Something Phishy

The gay pride parade may be rolling through the West Village as I type, but the weekend’s biggest coming out celebration actually took place on Stereogum.com. I’ve long suspected that the boys behind the web’s biggest indie-blog were closet jam-kids: not only are their jamband jabs littered with insider references (a choice quip: "anyone ever actually hear [moe.]? We remember "Rebubula" -- with its harmonizing-guitar head sounding like a bpm-boosted Allman's cut -- but beyond that our memory is cashed), but the site’s primary visionaries grew up in Long Island during the 1990s---a time when any music dork who spent way too much time on the internet probably stumbled into a Phish show or two while buying a new baja. But, on Friday Sterogum finally came out and said what we all already knew: they want their Phish back. Maybe even more than the the hippies, who seem to have universally claimed My Morning Jacket, Wilco and Radiohead as their arena-size saviors.

I've always liked a wide range of music, from punk to pop to---of course---Phish, so I’m not sure why it makes me so happy to out my favorite indie-bands 'n bloggers as retired jamband kids. Maybe it’s because I'm fed up with the now invisible border between Bonnaroo and Coachella or maybe it's because I've seen one too many of my former Phish-head friends switch stylistic teams in the name of the hype-machine. Or maybe it's because, at the end of the day, musical genres are tied to the times as much as they are social cliques, meaning that trends come and go, age and evolve, lineally along pop-culture's X/Y axis.

No matter what the reason, I hope you all enjoy this post as much as I did when my good friend and fellow post-jam aficionado Jon Bahr sent it to me late Friday night (fittingly enough, after we saw the P-J holy trinity of Cold War Kids, Elvis Perkins and Sam Champion at Prospect Park, complete with a sit in by Guster’s Brian Rosenworcel).

Since its filled with enough obtuse Phish facts to qualify as Greenhaus Effect.com post, I also encourage you to break out that dusty copy of the Pharmer's Alamnac to reference while you read. Who knows? You might need it for tour sooner than you think anyway!

Below: My Phish tour crew, pre-Post-Jam
Pop quiz for my older friends: Of the following people, since this picture was taken which person has:

1) Publicly performed with a Disco Biscuit
2) Casted a TV game show
3) Ran a burlesque club
4) Befriended Trey (for real)
5) Tied the knot
6) Had a kid
7) spelled his own name wrong on more than one occasion
8) offered to give me a ride to Rothbury (I hope that offer still stands)
9) taught over 300 students
10) learned to dress like a hipster, but still dreads easily after a long night out