December 8, 2009

As we mentioned yesterday, each day this week we’ll be sharing a new installment of our geekiest column, The Number Line, in which we analyze the setlists from Phish’s recently completed Fall Tour. Today’s TNL column looks at the songs played by album. One thing you’ll notice is the lack of songs from the group’s two post-hiatus albums, Round Room and Undermind.

[Photo by Jake Krolick]

Junta (1989): Played 10 songs, Did Not Play 4 (Fee, Contact, Union Federal, Icculus)

Lawn Boy (1990): Played 7 songs, Did Not Play 2 (My Sweet One, Oh Kee Pa Ceremony)

A Picture of Nectar (1992): Played 8 songs, Did Not Play 8 (Llama, Eliza, Manteca, Guelah Papyrus, Magilla, The Landlady, Faht, Catapult)

Rift (1993): Played 10 songs, Did Not Play 5 (Rift, Lengthwise, All Things Reconsidered, Mound, Lengthwise #2)

Hoist (1994): Played 5 songs, Did Not Play 6 (Riker’s Mailbox, Axilla [Part II], Lifeboy, Scent Of A Mule, Dog Faced Boy, Demand)

Billy Breathes (1996): Played 7 songs, Did Not Play 6 (Cars Trucks Buses, Talk, Bliss, Billy Breathes, Swept Away, Steep)

READ ON for the rest of our list of songs played by album…

There are many moments of brilliance on the Smashing Pumpkins’ debut album, Gish, but one track stands out from the rest – the slow, plodding Rhinoceros. Here’s the music video

Not being a Christian—or a Clausian, for that matter—some of the holiday film imagery is totally lost on me. I don’t always get all of the players, either, or WHO was who, and WHEN they did WHAT, and whether John the Baptist was beheaded upside down, or Moses played for the Rockets, or Brian was really the Messiah, or if that spaceship that he rode in during the Monty Python film PROVED the existence of extraterrestrials.

I also don’t get what role this old Jerry Garcia wannabe plays. Is his name St. Nick, or Kringle, or Claus? What the fuck? And how did this fat ass that parties with elves become a saint? Answer me this—in the Lord of the Rings, the elves were normal-sized pseudo-humans, who also happened to look like Aryan wanktards who have pointy ears, and were all conceived by Johnny Winter and Spock. In Santa’s Frat House up north, elves are these little mutant munchkins who are either nerds with goatees, or gay (uhh…Hermie, the blonde kid, who wants to be a dentist in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Drunkard? HELL-LOW. Red flag). Jesus, get me a Tylenol, will ya?

Well, enough of that. It’s the holiday season, and THIS time, we’ve got ourselves a bit of a minor masterpiece, which then morphed into a cheesy 70s television series about a family with 174 kids. Uh…birth control, people! This week’s little holiday Hidden Flick charmer is The Homecoming, and it starred Patricia Neal (a sublime actress who survived cancer and being married to the great eccentric author Roald Dahl).

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick – The Homecoming…