As we’ve been telling you endlessly over the past few weeks, we’ve got two Joy Boxes to giveaway and we’re giving our readers eight chances to win. The Joy Box – the most ambitious Phish release ever – includes a CD of Joy plus 10 posters, an extensive booklet as well as Party Time and a DVD featuring some of Phish’s live performances from the first half of 2009.
Today, we’ve got question number six of eight and each answer you give will count as one entry in the contest. That’s right, you can enter eight times by answering all eight questions. Just don’t get greedy and answer the same question twice. This contest will run until September 25, 2009 at 11:59PM. Just follow the rules below and we’ll announce our winners on 9/28:
- To enter the contest leave a comment below telling us about the first Phish album you ever heard and what you thought of it
- All comments must be longer than 10 words and shorter than 50
- Your comment must be left by 11:59 PM EST on Friday, Sept. 25
- Don’t be greedy, only one entry per person, per question
- Winners will be selected at random from all entries to all 8 questions
- Winners receive one copy of the Joy Box each
So there you have it. As you see, question #6 is “what was the first Phish album you ever heard and what did you think about it at the time?” Keep on checking Hidden Track for question #7.
- HT Joy Box Giveaway: Question #1, Question #2, Question #3, Question # 4, Question #5
- Previously on HT: Joy Review, Festival 8 Giveaway
- Dry Goods: Joy Box Pre-order
140 Responses
Lawn Boy was the first Phish album I had ever heard. I was in an “alternate reality” at the time, and I loved it right off the bat. I went out and bought the tape the next day.
lawnboy
it was all bout baggin it, and taggin it
hooked
Lawn Boy was the first one I heard. The Coil -> Reba salvo blew me away. The Antelope was also pretty eye-opening.
JUNTA ,,it was refreshing..new..i was very excited to hear something different
The first album I heard was Lawn Boy. I was introduced by Groucho who is about four posts below me. When I heard them singing tag it , bag it I thought it was the dumbest shit I had ever heard. Boy, was I wrong!!
Hoist was the first Phish album I ever heard. My sister would play it when she drove me to school in the eighth grade. I thought, and still think, that it’s a great album filled with some of my still favorite Phish tunes.
Picture of Nectar. I was laid up in bed after a surgery as a sophomore in high school, filled with pain killers, and loved it.
I think the first one I heard all the way through was Hoist. Perfect for those afternoon rides after a long day of high school.
Junta was my first, and I thought it was amazing, adventurous, eclectic, and fun. Long time ago!
While camping out to buy Grateful Dead tickets a local wook told me to pick up the new album by Phish. Well the store opened, I got my Dead tickets and picked up Hoist. I listened to it on the way home and LOVED it. I was an instant phan…
my first album was junta, and i liked it cuz it was “weird” only to walk right out to the cd store when the cd was finished and bought live one and hoist.
Freshman year of high school i randomly picked up Farmhouse from the library, went home and fell in love with it! to this day when i hear certain studio tracks it makes me think of being a freshman in hs and how awkward it was but i didnt care cause i had my phish lol
Junta in a college dorm room, my first show followed 5 months later and I was hooked.
Junta… Halfway through You Enjoy Myself my entire vision of muisc changed…
Junta… Halfway through You Enjoy Myself my entire vision of music changed…
Nectar was my initial foray. I remember hearing “Stash,” and asking my friend, “Which Santana album is this?”
I stole a cd from my best friend’s brother’s room in eighth grade. I put it in my walkman that night and fell in love. It was Hoist (thank god!). When I finally got the courage to return his cd, he asked how I liked it and then introduced me to more.
Heard lawnboy in highschool around 90 and thought this was zappa’s side project. Couldn’t get enough of it. Wore that tape out .
Rift was the first album I ever heard. Weigh was the first song off the album that I heard. I thought it great. So glad by friend’s brother brought that tape to work that day, changed my life.
Rift – was intrigued by the cover art and found it so cool how each song bled into the next. Then MFMF hit and that was that.
I heard Rift during my senior year of high school, and once I heard Maze, I was hooked. My first show, GSAC 7/2/94 followed shortly and it was all over.
Freshman year of college I was at a new friends house and he played Character Zero and then proceeded to play the rest of Billy Breathes. I was both confused and excited. I made it to my first show in Ames and haven’t looked back.
Nectar. As soon as I heard Cavern I couldn’t stop listening to this band who sang out ribbon reflectors.
My friend G handed me a cassette in college with lawn Boy on one side and another album, which I don’t remember, on the other. This was the fall of 1990. I had already been to 2 shows but hadn’t heard any phish albums previously. LOVED IT!
A Live One. When I heard ‘Bouncing Around the Room’ with Phish’s vocal weaving at the end, I knew I stumbled upon a great thing.
junta in my best friends older brothers car.
junta, as soon as YEM came on i was sold
junta, in my best friends older brothers car. not sure at first, but stuck with me for sure
I can’t remember. I feel like it was Hoist but it wasn’t yet released when I started listening to Phish. In either case, back in 9th grade I thought Hoist was far superior to Rift. Oh, freshman year…
Rift – thought it was okay, but was way more into the Dead until I “got” Phish at my fifth show more than a year later.
Picture of Nectar. My friends and I listened with our jaws on the floor, amazed at the musicianship and diversity of styles.
junta on cassette, after i heard fluffhead it was into the abyss i went, never to return to average music!
technically it was a bootleg of an early show..march 87 i believe, but if we are going for studio, junta of course!!
Rift. I was so confused for many months. Then figured it all out at a show.
The first Phish album I heard was Rift, and I loved it!
Lawn Boy. Remember thinking it was really weird and yet very cool all at the same time.
Junta. It reminded me of They Might Be Giants.
The first album I heard was Lawn Boy. Back in 1992, I was only listening to The Grateful Dead until my brother and I saw a band we never heard of for the first time with maybe 250 other people. Going into this show, I had never heard of PHISH. Needless to say, all i did was laugh and dance as these guys played song names like Suzy Greenberg, Run Like an Antelope, Lawn Boy, Bouncing Around the Room and You Enjoy Myself. I thus went out and bought Lawn Boy and I have never looked back.
Rift. March 1993. I was blown away by the combination of grand piano and distorted wailing guitar. My immediate thought was “I need more.”
the first full phish album i heard was “the story of the ghost” and it’s still my favorite record of theirs. the production is simply gorgeous and it captures that 97/98 sound perfectly. those were the days…
A Live One.
That “harry hood” has a place in my heart that very few songs have
The first Phish album I ever heard was Billy Breathes, and I thought it was incredible from start to finish.
Lawn Boy was the first…and I didn’t know what to think. But weeks later I came upon one of my brothers imported cd bootlegs (remember those bad boys?) and once Mike’s started I knew that it was all over for me 🙂
Lawn Boy… I really didn’t know what to think. I thought it was pretty weird, but there was something that kept me coming back. After a few weeks it became one of my favorite albums ever… Run like an antelope out of control!
Farmhouse. My friend gave me the album on a cassette tape and I thought it was amazing. He always talked about them and now I knew why. It was a great feeling. I went out and bought the whole catalog the next day
*Picture of Nectar* I had heard snippets from Rift and picked up nectar. definitely did not get it at first, a bit much for my 12 year old mind…
Junta – it was Phantastic!
Rift and thought it was very mature and technical music. I was 15 soon after I saw them live and completely changed the way I thought of them.
A Live One and my first thought I remember being something along the lines of “Where has this been for the last 15 years of my life!”
Junta was the first album I heard while I was riding around in my buddy’s Vanagon. His last name was Jahnigen, and yes it was the Jahnigen Vanagon. I loved Fee on first listen, which is so unlike the other tracks, but one further listen Divided Sky and Ester just took me to another place!!
Picture of nectar – I remember thinking “they repeat words a lot”
Lawn Boy- the original release with Fee on it. I felt like I just HAD to see them, and I did a few weeks later Ithaca and Rochester 9/26 and 9/27 1991- needless to say I was hooked.
Junta, as we were driving to our second show in Columbia, SC in 1990. Christy (Anastasio) Manning was in the car with us, and we were the only three in the audience that night. What a night!
Lawn Boy-
These guys are oddd
My step-dad had Junta so I listened to that. I was probably about 11 but I really loved the album. Esther actually creeped me out a bit though. I absolutely loved Fee and YEM. Little did I know at the time that this band would still be my favorite today.
My first album was Junta. I heard it at summer camp up the in the woods of New Hampshire around 89 or 90. My counselors were all musicphiles with extensive Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Doors, Beatles, and Grateful Dead, and Phish collections. The song that initially stuck in my head was contact, just due to the weird subject matter, but fee and esther became favorites because of the oddball stories. Fee was the first phish song I ever wanted to know. Though my music tastes grew to sort of mirror those early exposures throughout my time in high school, I never got it until my first show in 98.
Picture of Nectar. I am not sure what my first thoughts of it were, but I know I listened to that album a lot in college!
I first heard Farmhouse when I was a junior in high school and I immediately loved it. I had just seen Phish live for the first time and Farmhouse got me sucked into getting all other Phish albums immediately.
Lawn Boy was the first album I ever listened to. I just remember cracking up and replaying Reba over and over again.
first one was lawn boy and i could play it on and on at this time.
Rift. Coming from a metal/prog background I really enjoyed the darker moments. I also learned “The Horse” on guitar.
Junta was the first album I heard. It was 1989 at a house in Bartlett, NH, a friend of mine who went to Lyndon State in Lyndon, VT introduced it to a bunch of us. In the next weeks I would see my first show at the Front and the rest is history.
Rift. Freshman year of college, 1994. A guy I knew put on “Maze” and said: “They’re singing about being on acid and being lost in a maze!!!”. I was immediately curious.
Lawn Boy, August 1991…I was warping reality when a friend found out and made me listen. …and the rest is history.
Junta…heard it at overnight camp and all I really remember was Fee. Thought these guys are weird, but I should see what they have to offer.
The first Phish album I ever heard was Junta. At the time I really did not like the bad sound of the original tape I got and thought the guitar work was loud and annoying. Since then I have seen the light
Hampton Comes Alive from the library. Loved YEM and some others but took me a little while to fully get it.
Picture of Nectar summer 1993. I just graduated from High School and my girlfriend (at the time) turned me on to them. I was amazed by their diversity, from Chalkdust, to Magilla, Landlady. Such good memories from that summer, but that album and was to core to most of them.
The first album I ever heard was Lawn Boy. I remember thinking “what the fuck?”…and then I fell in love.
The first album I heard was “Rift” and was hooked by the time I got to “Wedge.”
Nectar and on Llama I was like what the hell are they saying?
The first album I heard was A Live One. I was blown away from Bouncing Around The Room till The Squirming Coil.
hoist– “why does their music sound so happy? can we turn on alice ‘n chains?”
the first phish album i heard was rift. i didn’t like it all that much until i got my hands on a copy of picture of nectar shortly afterwards, which flipped the phish-switch in my brain.
The first album that I ever heard was Hoist. I loved it, and haven’t stopped listening to Phish since.
The first phish album I ever heard was “A Live One”. I was going on a religious retreat to Stubensville, Ohio and before I left a brothers friend of mine said, “you might need this” needless to say it was just what I needed to get through the weekend.
Picture of Nectar and my mind was blown. Although, maybe that was a side effect of the acid.
A Live One. Changed what I knew about music. The vocal jam at the end of YEM was a revelation.
I borrwoed the Lawn Boy cassette from my friend’s sister and totally dug it. I never gave it back.
The Story of the Ghost. I can remember thinking that this music sounds really comfortable to me like i somehow was meant for the phishyness.
Junta- I was a little unsure about Phish for a long time and didn’t really get how Deadheads (which I considered myself) were into Phish too. I thought they were “fun” at the time.
I first heard Junta. I had no idea what I was listening to and I think I must have not listened to it for a least 4-5 months. But the next time I did listen to it, it never came out of the cd player!
1st Phish album was A Live One and it was basically YEM that blew my mind. I used to listen to just that one song on repeat.
I remember hearing Rift at a friend’s place. It was like nothing else I’d ever heard.
I was on a road trip circa 91-92 to go skiing in Vermont and my good friend said to me, “wanna hear some good travelling music?” I said sure, and he popped in Junta. At first I didn’t get it. But he left it in my car and I soon couldn’t get enough. Fluffhead and David Bowie changed my life, literally.
It’s really hard to remember the first studio album, but I think it was Hoist. I thought it was pretty catchy.
The first Phish album I heard was “The White Tape.” I loved Alumni Blues, AC/DC Bag, and a few others. But about halfway through NO2, I remember thinking “What the hell is going on right now?”
I first listened to Hoist and remembered how funny and different the music was compared to all the mainstream MTV music I was previously exposed to.
I remember sitting in my friends room and listening to Picture of Nectar. I thought the lyrics at the end of Cavern were so cool. Still do…
Rift, was unsure about Phish but listening to this swayed me; from then on everything changed, a new musical home.
sittin on a porch in the wee hrs listening to lawn boy round 90 . Thinking how am I going to be able to follow the Dead and these guys at the same time
hoist. traveling out east to boston for the first time in my life. julius, sample, and wolfman became the soundtrack to that trip.
Rift. i visited some old roommates of mine and they couldn’t wait to show me how rift syncs up with this trippy Laser disc they had rented. ohhh, the good ol days.
My first experience hearing Phish ever was being at a party in Cincinnati, and the host threw on Picture of Nectar. It had just come out a few weeks earlier, and as soon as Llama came pounding out of the speakers, I was instantly grooving.
Picture of Nectar. I was about 10 years old playing basketball in my buddy’s driveway, and one of his older brother’s friends was playing it in his car. At that point I was real into Metallica and Megadeth, so the harder stuff caught my ear – Cavern, Llama.
Hoist and I always remember seeing Dog Faced Boy on the tracklist before I even listened to it and laughing because it was an old nickname for my dad.
The first Phish album I heard was Lawn Boy and I loved it. Got me hooked from the start. Close second though was Story of a Ghost.
Picture of Nectar. I couldn’t believe how many different genres these guys touched on in one album. The Mango Song was an instant favorite. Tweezer Reprise still rocks so incredibly hard.
A Live One
My friend sent me Gumbo via email to me, and I loved it, so I bought the rest of it and I was really impressed with the different directions that each song took over the course of their 10+ minute journey both planned (YEM) and unplanned (Tweezer)
In high school I was riding around with a friend and he put in A Live One disc one. I liked Bouncing but not much else. Later that year I was dragged to the Omaha 11/16/96 show and I’ve been grooving ever since.
1st Phish album I ever heard was Rift back in undergrad, freshman year. My hallmates introduced me to the band when I was still listening mostly to rap – and I’m glad they did. I thought “This is new, and different, and fun, and great!”
Lawn Boy’s Reba. “Bag it, tag it” rang like a bell in my head. Was hooked.
Junta. Thought it was different. Listened again, was hooked 4 life.
Picture of Nectar. From that day on I decided I must live while I’m young and that somehow my youth should last forever.
Slip, Stitch and Pass.
I remember Mike’s Song. Played it for a while and then Junta cause a friend had it. Really dug Mike’s and Fee and that’s what started the obsession.
My best friend’s older brother played Junta for me when I was in sixth grade… I remember my brain almost exploding, while we were listening to YEM, when his brother told me that they jump on trampolines while playing their instruments!
I’ll never forget. May of ’92. A friend brought over “Nectar” and said, “you’ve got to hear this.” THe opening drums of “Llama” blew me away and I’ve been hooked since.
Lawn Boy. Blown Away. It was all Nirvana Pearl Jam and Metallica up to that point. It was eye opening to hear Phish for me.
Billy Breathes. Lent to me by a friend who loved Phish and Pearl Jam. I recall being intrigued by CTB, Bliss, and Swept Away — I’d never really listened to many albums that had a few unique counterpoints thrown int (from an album-oriented-rock standpoint). It was Rift, a few months later, that really got me hooked.
i had heard random songs, but the first album i ever heard was junta. i wasn’t captivated, though i thought yem was pretty unique.
Rift, and I loved it. My cousin (a huge deadhead) gave it to me, as he’d never been able to get into Phish. I was, though!
A Picture of Nectar. When Llama started I was extraordinarily nervous about what the singing would sound like. When Trey’s voice came through the speakers the friendliness in his voice sealed the deal. I bought every album they had released by the end of the week.
I was walking home when an old friend was driving his VW bug down the road and picked me up. I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years and the first thing he said to me was “Man, you’ve got to listen to this band.” “Contact” started up and I asked him what the name of the band was. “Phish” he told me and I remembered that I had seen Phish open for Santana and that they totally blew my mind, but I never got a hold of any of their cds. After that ride home, I soon was getting my hands on any Phish I could find.
A Picture of Nectar was the first Phish album I heard. I loved their music from that first introduction, and still do to this day, 16 years later!
Hmm, probably Junta, I recall listening to Fee and thinking how amazing of a song it was. This was when I was 6-7 years old, so it’s cool to think I loved the music way back then.
First album I heard was Lawn Boy and I thought the guys were crazy… I kept trying to find the lyrics to Antelope and didn’t realize the whole track is instrumental until the very end!
My first album was Rift, the song Weigh to be exact. My first initial thought was this is a really weird song about weighing someones head that you just cut off. But that intrigued me to listen to other tracks. Then when i really started to know Phish and the types of songs that Mike writes, the lyrics made sense.
The first Phish album I’ve ever heard was Junta, Disc 1. I thought that they wrote some pretty amusing lyrics to some very cute tunes.
Cannot remember exactly what was the first song I ever heard, but a friend played them for me in high school on the bus on the way to a lacrosse game and I was hooked. It turned out that my parents had bought my younger brother A Live One for Christmas the year before and he had never even opened it. So I went home that night and claimed that double disc as my own and from that point on Phish has and always will be a huge part of my life! Also, a friend of my mom worked concessions for the Halloween show in 94 and gave her a gold chocolate coin to give to me (way before I even knew of the band). I still have the wrapper and keep it with my ticket collection. 🙂
Picture of Nectar. Thought the songs were strong, but the production hampered the success of the album. I had to get over the dry sound.
Junta – i thought it was so weird. I only liked Contact and the YEM “Boy, Man, God, Shit” I remember it being so out there and complex.
Rift. I loved it. I think The Wedge had something to do with my move to Colorado in ’94. Rift helped me to release and really feel the music so I was eventually able to dance to this new funky music I have fallen in love with!
Rift! I had no idea what was going on but I knew it was something special. It is still my favorite album.
The first Phish album I ever heard was Lawnboy and I mostly loved it for the quirky lyrics. Then I loved the quirky music, and my appreciation went on from there.
Junta. I was really into the Dead at the time, and had no idea Phish was a improvisational rock band (not fond of the “Jamband” label). I thought the album was quirky, and super original.
Junta was the first. I thought i was very strange, i was young. Who knew these sound would shape so much of my life.
First phish album i heard was Lawn Boy. I remember hearing the phrase “Bag it, tag it” and thinking it was an offensive comment of another sort against homosexuals, and thinking that was kind of odd to put in a song. My introduction to phish. 🙂
Lawn Boy. Loved it from the get go. Was way into the Dead at the time and this was so different yet so great.
“Lawn Boy” was played to me a a camper at Camp Scatico in the summer of 1991, back when it still had “Fee” on the album. I thought they were childish, geeky and fun, much like myself at the time.
Junta – 1992. First song was Contact. thought they were very odd and goofy. Then Fee and that thought continued. The David Bowie and I knew something was amiss!
Billy Breathes in my friends car, heard the opening licks of “free” and thought “this is phish? I never thought I would like this band”… by the time Character Zero ended I was hooked. Then feeded the obsession with the purchase of Lawn Boy, interesting order, right?
I heard Nectar in 1993, and at the time (13), I liked 2 songs (Cavern and Chalkdust). So it sat on the shelf until 1995 when I was ready for it.
Rift. My college roommates were dancing around the room and I just sat staring at the giant rift poster against our white concrete walls. I was a lot to wrap my head around at the time. I was up dancing with them by Sparkle. Maze rocked!
Junta, Summer 1992. I heard Fee, YEM. Minutes later I heard a boot where the YEM vocal jam morphed into Fee. I was educated and hooked for life.
The first aural glimpse that I got of Phish was Rift. Like many others, it was my freshman year in college, and STILL to this day, each and every time I hear that album, the fall/winter of 1995 comes rushing back. The breeze, the smell, the newness of western Massachusetts.
Picture of Nectar in ’92. I played Mango Song so often over Christmas break that my father freaked out. I had listened to some stuff prior in the spring of ’92 when I saw my first show, but listening to that album over & over, and the subsequent shows in the winter of ’93 were what hooked me.
Bowie off of Junta. At 10.05 PM on September 8, 1992. Never heard a note o Phish before then and my roommate at boarding school got to pick the music that we fell asleep to that night because i did the night before. I sat up in the bed during the guitar peak and told him that whoever that guy is he is amazing.
Thanks Matt Provenzano.
Picture of Nectar
This album was played to bits in my Panasonic boom box. A good str8 thru album to play. Still is. Top favorite for me.
Rift. My boyfriend and his sis.. long time avid Phish Phans.. and I was like WTF?.. but after a couple of years and finally going to my first Phish show this summer..I completely understand.