Waiting for the time when I can finally say...
This has all been wonderful, but now I'm on way
Suggested soundtrack: “Down With Disease,” 10-29-2013, Reading, PA
(As always, insert “Yes, I know there are bigger things going on” disclaimer here. And any typos and mistakes are purely intentional.)
Greetings from Cleveland where my wife is playing Untitled Goose Game and I’ve been going through a huge Dylan kick as of late. Like Phish, Dylan is one my reliable go-to artists when needing to just cleanse my mind a bit so that’s been nice. But there’s actually stuff to write about, so let’s gooooooo!
May-be so, May-be not
Just when I thought there wasn’t going to be any big baseball news, the story dropped of MLB pondering a May start to the season in Arizona with teams on lockdown and playing in Spring Training facilities and maybe Chase Field (home of the Arizona Diamondbacks). Take a deeper read of the alleged proposal here; it’s definitely as nutty as it sounds.
I’m less bothered by suggestions like robot umps, 7-inning doubleheader games, and no mound visits than by the logistic nightmare this feels like. Even if all 30 teams were kept to essential players and personnel only, you’re talking about over 1,000 people, not to mention tertiary employees, drivers, hotel staffs, and families. What happens when one of those people comes down with the coronavirus? Do you put EVERYONE on lockdown?
Look, I’m as ready for baseball to return as anyone but this just doesn’t seem like the way to do it. Besides the underlying health and safety issues, what about playing outdoor games in May in Arizona where temps will be in the upper 90s? How many games will teams try to cram in just to get close to 162 games and what effect will that have on injuries?
Baseball could provide a much needed distraction and emotional salve to a sports- and distraction-starved nation and maybe even retain a certain importance in our larger culture it lost years ago if they did return soon. But this isn’t the way. Even if this idea was just a “trial balloon” leaked to the press to gauge reactions, my reaction can be summed up in one popular GIF.
If life were easy, and not so fast, I wouldn't think about the past
The continuing entertainment option of digging out the archives continues this week and if you’re looking for something to watch tonight (Tuesday, April 7, 2020), you’ve got two outstanding that apply to this here newsletter.
Over on ESPN, they’ll be re-airing the Orioles-Angels game from September 6, 1995, the game in which Cal Ripken, Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s “iron man” record for most consecutive games played. It was a big night for Cal, if memory serves, and the record was one of baseball’s most revered (right up there with Maris’ home run record, which still stood at the time, and DiMaggio’s hitting streak record, which still stands). Coverage starts on ESPN at 7 pm ET/6 pm CT.
Meanwhile, over at YouTube and LivePhish, this week’s entry in Phish’s archive concert “Dinner and a Movie” series (starting at 8:30 pm ET) is 7-25-17, an absolute stunner, aka “Jam Night” from the band’s famed “Bakers Dozen” run at Madison Square Garden. (If you have never heard of the Bakers Dozen before, TL;DR: it was a set of 13 shows over 17 nights Phish performed at MSG in July & August 2017 with each night featuring a donut flavor theme that came with free handed-out donuts and songs that fit the night’s theme. Jam Night’s theme? DEEP JAMS.)
There are a lot of stunners in this one, from the usual short goof-of-a-tune “Lawn Boy” getting stretched out into a half-hour long jam of beauty that inspired an instant Phish meme (yes, I own that shirt) to the outer-space-mothership jam on the Talking Heads’ “Crosseyed and Painless.” Don’t sleep on either the “Fuego” or “Bathtub Gin,” though.
If you miss either of these replays, the Phish show will live on at the YouTube link while the Ripken game also lives online here.
The fear’s an illusion, so don’t even ask
But there’s more big news in the 10 (?) days since I last wrote this thing. Phish dropped a surprise studio album on us last week. It’s been four years since their last studio album, the meh Big Boat in the fall of 2016, so it’s about time they released another one. But it caught fans by surprise in how it was announced.
During the set break of last week’s “Dinner and a Movie” classic concert stream, the boys, like everyone else, joined the Zoom craze in their purest Dad froms to share awkward inside jokes about their catalog and to announce their new album.
Given the studio clips band members posted on social media over the winter, it’s not a total surprise. But there’s no word on the original release plans. Whatever they were, things changed with the pandemic and the boys decided to push the release date up and drop a gift on us all. In a statement with the release, the band said:
When we recorded the album, we didn’t plan to release it this way. But today, because of the environment we’re all in, it just feels right. We don’t know the next time that we’re all going to be able to be together. This is an opportunity to have a moment where the Phish community can share something despite being physically separated.
The whole release gives some nice insight into how it all came together. Anyway, the album, Sigma Oasis, is here and you can listen to it at streaming services everywhere. But I figured maybe it would be good for the non-Phish fans here (this newsletter is occasionally about baseball, after all) for a mini-FAQ about the new album.
What’s it called?
It’s called Sigma Oasis. There’s a song by the same name on the album that the band recently debuted.
Is it good?
Yes. Well, to me, anyway. To you? I don’t know! You should listen to it. [Spotify]
Okay, but, seriously, what do you think of it?
I really do like it! I get why some fans might not. There’s a lot of mid-tempo stuff here and several ballads and those aren’t always the most popular songs in concert. I also love the sweeping, panoramic strings that they gave to some of the ballads, really beefing them up, things that might strike other listeners as a bit too much bombast. But I think the songs and the albums are great reflections of where the guys are as people and as artists right now. They’re all in their 50s and have families and they’re more reflective after 35+ years of this.
After handing control to famed producer Bob Ezrin for the last album and after issues that they addressed in subtle and not-subtle ways, the band took more control this time around and it shows. Songs like “Everything’s Right” and “Steam” sound like true reflections of how they’ve sounded live for a few years now. The production is richer and the band sounds more confident, like four friends recording in a room, feeding off of each other. It’s more organic, despite some of the richer overdubs, if that makes sense.
Wait, these songs aren’t new?
Well, they’re “new” in the sense they haven’t been on a studio album. Six of the album’s nine songs have debuted in the last three years but “Steam” has been part of the live set for nine years.
It’s pretty standard for a lot of bands to debut new songs on the road before the get on an album for a number of reasons. With Phish, it just so happens that a lot of their most popular songs (“Simple,” “Mike’s Song,” “Harry Hood,” “Suzy Greenberg,” and “Tube,” to name a few) have never made an album so it’s always fun to see a live show vet like “Steam” get that treatment.
Do Phish fans care about studio albums? (Good question from my pal Scott Heisel)
Yes! Kind of. Sort of. Maybe? It’s hard to gauge, really. There was a LOT of celebration and chatter around this album largely because of the surprise and the fact that it comes in the middle of a global pandemic that has left us all emotionally fragile. New Phish music out of nowhere!
I know I revisit the albums sometimes but usually for specific reasons. I’ll always be partial to Hoist because that was the album with which I came onboard the fandom. Plus, the original studio version of “If I Could” features a duet with bluegrass angel Alison Krauss and it’s fantastic.
Phish fans probably care about an album in some sense or else they wouldn’t have complained about Big Boat so much when it came out and they wouldn’t have been so stoked when Sigma Oasis hit number one on iTunes, if only for a little while.
But, yeah, studio albums, in the long run, hold a less important a place in the Phish oeuvre than they do with most other bands.
Why release studio albums at all?
This one comes from music critic and pal Rob Mitchum who, among other writings, does an awesome Grateful Dead podcast and terrific Phish newsletter. And it’s a great point!
I have no actual insight as to why the band still does it but I reckon it’s something along the line of it’s just something they feel like doing. I get why they want to have certain moments of their life as a band crystalized in a more permanent fashion.
While the album has an exponentially decreasing importance in the music industry as a whole, it still serves as a marker for the band and it’s still a creative outlet. Maybe that’s where they really get to mess around with arrangements; even if these songs weren’t “new” before, maybe they’ll get new life now. And who knows what other new tunes cropped up as they rehearsed?
Here are two more guesses (again, just my own conjecture): 1) Being an easy entry point for new fans who have no idea where to start with the band’s live catalog. Sure, there are tons of “official” LivePhish releases besides pretty much every show played being available to stream in some format or other, but I’m guess an LP is probably a base starting point for a lot of new fans who are intimidated by 35 years of show recordings.
And 2) it’s still a source of income for the band. They’ve been putting out records on their label, JEMP Records (not to be confused with the excellent homage, JEMP Radio), since they reunited in 2009 so any sales go to the band and their overhead and not to, say, a giant conglomerate.
What songs do you like most?
I loved “Evening Song” when the band debuted it at the recent New Year’s Run.
I also like the treatment given to “Steam,” “Everything’s Right,” and “A Life Beyond a Dream.” In particular, “Steam” and “Everything’s Right” come pretty damn close to capturing some of Phish’s live energy in the studio.
It also made my like “Mercury” more. A lot of fans love that song and while I love a lot of jams that have come out of it, I’m still not a huge fan of the tune. Well, moreso now.
Will I like it?
I don’t know! Music is, like, subjective, man.
Like I said, it’s largely mid-tempo stuff so mileage may vary. I think the album certainly strikes the right balance between studio polish that most listeners are used to from a band but being true enough to the band’s live performance that it’s not jarring when a listener makes that transition. Does that make sense? It probably doesn’t but we’ve been indoors for a month so I’m not even going to bother with rewording it.
Give the album a listen. It’s an hour and, honestly, if you’re not going to give Phish a shot at the end of the world, when will you?
Ok. If you have any other questions, feel free to send them my way!
And speaking of non-fans, here are two new things I’m going to do for the duration of this quarantine and maybe beyond at the end of each newsletter.
Phish Show For Non-Phish Fans
Trying to persuade non-fans to like Phish is, largely, a fool’s errand. There was a terrific podcast about this called “Analyze Phish” in which the late, great Harris Wittels (of Parks & Rec fame) tried to get his pal Scott Aukerman to like Phish. It’s a fun, if bittersweet, listen (given that Harris died of a heroin overdose in 2015). The issue is so many people are predisposed to despise Phish because of the dirty hippy fans (not totally unfair but greatly exaggerated) or the style music which has been mocked in countless videos that, well, whatever.
But Phish wouldn’t be selling out large arenas and amphitheaters after more than 35 years without bringing new fans on board somewhere along the way, right? So consider this section my attempt at getting non-fans who encounter this newsletter to give Phish a chance.
For this inaugural selection, I’ve given in to recency bias and selected October 26, 2018, night one of a three night run at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL. Set I is a fun, eclectic mix of popular long-time cuts (“Punch You In The Eye,” “Reba”), covers (“Moonage Daydream”), and the aforementioned “Mercury,” that’s on Sigma Oasis.
But Set II is the good stuff: a terrific, fun “Party Time”-infused Tweezer gives way to a great rendition of “Golden Age,” a cover of a TV On The Radio song that’s been in the band’s rotation for most of the 3.0 era. The rest of the set is pretty stellar, including “Sand” and “Possum” with the great “Wilson”>”Tweezer Reprise” encore.
So give it a whirl and see how you like it. Listen at Phish.in or on YouTube.
Great Classic Baseball Game To Get Us Through Another Week Without Baseball
I swear I’ll write about baseball again. It’s just been hard without… actual baseball? Anyway, I’ve definitely given in to the urge to watch classic games to pass the time and fill the dark hole in my soul where baseball usually brings light. I’ve watched a number of classic games aired on TV and on YouTube, with the exception of The Greatest Baseball Game Of All Time which I’m saving for the day when I need it most, the dark day when things in this world have taken their emotional toll and I have to reach deep to pull me out of the pit of sadness, anxiety, and despair.
But this week, it’s Game 7 of the 1991 World Series. It was a stunning, terrific World Series featuring two worst-to-first teams in the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves. It had drama (damn you, Kent Hrbek!) and outstanding performances galore. It also occupies this really weird space where it’s been revered as one of the better World Series but we don’t seem to talk about it that much unless it’s an anniversary. Maybe because (spoiler alert) the small market Twins team won? Maybe because since then the Yankees became dominant again and both the Red Sox and Cubs ended their historic droughts?
I don’t know. What I do know is this game is still capable of giving me heart palpitations almost 30 years later and I watched it live. It’s also one of the great pitcher duels in World Series history, Smoltz versus Morris. One for the ages.
That’s it for now.
Stay safe, stay sane, stay home.