With prompting from (and dedicated to) the Godfather of Canadian podcasting, @scarboroughdude of the Dicks'n'Janes podcast, I attempt to put my love for a musical group into words that will extend beyond copious clapping and the obligatory "WOOOOOOO!!!!"
Well, after a couple of months of MusicMonday podcasts, I've decided to enjoy myself. Tomorrow night, I'm going to see my favourite band, Phish, just south of Rochester, NY.
Lovehatethings is often about so many things that I rant and rave at. Today I want to share three songs with you that make me smile. I can say that many songs make me want to join in and sing, some want to make me play air guitar or drums. These three songs simply cause me to break out in an uncontrollable grin.
Apologies all around if you have a hard time getting your head around a three song, 45 minute set of tunes, but maybe something will click and you'll want to hear more.
If only by titles alone, how could you resist Harry Hood, Fluffhead, and Divided Sky?
I hope you dig it even a fraction as much as I do.
I love Phish. I'm a total phanboy. I know some of you may love your tech devices and all your gadgets, but having been to over 25 Phish shows in my life, I'm hooked.
Last year I missed Podcasters Across Borders 2009 to attend four Phish shows during their reunion tour, and I wasn't disappointed.
This year I missed three shows I would have gone to, and instead attended PAB2010, and I wasn't disappointed.
I just thought that after sharing so much on lovehatethings from a community of creators I grew to be a part of this past weekend at PAB2010, I'd share some content from my favourite musical creators.
Above is a great version of the song Tweezer from the experimental minds of the band, while below is their show closer of Tweezer Reprise. Both are fantastic recordings from the crowd and look and sound amazing. Thanks to HarpuaFSB for sharing on YouTube.
I've been a fan of the band Phish for well over a decade. They're a band whose popularity was the end result of social media even before the phrase became de rigeur. By allowing free recording of their shows and never repeating setlists, BBS news would spread every night of songs played, and within 24 hours, entire shows for free download would appear on FTP sites. The Phish newsgroups sometimes had 1000 posts a day and people used the web to arrange cassette and eventually CD trading vines.
After hundreds of shows and over 25 years, the band still has not lost its sense of humor or its ability to gravitate to an internet crowd. That they appreciate the need to advertise an upcoming tour on the web is, I suppose, expected. That they can find a way to do it that makes me smile and glad that I've already got tickets is a bonus.
Here's to a band that is willing to put money out for a fan base that is committed and will follow the band wherever they go. A band that's never had a song on the charts or a music video of note.
I applaud the effort. I love the cheekiness. I know that as long as a quarter-century old band can continue to be this creative, they will keep drawing new fans to shows. And isn't that a big part of what social and new media are all about?
I'm an unabashed fan of Phish, and I was really excited to find a quick way to embed the first track from their latest CD to share with lovehatethings readers. Get your hippie freak on and dance like 40,000 people are watching and dancing with you.
Just bought a Flip Ultra HD and tried it out for the first time at the Phish concert (Darien Lake, NY) last night. Like Posterous, it's dead simple to use. Have to pick up the obligatory proprietary HDMI cable to run the Flip directly into my TV. Going to test it out in Vegas in a few days.
Considering the new face (or non-face) of the modern orator, how to piss people off at bars, and my "trip" phollowing phish to Wisconsin via the Mars Cheese Castle.
Not much to say here other than I just got back from following Phish around for four shows and thought my mind wasn't impacted too much until I saw this pic. I then realized I could see music and time and that my eyes were smiling. Does everyone get the same motion trip from this image as I do? Very cool.
Yes you may think I'm at the butt end of a telephone game experiment and purple monkey dishwasher has already been done. You wouldn't think that the 3 words: Mars, Cheese, and Castle could go together.
When I think Mars, I tend to think of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Marvin the Martian, or a delectable nougaty chocolate confection suitable for frying by Scots.
When I think of Cheese, I tend to think of pizza, sense of humor, and boxes of Cheez-its (which I think used to be called Cheez Nips when I was growing up, but maybe someone complained about racial intonations).
When I think of Castles, I tend to think of chess, Harold and Kumar, and Nathan Fillion.
What I don't do is think of the three words together, yet driving at a snail's pace o'er the construction-laden interstates approaching Milwaukee, Wisconsin yesterday, I saw what I saw (and my friend Steve can back me up) and that was a larger than life sign which read MARS CHEESE CASTLE.
Now, of course, I was intrigued, but not enough to stop the car from our 5mph pace and find an exit ramp... perhaps I was thinking of the unlimited possibilities of the concept of a Mars Cheese Castle with Marvin the Martian as sole proprietor echoing the best lines of the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch when I got pulled over in Waterford, Wisconsin at 1am for speeding.
I got caught doing 20mph over the speed while travelling at 45mph... you do the math folks. That means the speed limit was 25mph. I was passed by a turtle and a snail out for a late night stroll when I got back on the road again.
The cop was actually very nice. He gave me a warning but told me my Windstar's license plate had come back with a citation on a Crown Victoria. I thought I had the plates new when I first leased a van nine years ago. If I had to guess however, I'd like to think the previous owner of my plates got caught storming the Mars Cheese Castle which was ably-protected by the Swiss Guard.
I would also like to think that if one got caught by the guards, they would throw you in the Mars Cheese Castle dungeon with limburger carpets. The only way you could get out was to eat the only thing that wasn't made of cheese - headcheese.
I'm going autobiographical on one of the most embarrassing, yet most genuinely enjoyable aspects of my life. I don't expect people to understand, but maybe it's something that everyone can relate to - at least on some level.
