Phish – Back to the future?

To be taken with a mountain sized grain of salt:

According to a well connected Merry Swankster source, Phish will announce later today a three night run of reunion shows at Virginia’s UFO shaped Hampton Coliseum next March. Hampton Coliseum was also the site of the 2002/2003 hiatus breaking tour that saw the band perform a triumphant MSG New Years show followed by a trio of Hampton dates.

Hampton was also the site of the November 1998 shows that would eventually be released in box set form commemorating a weekend of legendary, but typical hijinks from the free spirited band. Highlighted by a series of off-beat covers, the shows included Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll, Pt. 2″, Ween’s “Roses Are Free”, Beasties’ “Sabotage”, Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping”, and “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” by Will Smith.

Update 12:32am ET:
Well, the day is obviously over and nothing happened. I defer to this.

Update 3:41am ET
Its official. Phish will play 3 shows at Hampton Coliseum on March 6, 7, 8 per Phish.com.

[Hampton Coliseum]

Ronnie Johns show: “That’s Underground”

I mean this isn’t terribly original really, but funny nonetheless. From the Australian sketch comedy show called the Ronnie Johns show.

Hat tip: Kelli

[Looks meaningful]

For those of you who like their music blogging in vibrantly sloppy, unedited, stream of consciousness speeds, you might like this (via).

Last month the topic was ‘Meaningful-Core Bands’ such as…

I feel like we’re at a time where ‘popular indie bands’ achieve more critical acclaim than ‘popular mainstream bands.’ Although the popular bands outsell the ‘indie’ bands, they both have exposure and acclaim from similar sources. Is there any difference between these high-selling white acts with male lead singers?

Popular & ‘respected’ mainstream bands:
1. U2
2. Coldplay
3. Radiohead
4. Dave Matthews Band
(…a few others)

Popular & ‘respected’ indie bands
1. Death Cab for Cutie
2. Arcade Fire
3. The Shins
(…a few others)

Whenever one of these indie bands releases an album, people are like ‘omg! I can’t believe it’s #1 on iTunes! WTF? They r indie! I used to listen 2 them, but not any more.’

And…

A band like Death Cab can gimmick mainstream bros and entry-level altbros in with lyrics like, ‘so this is the New Year… and I don’t feel any different. ‘

Altbros and mainstream bros: classic stuff. The curiosity of the cartoonish writing style is tough to shake – at first, until you realize it makes a lot of sense. Meaningful-Core Bands”. Love it. Someone needs to be a nerd and get a t-shirt that says “altbro” and wear it to a show, photo it and send over so I can post it. It’ll be hilarious. We can share a collective laugh with the music blog reading folks. All five hundred of you. One of you will have glory, and the rest of us clever people will step over each other trying to best the last in comments heavy with mocking tones.

The Mets have a new stadium that is slated to open next season and there are all kinds of ‘last season’ happenings in honor of the current dump. Most of them dubious given we’re talking about an uninspired relic of architecture in Flushing that is going to be missed by nobody. Growing up we used to say that Shea looks like a pizza pie with a slice taken out — that slice transported to Jones Beach for an amphitheater of equally sad aesthetics contrasting with the beachy environs.

Anywhoo…a scroll through the interweb is all one needs to see there is no shortage of pranksters trying to leave their mark on the final season before the wrecking ball. Now, the steamrolling Rickroll prank has its sights on occupying the 8th inning song slot at the stadium.

Currently at Mets.com, the team is asking fans to vote from 10 choices, including a write-in option, to elect a new eighth-inning sign-a-long song, which could potentially replace Sweet Caroline.

However, FARK.com is encouraging it’s community to bombard Mets.com and vote Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up as a write-in candidate. (via)

Anyone else not the least bit offended by this one? In fact I would much rather have Astley’s hit over the Fenway borrowed “Sweet Caroline”. Talk about unoriginal.

Rick Astley – “Never Gonna Give You Up”

It seems like too long since we shared an individual act of brilliance from the ol’ Internets. Garfield minus Garfield has been hitting the rounds with great enjoyment by squatters at the Merry Swankster flophouse, though as hysterical as it is, the non-connection to music keeps our enthusiasm off the blog. Now that someone has lifted one of Pulp’s, arguably, best songs, we have a chance to reference not only Jon Arbuckle’s hidden mental anguish, but this amazing dose of comic extraction too! “Common People” dubbing Archie and the gang. More please. (via)

Pulp – Common People

*Archie In…A Different Class!
*Garfield minus Garfield