May 7, 2008

All Good Music Festival attendees better plan on staying up to the wee hours, as the late night acts shouldn’t be missed. The Join brings the Untz to the Thursday

Lassie’s face was perfect for close-ups, according to Orson Welles. Somehow, as I listen to Trey Anastasio call out to the old pup on David Bowie from Providence, Rhode Island on December 29, 1994, that makes a lot of sense. Lassie got his close-up, alright, before Phish slammed the hook home and then whipped out a beaut duo of Halley’s Comet>Lizards for shaggy dog-storied measure. Alas, Phish did indeed get their due—ahhh…the Jammys—but did Lassie? Of course, she did. She is flealessly hailed as a Screen Canine Legend. Welles? Citizen Kane, yes. Everything else? Maybe not.

The Orson Welles vintage has been woefully underappreciated for far too long. To many cinenewbs, the artistic bottle was dusty and so was the liquor. Then again…the man didn’t make it easy on himself, burning through cash like a dreamer on a weekend bender in Atlantic City. He never had complete creative control over his projects after Citizen Kane—a film he made when he was 25, and the equivalent of hitting 80 home runs as a rookie. He would either lose final cut, or the celluloid would languish in a vault somewhere, growing a third chin, a gray beard, and earning a poisonous critical rep, OR—the mightiest cut of all—he’d make a masterpiece [insert several titles here] and some studio clown would slice the thing into unwatchable oblivion—dubio blackholeish. READ ON for more…

Dear Kevin:

Hope this letter finds you well and deeply buried under stacks of CDs trying to find the best choice for the next Live Phish release.

With all due respect to Trey’s upcoming June release, I wanted to take a few moments and suggest a few gems for the next Live Phish installment. Trey’s releases are fine but as far as generating excitement and that “I can’t wait to hear THAT” feeling, they are…meh at best. You don’t exactly hear things like, “Man, I simply must have crispy copies of that raging Mud City.”

Through the years, Live Phish has put some truly magical archival shows out for our enjoyment, including 12-29-97, the incredible Island Run in 1998, the 1996 mayhem in Vegas and the back-to-back winter 1994 shows from Olympia and Salem. We thank you profusely for those.

READ ON to see Luke’s five suggestions for future Live Phish releases…

DaveO brings us today’s GraphJam parody: George Harrison and Eric Clapton: Taxman (Live In Japan) GraphJam: And In The End Previously on HT: Inspiration!, The Coal Ran Out, Big Red’s

I feel kinda awkward dedicating yet another post to Widespread Panic, but they keep making news. Yesterday the band announced the first release under the newly established Widespread Panic Archives