitled, "The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday" and is basically the
story of Colonel Forbin and his adventures in the land of
Gamhenge, home of the Lizards.
  The original project includes:  Wilson prelude, Lizards, Tela,
Wilson, AC/DC Bag, Colonel Forbin's Ascent, Famous Mockingbird,
Sloth, and Possum.  A few other were written afterwards: Divided
Sky, Llama, and McGrupp all have Gamhenge references in them.
  There really are no good copies of the original project in
existence, though many poor copies can be found.  Parts of the
saga have been played live twice: once at Nectar's Bar in Vt on
3/12/88, and once in Olympia, Washington on 10/13/91
  The lyrics to all the songs and narration in the original project,
as well as the other songs mentioned here, can be found in the
Phish Lyrics file, available at Phish Archives.
----------------------------------------------------------
14.  Can you tell me about Page's organ setup?

|I don't know too much about speakers (personally, I've never heard of
|Lesly speakers), but I know that I have seen some speaker behind Page
|(as recently as Barre) spinning around and around, and I've always
|wondered just what the hell it is.  So, just what is it?

It's a Leslie speaker.  It is an integral part of the organ sound.  The
tweeter and woofer spin in opposite directions.  A tube amplifier is
built-in.  The speed is controlled by the organist.  The spinning
creates a vibrato effect.  Even with today's digital technology, it is
difficult to create just the right organ sound without the Leslie
speaker.  At a concert, the sound from the speaker is picked up by
anywhere from 1 to 4 microphones and sent through the P.A. system.

|Also, I've noticed that in the rear-center of the stage there's a
|speaker in a wooden cabinet that has a mike placed just a bit in front
|of it, aimed at the speaker.  What's the point of doing that?

The speaker cabinet is part of Trey's electric guitar system.  Placing
a mic right in front of a speaker is counter-intuitive.  After all, we
could just take the signal directly and cut down on the distortion
caused by the speaker and mic.  But when you consider that the speaker
is actually part of the musical instrument, it starts to make more
sense.  The speaker's coloring of the sound is part of the overall
sound that the guitarist is trying to achieve.  The electric guitar by
itself is not a whole instrument.  It is the combination of the guitar,
amp, and speaker.

Some guitarists, and most bassists do choose to send their signals
directly to the P.A. instead of through the mic.  The speaker's
coloring is favored for lead guitar but is often undesirable for other
guitar and bass.

From: Jonathan Dennis Kirshbaum <jonnyk@cs.uoregon.edu>
Two things about leslie cabinets.  First, I believe that the
source of the neat sound is the doppler effect, the same phenomena
that makes ambulance sirens lower in pitch as they drive away.
The vibrato is cause by the speakers sound going a small distance
farther away and closer as the leslie rotates.

Second, the speaker(s) inside the cabinet do not actually rotate.
The inside of the leslie that I saw had a woofer lying on the
bottom of the cabinet, face up, and fixed.  Above it was a simple
structure that deflected the sound 90 degrees, kind of an elbow
arrangement.  It was this that actually spun.
------------------------------------------------------------
15: Can you suggest some really high quality Phish tapes?

The following shows were recorded to DAT from a seperate record
board at the shows.  They are some of the highest quality Phish
tapes in existence:  4/22/90, 10/30/90, 10/31/90, 11/2/90,
11/3/90, 11/4/90, 3/13/91, 3/15/91, 3/16/91, 3/17/91, 3/22/91,
3/23/91, 4/5/92.  Except for the recent 4/5 tape, they have all
been fairly widely circulated.

They were done on a large recording console (not EQ) and mixed
completely seperately from the board mix.  Rumor has it the
recording was done in a truck outside the venue.  The engineer used
2 audience mics to mix in crowd/hall ambience (on most of them).
------------------------------------------------
16.  What can you tell me about Trey's guitar setup?
Answer taken from a post by R. Stern <stern@col.hp.com>

Trey's guitar was built by Paul Languedoc.  Paul is the soundman+
for the band (see the July 91 newsletter for a phish profile on
Paul).  Paul also built Mike's basses (I'm pretty sure there are
two of them).  (well, Mike has one bass now, unless the stolen one
is found :-( (-sc.)  )

Trey uses a Mesa/Boogie MkIII head.
Here's the best I can remember off the top of my head.  Some could be
off by +-1.

Pre Volume: 10 !!
Treble: 5
Mid: 4.5
Bass: 4.5
Lead Drive: 2.5
Lead Master: 6
Master: 3
Presence: 2  (on the back of the amp)
Reverb: 0  (he uses the Microverb)

There is an Alesis Microverb (not II) sitting on top of his amp.  He uses
a Large 2 or Large 3 setting.  I notice that he doesn't vary it at all. He
reaches for it quite often and just touches the knobs without changing
the settings :-).

His pedalboard has a volume pedal, a cheapo Ross(?) compresser, 2
Ibanez tube screamers, and the lead/rhythm switchbox for the Mesa
(maybe more, but I can't remember).

The Tube Screamers are the new version Tube Screamer Classic.  Both
have the volume turned all the way up, which really confused me at first.
He doesn't seem to get much of volume boost when switching them on, and
mine give a huge boost if I set the volume all the way up.  What I think
happens is this: since his Mesa Pre-Volume is at 10, the input is already
overdriven.  So when he switches in the Tube Screamers, they can't drive
any more volume out of the pre-amp, and simply give more overdrive.  That's
my best guess anyway :-).

One of the keys to his cool tone is the way he uses the Tube
Screamers and the Mesa lead mode.  He has the Mesa eq switched to
only work for lead mode, and he sets the eq in an upside down V
(lots of mid boost, lots of high cut).  One Tube Screamer is set
for a very light crunch, and the other is set for full screaming
overdrive.  Trey will often start with a light crunch, then turn
that off and turn on the full overdriver.  Then he'll turn back on
the crunch (so he has both Tube Screamers on!).  Then he'll kick
in the Mesa to lead mode for a final push over the edge :-) !! By
mixing and matching any combination of the 3 distortions, he gets
an incredible variety of tones.  Add in the unique feedback properties
of his semi-hollowbody guitar, and wow ... Yes, he does sound quite amazing!!

I highly recommend getting a spot against the stage (at a show
with a low stage) where you can see his pedalboard, and check out
how he switches between the Tube Screamers and Mesa lead mode etc.
(it's also a good spot for trying to see some licks/chords that he
uses)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor: Lee Silverman <Pandion@Brown.edu>

Last update: 11 May 92


Here's the best I could do.

Ask him what kind of speakers are in his cabinet, and if the cabinet is
sealed or open in the back (these things are very important for tone!).
And ask him if he varies the room size of the Microverb.

Please e-mail his comments.  Thanks a lot!!

Richard