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JoeGamo05
Chatterbox
279 Posts |
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Zachmozach
Fluffy-Esque
USA
1534 Posts |
 Posted - 05/25/2004 : 7:49:03 PM
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| Well now I'm just really pissed I didn't go see them last summer. Damn! Well it's probably about time anyway I think they have run their course. I listened to that new single connection and it sounds like freebird to me. They put out lots a good tunes though over the years and for that I'm glad. Just pissed I never saw them live. |
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dan p.
Alien Abductee
Uganda
3776 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2004 : 8:41:48 PM
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i've seen them live. i'm probably going to get thunder thumped for this, but i don't think they're that great. sure they're all talented but some of the songs are really boring and directionless. i can really only watch someone, however good, take a solo for so long before i start wishing that something heavy would fall on one of us. real long solos are hard to keep interesting to a crowd that isn't high.
conversely, slipknot has gotten back together, and they're playing near me next weekend with slayer. imagine that for just a second. slipknot and slayer. i'll be there. with a fucking baseball bat. worthless. |
death to false metal. |
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Fleabass76
Fluffy-Esque
USA
1026 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2004 : 10:01:18 PM
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| I wonder if this has anything to do with the Mike Gordon taking pictures of a little girl episode? What ever came out of that, anyone know? |
Robots are the enemy? Hmm... |
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Arthen
Alien Abductee
USA
4845 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2004 : 10:10:37 PM
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I understand where you are coming from Dan, some of it like the thirty minute YEMs with vocal jamming got tiresome, but their controlled pieces like The Divided Sky and Run Like an Antelope are just amazing.
I'm sad. Now I'll have to wait until they are all 80, then they'll play that last concert. |
Steve Hackett: "I'm my own opening act, you see."
Tim (before "Faceoff"): "Peace, love....and SEX!"
cbenc41@hotmail.com |
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thomasode
Yak Addict
565 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2004 : 8:56:45 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Arthen
I'm sad. Now I'll have to wait until they are all 80, then they'll play that last concert.
HAHA! I read that somewhere (I think RS?) too. I really respect Phish for doing this. It takes alot to say that they dont want to become, what Trey said, "a nostalgic act". I think that some bands could get a lesson from this. I think too many bands go on waaayyy past their time, and end up selling out and getting on a Jaguar comercial. I loved Phish before, I always will love um, and I have an infinite amount of respect for them now. |
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Zachmozach
Fluffy-Esque
USA
1534 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2004 : 9:28:06 PM
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| I think they are also doing this to affirm to everyone that they are not the grateful dead. |
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victorwootenfan
Alien Abductee
USA
2128 Posts |
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Zachmozach
Fluffy-Esque
USA
1534 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2004 : 10:32:44 PM
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| I don't really like that connection song from the new album but the two others were ok. If you go to their site they have a link to listen to some stuff. |
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victorwootenfan
Alien Abductee
USA
2128 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2004 : 10:41:57 PM
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oh yeah, here's a recent pbs interview with trey, might catch your fancy....
Phish Will Disband; Professor Stanley Hoffmann Discusses America, Iraq and the Future
Charlie Rose
10,030 words
26 May 2004
PBS: The Charlie Rose Show
English
© 2004 by FDCH / eMedia. All rights reserved.
CHARLIE ROSE: Welcome to the broadcast. We begin this evening with an announcement today that has stunned the rock`n`roll world. Trey Anastasio announced that Phish will disband. The band will disband at the conclusion of its already announced tour. We`ll hear from Trey this evening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TREY ANASTASIO, PHISH: The experience of the concerts, when we spent five hours a day practicing, when we lived and breathed Phish was beyond intimate. It really was. And I don`t know that people who didn`t see Phish really could understand that. But I know the people who did go see Phish do. I know that there`s probably some anger now because we`re taking that away.
But what I saw happening is that it was going away naturally. We`re all growing up and starting to have lives. And so we were putting less and less effort into it. And personally I would like to see it respected by stopping, doing 13 more shows, as the best we can, and then letting it be, letting it go, and moving on and having the rest of our lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE ROSE: Also this evening, professor Stanley Hoffmann of Harvard talks about America, Iraq and the future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STANLEY HOFFMANN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: We`ve always had a tendency to underestimate the nationalism of others. We`ve made the same mistake, it seems to me, in Vietnam, or obviously in Cuba. And I think we`ve made exactly the same mistake again in Iraq. We thought that just because we were getting rid of Saddam, they would be grateful. And we find that they don`t like being occupied. That there is a very strong national feeling, even in a nation which is rather problematic, given its past and its divisions. But they do not like a prolonged occupation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE ROSE: Trey Anastasio and Stanley Hoffmann, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHARLIE ROSE: Trey Anastasio is here. He is, as many of you know, a founding member of Phish, a band "Rolling Stone" magazine called "the most important band of the `90s." They began in 1983, playing pubs in their native Vermont, and slowly developed a devoted fan base, much as the Grateful Dead had done a generation before. Without heavy radio play or music videos, the four members of Phish achieved success through constant touring. Here is a look at one of their New Year`s Eve`s shows.
(MUSIC)
CHARLIE ROSE: Twenty-one years, 1,100 live shows and 11 studio albums later, the band has decided to call it quits. I`m pleased to welcome Trey to this table for the first time to talk about the Phish phenomenon and the fact that they have come to the decision to stop.
Can I get you to change your mind? A little bit of nostalgia watching this.
TREY ANASTASIO: Yeah, I was. I was going to say, no, you won`t be able to get me to. But watching that clip of Madison Square Garden, you can get me to be sad in a certain way seeing that, you know. But I know it`s the right choice. I just know it is.
CHARLIE ROSE: Why?
TREY ANASTASIO: I think that -- OK, I`m going to say this, and I desperately want to show respect to our audience, who has been so great, beyond, and I know that people are confused by this probably to some degree, but if you step back and look at it -- we started when I was 18. I`m 40 years old. I have two kids. So do the other guys, you know, have kids now.
CHARLIE ROSE: Mick Jagger is 60 years old and he`s got more than two.
TREY ANASTASIO: That`s true. It`s not that. I don`t want to really put it on it, but I think it`s a feeling that for 18 years, the first 18 probably, it was the center of everything. We didn`t build in any -- I`m just going to say -- we didn`t build in vacations or any place to have a life outside of Phish. And I see bands that last a long time -- we -- when we walked in here, we were talking about Bruce Springsteen as an example. There have been periods of time when he`s been at home. Right?
CHARLIE ROSE: He`s in one of those periods right now.
TREY ANASTASIO: He is. But we never really did that. And I think that, you know, we have a large organization, probably 20 or 30 employees in Burlington, a large office. And this thing needs -- it needs us to keep touring. But that`s not the real reason.
CHARLIE ROSE: So family. That`s a reason but not the real reason.
TREY ANASTASIO: It`s a reason.
CHARLIE ROSE: You need to keep touring to support an infrastructure. That`s a reason but not the real reason.
TREY ANASTASIO: Well, I`m saying that because I`ve been going through that over the last two years, is this the reason? And I think I eventually got to the point where for the four of us, we wanted Phish to always -- we want it to be the center of everything. And when it is, it`s so incredible. And when it was it was so incredible. The experience of the concerts, when we spent five hours a day practicing, when we lived and breathed Phish was beyond intimate. It really was. And I don`t know that people who didn`t see Phish really could understand that. But I know the people who did go see Phish do. And I know that there`s probably some anger now because we`re taking that away, but what I saw happening is that it was going away naturally.
We`re all growing up and starting to have lives. And so we are putting less and less effort into it. And personally I would like to see it respected by stopping, doing 13 more shows, as the best we can, and then letting it be, letting it go, and moving on and having the rest our lives.
CHARLIE ROSE: I certainly don`t want to put words in your mouth, but I hear you saying, this thing that we had created was so much -- we honored it so much, we believed in it, we sacrificed for it. It was enormously good to us. We had a fan base that loved us and came to different concerts. Each of them was a new experience. But what it might have come to is that you were not, in your own judgment -- what you are doing now was not -- didn`t have something that was there before.
TREY ANASTASIO: Yeah. Yeah.
CHARLIE ROSE: And what was that?
TREY ANASTASIO: That was a hard thing to admit.
CHARLIE ROSE: What was it?
TREY ANASTASIO: Some kind of focus. I mean, it started -- this is in my opinion the truth of what happened, is we went through this millennium concert, Big Cypress in Florida. We played all night. We played from -- we played actually two days, but the last set was from 1:15 or something on the, you know, New Year`s Eve until 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning. It was incredible. And it was for me, the greatest -- it was the pinnacle.
And when we came off stage, I looked at our drummer, Fish, and my best friend, and just a man I love dearly, and we looked at each other, and we both had tears in our eyes. We were like, we should stop. It just felt like the wave had crashed into the shore. And we didn`t. But we went on for about another year, and then we took this hiatus as an attempt to revitalize. And when we came back, it was just different, you know, and..
CHARLIE ROSE: And you knew then.
TREY ANASTASIO: I think so.
CHARLIE ROSE: You knew that it wasn`t quite the same.
TREY ANASTASIO: Not quite the same.
CHARLIE ROSE: Not that it would end, but it wasn`t quite the same.
TREY ANASTASIO: Yeah, and not to say that it isn`t good still, but it was so good and it was so beautiful and lucky, it was so lucky. We were so lucky. It just doesn`t happen. I don`t know. When I think about it.
CHARLIE ROSE: The magic.
TREY ANASTASIO: Yeah. I mean, we were playing in this little band around Burlington and all of a sudden this, you know? And I want to look at it like that. And I look at all -- when we were in our meeting on Friday talking about this, I was the one....
CHARLIE ROSE: A meeting called by you?
TREY ANASTASIO: Called by me, yes. Where I went in and said I -- I pretty much I went in and said I can`t do this anymore.
CHARLIE ROSE: Now, were they surprised?
TREY ANASTASIO: Yeah, they were surprised.
CHARLIE ROSE: They didn`t know it was coming, they thought we were talking about the tour, we were talking about something -- business?
TREY ANASTASIO: They each thought we were talking about something else. They knew there was something going on. And it`s important to acknowledge the fact that I`ve been incredibly tired over the last four years. The thing has been wearing me down. And my mother and my wife and my dad and everybody has been trying to -- you know, you can`t do this anymore, you`ve got to stop.
So they weren`t surprised that I called the meeting. As a matter of fact, the first thing out of Page`s mouth was, I`m so happy that you`re having the foresight to say this, because I`ve been watching you -- and he was saying he was exhausted, so since he`s not the center of this whole thing, he had been calling me for the last few months, you know -- and we`re friends. We love each other. And he`s been seeing this going on. And it was just tiring, 21 years, you know? So -- but I think he was thinking maybe we`re going to ax the whole organization or something like that. When I said that, though, it only took about a couple of minutes before most of the other guys jumped right in with me and said they were on my side.
CHARLIE ROSE: OK, that`s really one of the important questions. Most of the other guys.
TREY ANASTASIO: Most.
CHARLIE ROSE: Some exceptions?
TREY ANASTASIO: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: Who?
TREY ANASTASIO: Mike.
CHARLIE ROSE: Mike. Didn`t want to do it?
TREY ANASTASIO: No.
CHARLIE ROSE: Didn`t believe it was the right thing to do.
TREY ANASTASIO: Yeah. And I want to be very careful to not put words into his mouth. But I also don`t want to paint a picture that we are this gleeful little club of people who all want to stop. I think he was a little bit -- you know, he didn`t say that he was in disagreement, but he said, "I`m not completely on the same page with you guys. I think that we could through work maybe find a way to revitalize this thing again and find that magic."
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you believe that? I.e. that the magic might -- you might have been able to find it? Or do you believe it was just gone and you were a fool not to recognize it?
TREY ANASTASIO: Well, I don`t believe it would be possible without -- we would need an enormous amount of distance, because we`ve been completely existing as human beings within the context of a group dynamic. And that`s becoming over the years more of a group dynamic. In the beginning, you know, it wasn`t as much of a democracy as it became. Which is fine, but which starts to get tiring.
CHARLIE ROSE: It got to be more of a democracy.
TREY ANASTASIO: And more of a democracy spreading out. Not just the four of us anymore. The example I use is -- I see that you have our new album over there.
CHARLIE ROSE: I do.
TREY ANASTASIO: And we spent about a week....
CHARLIE ROSE: This is yours and this is the new album.
TREY ANASTASIO: That`s my new album, that`s the Phish album. Deciding whether to put that square box around the word Phish, on the Phish cover. And it was about 20 different people chiming in and going in meetings in the office. And by contrast, when that album came out, you know, I made the cover. It was easy and fun. And everything is like a giant boat. Do you know what I`m saying? That in order to turn it, it`s gotten so big. And it`s not anyone`s fault, because everyone that`s involved -- I think it`s a natural occurrence, and I think that if we were to step away with pride now, we could then 10 years from now or 20 look back and think, I was part of something that was magic from the beginning to the end. I didn`t do what virtually all of the people that I admire seem to do, which is let it go on longer than it should.
CHARLIE ROSE: Tell me more about what you thought was lost, because all of our fans -- let me just read you some e-mail that I received today because they knew you were coming here.
"Why, Trey, why?" Three words. This is -- you know?
"I just want you to know how thankful we are as a community, a community that would not exist if it weren`t for you. Thank you."
"A question for Trey: How could they decide to just quit suddenly, not even have a farewell tour to say goodbye to everyone else in the country?" Well, there will be some of that.
TREY ANASTASIO: There will be, yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: "The fans are what made Phish what they are. Successful touring band does not become a success unless they" -- of course we know that.
Why was the statement on Phish.com from you and you alone?
TREY ANASTASIO: I can answer that.
CHARLIE ROSE: OK.
TREY ANASTASIO: OK. We talked about that, at length. Because other times in our history, we`ve tried to make a statement as a group, and it gets watered down. I don`t know if you ever saw the Doonsbury cartoon, "War is bad?" That one. That`s what happened.
And so we had a vote. And then we actually talked about who should do it, and Fish was the one who came forward and said, it`s got to be you, it just has to be. And so we did. Page wrote one too. And we talked about it. And they wanted to use mine.
And the idea was that I just tried to be as honest as possible in this, knowing that everyone else is going to have a chance to talk.
CHARLIE ROSE: This is on your Web site, obviously. The official break-up notice written by Trey. "Last Friday night, I got together with Mike, Page and Fish, to talk openly about the strong feelings I`ve been having that Phish had run its course and that we should end it now while we`re still on a high note.
Once we started talking, it quickly became apparent that the other guys` feelings, while not all the same as mine, were similar in many ways." Which you`ve said.
"Most importantly, we all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don`t want to become caricatures of ourselves."
Did you feel that you were there or getting there?
TREY ANASTASIO: Getting there.
CHARLIE ROSE: Not there, but getting there.
TREY ANASTASIO: I feel like -- this is the honest truth -- and I would like to say this to whoever is listening that loves Phish, and I love Phish. OK? Nobody loves Phish more than me. I want to say that. I understand. You know what I mean? But in the last two years, there were a lot of moments where we were getting sloppy. We don`t practice as much. And it`s natural. It`s not anybody`s fault. But I don`t want to see that. You know what I mean?
And I think that these people who are writing in, I feel -- it`s hard for me, because when I play, I look out at the audience. I really want inclusiveness at our concerts. I think that`s obvious. I look to the last row and I try to include people. So I`m with them. I miss it, too. You know what I mean? But it`s natural.
And I also think -- this is just something I`m going to say. One of the things I`ve noticed since I made this announcement is that everybody over 30 thinks it`s great, and everybody under 30 doesn`t understand, or not everybody but people....
CHARLIE ROSE: Everybody over 30 thinks it`s great?
TREY ANASTASIO: Yes, for the most part. I haven`t seen people closer -- I`m 39. People closer to my age who don`t totally understand.
CHARLIE ROSE: What is it you think they understand?
TREY ANASTASIO: They understand life from the point of view of a....
CHARLIE ROSE: In other words, they have long enough lived a life to know that certain things, no matter how beautiful.
TREY ANASTASIO: Have to go. You`ve got to let them go.
CHARLIE ROSE: Change -- that human beings change, that your life changes. New people enter your life. New ideas, new experiences, new directions, new forks in the road and all of that.
TREY ANASTASIO: Right, and that the -- and that the -- and that the gravity, the inertia of something this big is to make you be who you were 10 years ago. Whether you want to admit it or not, it is. It`s like I saw you guys 10 years ago and it was X. You know, even just the yelling from the crowd, "do that old song. Do that old song." And it`s great. I like it. But at a certain point, you feel like this is not inertia that is pushing you to grow and change as a human being.
I listened this morning to the Road Runners, you know, I mean -- the Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers` version of this song they do called "Dignified and Old." And it`s, "hey, kids, hey, kids, some day I`d be dignified and old." Well, I was, you know, thinking this is the greatest song ever written, that you know, this -- this gravity towards pulling you to what you were doing when you were 18 or 20 years old is not coinciding with what I know that I`m feeling at this point in time. Now, we tried as much as we could as a foursome to progress and age gracefully.
CHARLIE ROSE: Have you been talking this out with anybody before you walked into that room today?
TREY ANASTASIO: Yeah.
CHARLIE ROSE: Who?
TREY ANASTASIO: Well, I hadn`t gotten to the point where I was verbalizing it clearly. But certainly my family and some of my real close friends who had been addressing me about it. You know, not about stopping Phish but something has got to give, because you look exhausted. Page has been calling me regularly for the last year, and not just me but him too. Both of us, you know. And just as an example. And like I said, I mean, they`re going to have a chance to speak for themselves, but I think you`ll find that it wasn`t that surprising when I brought it up.
CHARLIE ROSE: Here -- this idea ought to be expressed also. You guys had it the way everybody wants it to be.
TREY ANASTASIO: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: You -- everything was on your own terms.
TREY ANASTASIO: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: Everything was on your own term. You lived where you wanted to live. You made the decisions you wanted to make.
TREY ANASTASIO: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: You sang what you wanted to sing. There was no record producer. There was no anybody saying, Phish will do this.
TREY ANASTASIO: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: You know, you guys had it the way most musicians, most creative artists would love it to be.
TREY ANASTASIO: Right, and that`s the point. This is the last example of that. And I want to look back on this -- and I know this is right. So that`s what you`re saying is exactly it. We made the decisions. No one is going to tell us what to do. And so 20 years from now when I look back on this, I want to know that we did the right thing. And that -- what we had was beyond lucky. It was like you`re saying, I mean, we`re aware of that. I count my blessings every morning. I can`t believe that such a situation arose. But I think that needs respect, that kind of a situation.
CHARLIE ROSE: We also have to say this, you got -- I am going to finish with your statement. "Coventry show will be the final Phish show. We are proud and thrilled that it will be in our home state of Vermont. We`re excited for the June and August shows, our last tour together. For the sake of clarity, I should say that this is not like the hiatus, which was our last attempt to revitalize ourselves. We`re done."
How do you like it when I say those words? We`re done.
TREY ANASTASIO: Well.
CHARLIE ROSE: It`s been -- and go ahead.
TREY ANASTASIO: I like it. That`s the hard thing. I haven`t had any doubts about this. I`ve had people express their anger to me in the past. It`s been hard for me to -- I`m a person that wants people to feel good. So I respond. And I`ve been feeling that I`ve gotten to a point in my life where I can`t do that anymore. It`s not serving anyone for me not to be honest.
CHARLIE ROSE: I believe you. And you end by saying this -- and I give you credit. "We thank you all for the love and support that you`ve shown us."
I mean, your final bow ought to be to the audience. Without them, there is no Phish. You don`t seem to have any doubt. You`re not thinking, oh, my God, you know, I`m going to say this the way I`m saying, we`re done, it`s over, we`re not playing games here, folks. This is it. If you want to see Phish, now is the time to come, you know. You`re saying, we`re not worried about our commercials because as we knew, that was there, that was riding strong. You know, we`ve had good tours. People are coming to see us. We decided to make this. There is no sense of you saying, oh, look, I`ve got some time here. I might change my mind. I don`t know what`s going to happen.
TREY ANASTASIO: No. No.
CHARLIE ROSE: You know, I may fall back in love with it. We might rediscover the magic, you know, a month from now.
TREY ANASTASIO: No, that`s not going to happen.
CHARLIE ROSE: . and when we do that, something could turn us around. And you know, don`t give up yet, folks -- there is always -- I have to say this. This is what I believe. I`m sure this is the course I`m on. But, you know, as long as we`re out there performing, something could change our mind and, you know?
TREY ANASTASIO: I have never been so sure about anything in my life. It took -- no, I know this is the right thing. I know it. You know, I don`t know -- one person sent in a letter and said, oh, this is your -- Trey`s ego -- egomania or something, you know. And what I thought about that was that I think people feel like we`re pulling the rug out from under them or something.
But how can I explain this? I have to at a certain point make decisions based on what I know is true in my heart. If I`m not doing something that`s true, honest and from my heart, it`s not going to resonate. And that`s what an artist is supposed to do. So when I saw you interview Bruce Springsteen, I thought, you know, he did "Born in the USA," and then he left the E Street Band and did "Nebraska." And then he went home and recorded -- stayed home for eight years, and then he went back on the road for eight gazillion shows. And that`s the way it goes. You know, you have to follow your heart. If you`re making decisions based on keeping a bunch of people employed, I think that eventually that`s going to start to sound stale, no matter how badly you want it to....
CHARLIE ROSE: Inevitably.
TREY ANASTASIO: Yeah. And so I just -- I probably, you know, I feel like from Big Cypress to the end was a lot of exploring on everybody`s part. And the hiatus was an attempt to say, OK, well, let`s break the whole thing down and maybe we`ll come back and maybe we won`t. That`s what we said. You know? But of course everybody was just like, is it next week? And anything you did was a kind of intrusion on the Phish world. If somebody went out and did a tour or an album, a little bit, it was kind of like, well, it`s good but it`s not Phish.
But you know, to speak about the other guys, I was proud to watch Mike, for instance, do an album with Leo Kottke, who is one of my heroes, and go on tour with him. You`re holding up that album there. I mean, I`m not -- I`m completely, utterly sure. And I also am pretty confident that some day people, if they don`t get it already, will.
CHARLIE ROSE: This is part one of a conversation that Trey and I have. Part two will be a look back at Phish and look at some of the things that he`s doing now. I wanted him here to talk about this, because lots of people have sent me lots of questions that they had about it. Part one of our conversation with Trey. Part two will be seen later this week in which we`ll look at the band and its place and what the best moments have been for him. All of that.
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www.myspace.com/smileymnbass
http://itunes.apple.com/us/preorder/quartet-art/id423870767
www.mattsmiley.blogpost.com |
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JTR
Chatterbox
417 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2004 : 02:36:21 AM
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| I too, as an on and off fan, am sad to see them go. But, the fact that they're breaking up now instead of about 5 years ago is unfortunate. Most of the material they've released from just before their hiatus to now has been mediocre. The output from Farmhouse was kind of bland as well, but of course there have been good bits. Seems like they were trying to prolong the band instead of face that they'd run their course. Oh well. RIP Phish. |
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dan p.
Alien Abductee
Uganda
3776 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2004 : 12:01:04 PM
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| i like farmhouse more than the other releases. |
death to false metal. |
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Zachmozach
Fluffy-Esque
USA
1534 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2004 : 2:08:08 PM
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| Well the newer phish and post hiatus phish is definitely different from the early stuff but I don't think it's worse or better. I really liked some of the complex compositions like reba and YEM, but I think they just gravitated away from that. I like Round Room and Farmhouse a lot though. Styles change though. |
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phish is breaking up
