On Saturday Phish will issue Junta on vinyl for the first time as part of Record Store Day 2012. This will be the second year the band has participated in Record Store Day after releasing their only live recording on vinyl, Phish: Two Soundchecks, as part of last year’s event. That 7-inch was limited to 2,000 copies and featured just two tracks taped during summer 2010, while the Junta package sees the band going much bigger with this year’s release.

The 5,000 individually numbered, limited edition 3-LP Junta packages will be available at independent record stores across the country. Of those, 2,500 will be randomly distributed with a limited edition Jim Pollock poster designed specifically for the Record Store Day set. We checked in with the staff of JEMP Records and were able to get some details about the extensive Junta release and their participation in Record Store Day.

HT:  This will be the second consecutive year that Phish will partake in Record Store Day, what is it about Record Store Day that makes Phish want to be involved with the event?

JEMP: The spirit of JEMP Records is independence and the stores that participate in RSD mirror this sentiment.

HT:  Starting with last year’s Record Store Day 7-inch Two Soundchecks, and the Party Time, White Tape SBIX and Black Friday Record Store Day releases, now a 3-LP Junta set, Phish has ramped up its vinyl output over the past year. What can you say about the quality of a vinyl pressing that sets it apart from other media?

JEMP: There’s a certain tactile nature to vinyl that’s wholly appealing as a medium and the ability to dig back into the archives to showcase some tucked away content — artwork, photographs – fits well with the dimension of a vinyl release.  In the case of “Junta” we were able to do a pure analog transfer from the original master reels by working with Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. They built their own system that is unique in that there is no digital conversion in the process. So the audio result is as close as you can get to listening to the master reels.

HT:  What made Junta the choice for this year’s Record Store Day?

JEMP:  Last year we started with The White Tape, this year we went with Junta…

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Today Phish has announced the second leg of the band’s summer tour, which brings them a handful of venues they’ve never played before and a few old favorites. The second leg kicks off on August 15 at the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, California and continues at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco for three shows at the indoor arena before concluding a few weeks later with a three-night stand at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park near Denver over Labor Day Weekend.

Here’s the full list of leg two tour dates…

8/15 Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA
8/17 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
8/18 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
8/19 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
8/22 Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO
8/24 Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, Pelham, AL
8/25 Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood, Atlanta, GA
8/26 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC
8/28 Chaifetz Arena, St. Louis, MO
8/29 Oklahoma City Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, OK
8/31 Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO
9/1 Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO
9/2 Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO

As usual, the band has prepared a video announcing the dates…

Phish – Summer 2012 Leg Two Announcement

A lottery for tickets is currently underway through Music Today. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, April 27. A bit of unfortunate news was included in today’s announcement, as Phish revealed, “No additional Phish dates will be announced for Summer or Fall of 2012.”

• Previously: Phish Summer Tour 2012 – Leg One – Venues

Here’s a look at the venues Phish will play during the second leg of the tour…

READ ON

While we’ve known Phish would tour this summer since December, the when and where of Phish Summer Tour 2012 has been unconfirmed until now. Phish has just revealed their plans for the 19-show first leg, which kicks off on June 7 at the DCU Center in Worcester and runs through a three-night stand at SPAC on July 6 – 8.

This tour finds the quartet returning to a number sheds they generally hit each summer but skipped in 2011, namely Deer Creek, Alpine Valley, Jones Beach and SPAC. Atlantic City’s Bader Field is the newcomer to the pack and will host its first Phish shows on June 15 – 17. CID Entertaiment is offering travel packages, long distance shuttles and hotel deals for these shows.

According to a press release, additional summer dates will be announced this spring.

Here’s the full list of tour dates announced today…

June 7 and 8 – DCU Center, Worcester Massachusetts
June 10 – Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Manchester Tennessee
June 15, 16 and 17 – Bader Field, Atlantic City New Jersey
June 19 and 20 – nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth Virginia
June 22 – Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati Ohio
June 23 – First Niagara Pavilion, Burgettstown Pennslyvania
June 24 – Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls Ohio
June 28 and 29 – Klipsch Music Center, Noblesville Indiana
June 30 and July 1 – Alpine Valley, E. Troy Wisconsin
July 3 and 4 – Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh New York
July 6, 7 and 8 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY

A pre-order lottery for tickets to every show on the band’s docket has started via Music Today and you can put your entry in through March 12 at 11:59AM ET. Once again Phish has offered different prices for pavilion seats and for lawn seats at these summer sheds. While face for lawns is $45, pavilion seats will go for $60. The public onsales are set to take place on March 16 and 17.

Phish Summer Tour 2012 Announcement from Phish on Vimeo.

Here’s a look at the venues Phish will play during the first leg of the tour…

READ ON

UPDATE: February 25 – YouTuber Cleantones has taken this video and given it a makeover using soundboard audio. We’ve changed out the old video for the new one in this post.

This past Friday, February 17, marked the 22 anniversary of Phish’s headlining performance at the University of Massachusetts’ Student Union Ballroom in Amherst, Mass. To celebrate the occasion, one of the producers of the event, Positronic Dave of Positronic Design, has uploaded nearly an hour and 45 minutes worth of footage from that evening to YouTube.

[via BluebirdDaze]

Containing nearly the whole show, this video gives Phish fans a glance at the band’s formative days and their early touring setup which saw LD Chris Kuroda utilizing an extremely basic light rig consisting of three banks of eight par cans each. The musicians each had much less equipment then they would even a short two years later, but that didn’t stop them from displaying the talent and originality that would propel them to big things in the future. Highlights include a gorgeous version of Harry Hood, an intense You Enjoy Myself complete with a vocal jam based on The Ocean by Led Zeppelin and a ferocious Trey solo that ends the Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > AC/DC Bag pairing. Take a look…

Phish – //Possum, Bathtub Gin, Divided Sky > Sloth, Bouncin’, YEM, Golgi, Reba, Oh Kee Pa > AC/DC Bag, Squirming Coil, Harry Hood, Carolina, Mike’s > I Am Hydrogen//

Timeline

00:00:00 Possum (cut)
00:02:08 Bathtub Gin
00:09:29 Divided Sky >
00:21:19 The Sloth
00:26:09 Bouncing Around the Room
00:29:55 You Enjoy Myself
00:45:53 Golgi Apparatus
00:50:48 Reba
01:03:35 The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony >
01:05:17 AC/DC Bag
01:12:09 The Squirming Coil
01:18:03 Harry Hood
01:30:27 Carolina
01:33:36 Mike’s Song >
01:40:53 I Am Hydrogen
01:42:29 Credits

According to the description left by the uploader, the band gave their permission for the show to be filmed. Widespread Panic and Gene Matthews opened for Phish that night for a triple-bill that was produced by David Caputo of Positronic Design, The SEO Company in association with The Weekly News and UMass Radical Student Union and Social Thought and Political Economy Department (STPEC).

Thanks to Dave for sharing a glimpse at an important time in the band’s development.

Roughly two and a half years ago we reported that Jay Farrar (Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt), Jim James (MMJ) and Will Johnson (Centro-matic) had headed into the studio to a record a new batch of songs inspired by Woody Guthrie’s unrecorded lyrics, a la Billy Bragg and Wilco’s amazing Mermaid Avenue records. According to Paste, the trio were personally invited by Guthrie’s granddaughter, Nora, to sift through the songwriter’s notebooks and scratch pads to gain insight on the artist and his unfinished work.

On February 28, the trio will help celebrate Guthrie’s 100th birthday, which will be celebrated all throughout 2012, with the release of Multitudes. The majority of the lyrics of the twelve-track set were “culled from Woody’s times in L.A…it’s a part of the story that is still mostly unknown. From Woody’s experiences on LA’s skid row to his later years in Topanga Canyon, they are uniquely intimate, and relate two distinctly emotional periods in his life.”

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• Patrick Carney will produce Rolling Stone contest winner The Sheepdogs
• Cover Alert: The Flaming Lips tackle The Beatles
• Jack White to appear on an upcoming episode of American Pickers
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• Bonnie Raitt to release her first new album in seven years this April

Finally, tomorrow marks the opening night of the New York Guitar Festival. To kick off the event, which runs from January 6 – 29 at venues across Manhattan, a free program paying tribute to Brian Eno’s landmark Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks will take place at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden downtown. The album, which came out 30 years ago, was originally commissioned as the soundtrack to Al Reinhardt’s Oscar nominated documentary, For All Mankind. Phish bassist Mike Gordon, Levon Helm musical director Larry Campbell, David Torn, Noveller and Tortoise’s Jeff Parker will join Brooklyn ambient ensemble Itsnotyouitsme in offering their live interpretation of the album. For more, be sure to read Sam Davis’s interview with NY Guitar Festival producer David Spelman on Relix.com.

We’re nearing the home stretch of Phish’s New Year’s Run at Madison Square Garden. This evening, the quartet took the stage for the third of four NYE Run performances.

[Photo by Michael Stein]

A Pay-Per-View webcast of tonight’s show is available through LivePhish.com.

We’re trying something different this run. In addition to our at-a-glance recap of the show we call The Skinny and the setlist, we’re also presenting a Live Blog with the help of our friends at Next Jam. We’ll compile tweets from @YEMblog and @Bizarchive along with screenshots and other interesting notes. You can find our Live Blog after the jump.

Setlist:

Set 1: Punch You In the Eye > Prince Caspian^[1] > Backwards Down the Number Line, Nellie Kane,Divided Sky, Sand, Vultures, Rift, Joy, Quinn the Eskimo

Set 2: Wilson > Axilla > Piper > Twist > Julius > Golgi Apparatus > Also Sprach Zarathustra, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, David Bowie^[2], The Squirming Coil

Encore: Boogie On Reggae Woman, Good Times Bad Times

[1] Unfinished.
[2] Silent In the Morning teases.

[via Phish.net]

Check out our Live Blog and The Skinny from MSG…

READ ON

Tonight marks Night Two of Phish’s traditional New Year’s Run, which takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City this year. The group got off to a rousing start last night and hopefully they’ll offer more of the same this evening.

[Photo by Michael Stein]

A Pay-Per-View webcast of tonight’s show is available through LivePhish.com.

We’re trying something different this run. In addition to our at-a-glance recap of the show we call The Skinny and the setlist, we’re also presenting a Live Blog with the help of our friends at Next Jam. We’ll compile tweets from @YEMblog and @Bizarchive along with screenshots and other interesting notes. You can find our Live Blog after the jump.

Setlist:

Set 1: The Sloth, You Enjoy Myself, Back on the Train, The Moma Dance, Funky Bitch, Maze, Roses Are Free, Halley’s Comet > Run Like an Antelope

Set 2: Crosseyed and Painless > Simple > Lifeboy, Guyute, Mike’s Song > Chalk Dust Torture^[1] -> I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Show of Life > Character Zero

Encore: Loving Cup

[1] Unfinished

[via Phish.net]

Check out our Live Blog and The Skinny from MSG…

READ ON

After a layoff of nearly four months, Phish returned to the stage tonight for the first of four shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City that make up the group’s annual New Year’s Run. This evening’s performance marked the 20th Phish show at the storied venue.

Pay-Per-View webcasts of all four shows are available through LivePhish.com.

We’re trying something different this run. In addition to our at-a-glance recap of the show we call The Skinny and the setlist, we’re also presenting a Live Blog with the help of our friends at Next Jam. We’ll compile tweets from @YEMblog and @Bizarchive along with screenshots and other interesting notes. You can find our Live Blog after the jump.

Setlist:

Set 1: Free, Glide > Possum, Cities, The Ballad of Curtis Loew, Stash, Contact > Sample in a Jar, Kill Devil Falls > Bathtub Gin

Set 2: Birds of a Feather, Carini -> Tweezer^[1] > My Friend, My Friend^[2] -> Rock and Roll^[3] -> NICU,Bouncing Around the Room, Harry Hood > Bug

Encore: Tube > Rocky Top > Tweezer Reprise

[1] Streets of Cairo tease.
[2] No “Myfe” ending.
[3] Birds of a Feather jam.

Notes: This performance featured the first ever Free show opener. Tweezer contained a Streets of Cairo tease. My Friend omitted the “Myfe” ending. Rock & Roll contained a Birds of a Feather jam.

[via Phish.net]

Check out our Live Blog and The Skinny from MSG…

READ ON

I love watching great performances or well-made documentaries featuring my favorite artists from the comfort of my couch. In 2011 a number of fantastic music-related films came out and it was nearly impossible to pick the 10 best efforts, so for 2011′s list of my favorite concert films of the year, I expanded the list to 15 and there were still a few fine efforts which didn’t make the cut.

So with that in mind, we continue our long-standing tradition of detailing my top music-related DVDs/Blu-Rays of the year…

15. Eddie Vedder – Water on the Road

The Pearl Jam front man offers a mix of deep cuts from his main band’s catalog as well as covers and solo tunes on this live concert film directed by Christoph Green and Brendan Canty of Ashes of American Flags (Best Concert Film of 2009) fame.

READ ON

Buried deep within the Press of Atlantic City’s article on the City Council delaying a vote on the possibility of bringing music festivals to Bader Field in 2012 comes confirmation that Phish is planning to tour next summer. Promoter Starr Hill Presents representative Ken MacDonald told the paper that Phish “will tour next summer” when he was asked about the possibility that the group will headline one of four festivals his company is planning for Atlantic City in 2012. MacDonald would neither confirm nor deny that Phish will indeed headline one of the events, but did confirm that Phish is planning to tour. Phish manager Coran Capshaw founded Starr Hill, a sister company of Red Light Management.

[Photo of DMB Caravan @ Bader Field by Jeremy Gordon]

While most fans did expect Phish to tour next summer, it’s nice to see confirmation, especially after Trey’s comments to Rolling Stone that 2012 would be “a less busy tour year” for the quartet. We’re also interested to see what Starr Hill Presents has in store for the four multi-day festivals they’re planning to bring to Bader Field in 2012 on the heels of last year’s DMB Caravan stop at the 142-acre former municipal airstrip. Atlantic City’s City Council has already approved festivals for June 15-17 and June 24-25 and will “reconsider” issuing permits for two more festivals (set for Sept. 22-23 & 29-30) at a January 4th meeting after tabling a decision yesterday.

The big news of the weekend in our world was Phish frontman Trey Anastasio’s sit-in with The National at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on Friday night. When SPIN Magazine revealed that Big Red has been working with members of The National, as well as Mates of State and TAB, on his forthcoming, Peter Katis-produced solo album, rumors started to fly about Trey making a guest appearance at The National’s six-night Beacon Theatre run.

[Photo by Matt Wasserman]

The Upper West Side resident finally turned up at the local theater on Friday during The National’s penultimate Beacon Run performance to add guitar on Bloodbuzz Ohio from the group’s 2011 release High Violet, Squalor Victoria from 2007′s Boxer and Murder Me Rachael from Sad Songs From Dirty Lovers, the act’s first album with Katis behind the board, during the main set. Arcade Fire’s Richard Parry emerged during the encore for High Violet’s opening track, Terrible Love, along with Anastasio and the pair remained on stage for the Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks singalong that ended every show of The National’s residency.

A few clips of NationTrey showed up on YouTube yesterday, but today we came across a set of videos by TheGloaming09 containing the entire sit-in with the exception of Squalor Victoria. The video quality is far from perfect, but the audio gives us our best taste yet of Anastasio’s contributions. Trey adds texture to the verses of Bloodbuzz Ohio before displaying uncharacteristic restraint during a brief solo at the end of the song, while both Murder Me Rachael and Terrible Love feature more droning work from the Phish guitarist. All in all Trey honors the setting by playing fewer notes than the more typical shred-heavy style he shows off with his main projects.

Here’s a playlist containing Bloodbuzz Ohio, Murder Me Rachael, Terrible Love and Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks…

READ ON

From the moment Phish left the stage at the Lawrence Joel Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem on November 23, 1997 Phish fans have been angling for an official release of the band’s epic three-night stand that ended that evening. The group’s devoted followers have finally gotten their wish with the release of Phish – Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97 via JEMP Records on December 6.

Phish – Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97 is currently available for pre-order through Dry Goods. This 7-CD set includes every note played at the Hampton ’97 shows on November 21 and 22 as well as the November 23rd scorcher in Winston-Salem. We also get a 17-minute soundcheck jam from the first night of Hampton and a version of Back at the Chicken Shack from the Winston-Salem soundcheck. There are a number of bundles available which adds items such as the 2012 Phish Calendar and a Pollock ’97 tour t-shirt along with the box set. Everyone who pre-orders the box set from Phish Dry Goods will receive a full 45-track MP3 download of Hampton Winston/Salem ’97 on the release date plus two previously unreleased Hampton/Winston-Salem related tracks from the Phish Archives.

As part of our Everybody Wins When We Plug Something And In Return They Offer Us Free Shit To Give Away program, we’ve got three copies of the complete Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97 box set to giveaway PLUS a Black-Eyed Katy bundle which includes a t-shirt and 2012 calendar. To enter, simply leave a comment below detailing your favorite part of that weekend, either in person or from a recording, musical or otherwise. You can enter a second time by following us and then tweeting that Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97 moment. Let us know by including both “@hidden_track” AND “#hws97″ in your tweet. We’ll give you a third chance to snag one of the sets by leaving your favorite Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97 moment on our Facebook wall. Once the contest entry period closes we’ll tally all the entries from our comments section, Facebook and Twitter and pick four winners at random.

Here’s the fine print…

• To enter the contest, leave a comment below telling us your favorite moment / memory from Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97
• You can enter a second time by leaving a similar comment on the wall of the Hidden Track Facebook Page
• You can enter a third time by following @hidden_track and tweeting your favorite moment / memory from Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97 and including both “@hidden_track” AND “#hws97″ in your tweet
• Your comment(s) must be left by 11:59 PM EST on November 25
• Anybody entering more than once a piece on Facebook, Twitter and at the bottom of this post will be disqualified, tarred and feathered
• Four winners will be selected at random from all entries
• The first winner chosen will win the Black-Eyed Katy bundle, while the other three will each receive a Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97 box set courtesy of Phish Inc.
• HT staff members are not eligible to win

So far we’ve been privy to three incredible sequences from Hampton / Winston-Salem ’97…

READ ON

While normally we reserve Tuesdays for posts related to technology, yesterday after months and months of rumors, and a Beta launch earlier this summer, Google finally unveiled its latest project, Google Music, to the masses. The cloud-based service, which allows for up to 20,000 songs or roughly 300 gigs of music to be stored in your personal library, now has additional features and services that are looking to compete with the likes of iTunes and Amazon for your attention.

In addition to aforementioned cloud storage, which allows users to seamlessly listen to their music from a computer, tablet and/or Android phone without syncing, Google has also launched its own music store, that will feature 13 million songs from all four of the major labels, as well as exclusive tracks and free tracks (which at launch features a live show from Pearl Jam recorded on 9/11/11 and a vintage Dave Matthews Band gig from Irving Plaza from 3/26/94). Google Music will also offer independent artists the ability to upload their music to the storefront for a $25 fee, and create a “hub” page, with the ability to set their own pricing.

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Finally, next Friday the holiday season gets its official kickoff as hordes of people head out at ungodly hours to take advantage of Black Friday deals. This year the folks behind Record Store Day are getting into the act with their very own version of the infamous day by enticing music fans to hit their local music shop for exclusive vinyl releases. Joining the list of artists putting out special releases, which includes Ryan Adams, Dr. Dog, The Black Keys and Warren Haynes, is Phish who will release both The White Tape and Party Time on 180-gram vinyl, which were both originally only available exclusively this past summer at Super Ball IX.

Jeff Austin of Yonder Mountain String Band has never hidden his love for HT faves Phish. Austin has been seeing the jam titans for decades and recently caught many shows on Phish’s summer tour. The mando wiz even performed with drummer Jon Fishman (who has toured with YMSB in the past) in Lake Tahoe at the Bluegrass Ball following one of Phish’s gigs in town. So it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that one of Trey Anastasio’s songs has made it into the Yonder repertoire.

[Photo by Tobin Voggesser]

On August 13 Austin and his band mates unveiled their version of Sand at the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival in Wyoming. While utilizing their bluegrass instrumentation, Yonder still honors the original version by keeping the vibe dark. This past Saturday night in  Grand Rapids, Michigan YMSB dusted off Sand once again, so it appears this Phish by way of Trey Band tune is now a part of Yonder’s massive song rotation. Thanks to YouTuber tyjern1, we can take a peek at Saturday’s version of Sand…

Yonder Mountain String Band – Sand

And here’s audio of the complete YMSB Sand from Wyoming…
READ ON

A couple of weeks back we hipped you to the fact that Phish would be releasing a new seven-disc box set made up of their 1997 three-night run at Hampton, Virginia and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Well today, official word finally came from the band, who’ve detailed a variety of Phish song-referencing pre-order packages through Dry Goods for its December 6 release. Whether you choose the Black-Eyed Katy Bundle or just the standard CD box, all orders will receive a full 45-track MP3 download of Hampton Winston/Salem ’97 on the release date plus two previously unreleased Hampton/Winston-Salem related tracks from the Phish Archives. With the holiday season right around the corner, we’re pretty confident that this would make a great gift for the Phan in your family.

The fine folks at Phish Inc. have given us the Mike’s Groove from Hampton ’97 to sample (download):

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Finally, while it looks like we are guilty as just about every music site out in there in posting the trailer for a supposed BlakRoc sequel, that turns out most likely will not be coming out, we can report that The Black Keys will indeed be releasing an album of their own later this year entitled El Camino. For their follow up to their critically acclaimed album Brothers, which netted the top spot in our Top 25 albums of the year, the blues-duo re-teams with Danger Mouse for an 11-song set that was recorded at Dan Auerbach’s new Easy Eye Studio in Nashville, TN. Earlier this week, the band released this video for the album’s first single Lonely Boy, which is drenched in ’60s psychedelic blues sounds. Check it out…