Bands And Albums.

Just seeing if anyone wanted to chat up some phish, maybe some dead or guster or something.

Sure...I dig Phish. You can't really be a fan of music and not dig Phish as far as I'm concerned. My old man is in his early 50's, he is super closed minded when it comes to music but he loves Trey Anastasio and his work with Phish.

I like the Dead too, I'm not a touring nut or a collector of bootleg tapes, but I like the majority of their catalog. I am really more interested in Jerry Garcis and his solo work or "The Jerry Garcia Band". I like his bluegrass expecially....excellent muscian he was.....

You know, I'm fairly passionate about the Dead, I have a lot of their lesser known material and what not but I could just never get into Phish. Nothing personal man, but its just not the same to me. To me, it feels like Phish was just copycatting and unfortunately they weren't the cool laid back chemically induced musiciains that the Grateful Dead were. That's only my opinion, not trying to hate or anything, lemme know whatcha think.

I agree AND I'm a fan of all of the above.
You cannot love Phish or the Dead and not be a music lover.


They are musician lovers bands.

you know... ppul always compare phish and the dead... and while I do like a few dead songs "fire on the mountain", "uncle johns band", "touch of grey", "cacey jones?"...
I never really liked them as much as phish... here's why:
phish is musically way above the dead. The odd meter stuff, the gtr solos, the bass player is ten times better... etc.
The two bands are obviously similar... but the music is much more complicated with phish. "limb by limb" is perhaps my fav song... the gtr solo (altho it isn't that dif technically) demonstrates an understanding of modes and chord structure far beyond anything gerry ever did(that I heard). I guess we all know why the two bands are so popular with the same crowd - and I'm sure they both are even more similar when you are on acid... but
love phish... like Greatful.

ps... I just realized I'm about 180 degrees from gtrplaya.
I don't think phish exactly copied the dead... cause I doubt the dead could play half the stuff they do... much better musicians. But I do agree... as far as music culture... the dead had something much more laid back and you can tell by how much they screw up on stage...
with phish - you can't really hear the mistakes. I do admire that about the dead... they just went to play... NOT PERFORM. takes a lotta guts.

I went to a Grateful Dead show that came through my town, shortly before Jerry Garcia died. I was absolutely bored.....to.....tears.

BUT, the carnival that was going on outside of the show, in the arena parking lot, was amazing! Fire eaters, dancing, acoustic musicians, merchants, THAT was where the real show was going on.

I know its politically incorrect to not like the Dead or Phish (jam bands don't do a thing for me) but its just one man's brutally honest opinion.

hmm not sure what's politically correct here...
but to lump phish in as a jam band right next to the dead doesn't sit well with me.

I can understand if you don't like there style... admittedly I didn't like it at first either. Something about bands like phish and zappa who don't take the lyrics seriously... I have trouble getting past that.

don't get me wrong phish is no zappa... no bozzio on drums, no steve vai on gtr, no elton john backing up the vox... but I wouldn't overlook them as the typical "jam band" like the alman bros or the dead as they are much better musicians than that.

Now if you don't respect zappa... well then I'm sorry for your loss(hehe).

on a diff note: u r a piano player... how do you like harry conick jr?
I love that happy go luck rag time piano he does on star turtle... he's no liberache but who the hell wan'ts to be seen in glitter-american-flag-short-shorts anyway.

Harry Conick Jr.....I respect what he does but I'm really not into his music, or the genre for that matter.

Frank Zappa? Come on, he was a genius - don't confuse his work with the noodling, meandering, self masturbatory nonsense one can hear emminating from a rank and file "jam band". Zappa was a consumate composer, with orchestrations for his music that were meticulously crafted for all sorts of ensembles from rock bands to full symphony orchestras. It is true that some of his bands, including The Mothers of Invention, did improvs; but improvisation and jamming are two very different things.

I'd say I don't care for 90% of connicks work... mostly cause I hate that smooth crooner think he does... he'll never be sinatra - no matter how hard he trys. But start turtle(album) actually demonstrates some song writing ability (wether connick wrote any of it - I don't know). Either way I'm glad you agree the guy if a great pianist.

"don't confuse his work with the noodling, meandering, self masturbatory nonsense one can hear emminating from"
- cmon now, would I do that? (compare phish to zappa) I only compared the fact that the two bands never took the lyrical aspect of music seriously... cmon... baby snakes? dynamo hum? catholic girls? etc. compared lyrically with phish the two bands are very similar... (I'm thinking in particualr about a phish song about meat -can't recall the name).
Although, comparing phish to the dead is about like comparing zappa to phish - in the sense that there is a huge musical gap in either direction. The dead where lyrically much more serious, and musically much more simple. Phish is lyrically as pointless as zappa, although slightly less amusing... lets face it: zappa was a funny sob.(roger daltry cape on)
Frankly, trey(spelling) is a better gtr player than garcia OR zappa. Course zappa had oodles of studio cats backing him up.
NO, phish is no zappa... but the dead are no phish.