20 years ago today, I did an interview with Mike Gordon for rec.music.phish. Phish was in Ann Arbor for a two-day run at the Michigan Theater and we sat down in his hotel room before the 4/18 show to talk about a number of things. My favorite part was the discussion about his songwriting. He had with him his songwriting book that had pretty much everything he had written up to that point. This interview includes the first public peeks at Simple and Scent Of A Mule (before they were even songs), some unused lyrics from Mound, and even some never-recorded lyrics. We had a very fun discussion and it gives a rare peek into the songwriting mind of Mike Gordon. Click on the "read more" link to see the interview.

-Brian Feller 4/18/2013

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Welcome to the 139th edition of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday. I am truly honored to be your new victim host, and hope I can be the Andrew Luck to @lumpblockclod's Peyton Manning. Rather than his Curtis Painter.

Despite the change in personnel, most things around here will remain the same. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: My dreams of an undefeated reign have been destroyed. By identifying the 8/10/04 AC/DC Bag -- a song about Gamehendge's accountant Mr. Palmer that was posted on Tax Day, I'd like to note -- this week's MP3 download goes to @PhreePhish, who's put together an impressive run of two wins over the last four weeks.

Join us here next Monday for the one hundred and fortieth installment of Mystery Jam Monday.

(Note: Mockingbird Foundation volunteers often participate in Type II Cast Phish podcasts. For this series of episodes, we thought we would cross-post it to the Phish.net audience to allow them to chime in and play along. As always, if you enjoy the content here, please donate to The Mockingbird Foundation. Plus, don't forget to preorder The Phish Companion, 3rd Edition.)

If this is the first you are hearing of the Ultimate Phish Nerdgasm^TM series, then you should go listen to the first two episodes, or at least the first. But definitely not just the second, because that wouldn’t make any sense. However, I understand if you want to get down to money shot and only listen to this episode. If you have been following along this whole time and keep coming back for more, we applaud you! This is easily the longest running series of recorded spoken word geek talk about Phish.

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Welcome to the 138th installment of Mystery Jam Monday here at Phish.net and the last hosted by yours truly. After nearly three years of Mystery Jams, I've decided to call it a day. Worry not, though, I am leaving you in good hands. Starting next week, the MJ will be hosted by one of our distinguished faculty members, Brian Levine (aka @Bl002e). Brian, you have some big shoes to fill... it's not easy to lose 130 out of 137 weeks. Seriously, though, it's been my pleasure coming up with new jams for you all every week. I hope you all had as much fun as I did. And if you have enjoyed the Mystery Jam, a great way to show it is to make a donation to the Mockingbird Foundation and support music education for kids. Or at least buy the fucking Book. ::Hops off soapbox::

As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Thursday Answer: Congrats to becker_ross for coming in late with the 7/21/03 "46 Days." For a second there, I thought I was going to end on a high note. Thanks for all of the kind words in the comments. Even if it won't be me, the Blog will be back on Monday with yet another Mystery Jam...

Phish fans are coming out of a big season for fifteen-year anniversaries, with the great shows from 1997 achieving that vintage last year. This comes on the heels of the 1995-era anniversaries, and then that of the Clifford Ball, which will be old enough to vote in summer '14. This week marks the last big, 15-year moment until Big Cypress's time comes in '14. (Hopefully by then we'll have worn out our DVD box sets of those shows...)

The Island Tour (which I still habitually call by its lesser-used nickname, the Spring Run)—taking place at the Nassau Coliseum and then the Providence Civic Center on April 2,3,4 and 5 in 1998—was a huge moment. The 1997 New Year's Run had already capped a momentous year with at least one classic show, and an all-around sense of good-natured back-patting. We were already hibernating, and likely speculating about summer tour, when the surprise announcement came: four stand-alone shows in early April. In the Northeast. Golden Age overtime.

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˙˙˙ʞɔnl pooƃ ˙ʎɐpsəupəʍ uo pəʇsod əq llıʍ ɹəʍsuɐ əɥʇ puɐ (ʎɹɐssəɔəu ɟı) ʎɐpsənʇ uo pəʇsod əq llıʍ ʇuıɥ ɐ ˙(ʇuıɥ əɥʇ ʇsod ı ɹəʇɟɐ ƃuıʇɹɐʇs ”ʎɐp“ puoɔəs əɥʇ ɥʇıʍ) ʎɐp ɹəd uosɹəd ɹəd ssənƃ əuo ˙sʇuəɯɯoɔ əɥʇ uı ssənƃ ɹnoʎ ʇsod ˙uıʍ oʇ əʇɐp əɥʇ puɐ ƃuos əɥʇ ʎɟıʇuəpı ʎlʇɔəɹɹoɔ oʇ pəəu noʎ :pəƃuɐɥɔ ʇ,uəʌɐɥ səlnɹ əɥʇ ˙ʇəu˙sƃnu / ɯoɔ˙ɥsıɥdəʌıl ʇɐ spuəıɹɟ ɹno ɟo ʎsəʇɹnoɔ 'pɐoluʍop 3dɯ uɐ ɹoɟ ƃuıʎɐld əq llıʍ əʍ lɐnsn sɐ ˙ʇəu˙ɥsıɥd ʇɐ əɹəɥ ʎɐpuoɯ ɯɐɾ ʎɹəʇsʎɯ ɟo ʇuəɯllɐʇsuı ɥʇ731 əɥʇ oʇ əɯoɔləʍ

Wednesday Answer: Seriously? a half-second mystery jam and someone gets it in 14 minutes? I give up. Anyway, congrats to ahh_boy for nailing probably the most difficult MJ thus far. The Blog will be back on Monday with another Mystery Jam for your listening pleasure.

(Note: Mockingbird Foundation volunteers often participate in Type II Cast Phish podcasts. For this series of episodes, we thought we would cross-post it to the Phish.net audience to allow them to chime in and play along. Special thanks to Steve Olker for producing Type II Cast. As always, if you enjoy the content here, please donate to The Mockingbird Foundation. Plus, don't forget to preorder The Phish Companion, 3rd Edition.)

If this is the first you’re hearing about the Ultimate Phish Nerdgasm^TM, stop now and go read (and listen to) Part 1 before going any further.

Last week we unveiled the bracket for what we’ve termed the Ultimate Phish Nerdgasm, a March Madness-style tournament where Chris Glushko, Steve Olker and I perform a public service and tell all of you what the best Phish jam of all-time is because, as Chris eloquently put it, “Nobody votes on Type II Cast. We tell you what's better." Of course we say that tongue planted firmly in cheek, but we do hope you appreciate our attempt to rank the unrankable. If you haven’t yet listened to the podcast and would like to do so spoiler-free, I recommend heading over to typeiicast.com and streaming the podcast. If you have already listened, a recap follows after the jump...

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Welcome to the 136th installment of Mystery Jam Monday here at Phish.net. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to PhreePhish for being quick on the draw with the 6/29/00 "Drowned." The Blog will return on Monday with another Mystery Jam...

Photo by Chad Batka

By Jeremy D. Goodwin for Phish.net

Hands on a Hardbody came to be despite several built-in challenges. The premise—Texans trying to win a pickup truck—could seem less than compelling to the New York theatregoer, and it has an episodic narrative involving about a dozen main characters more or less standing around.

But it also has core strengths: a book-writer, Doug Wright, who’s channeled his brilliance into straight plays like Quills and I Am My Own Wife (for which he won the Pulitzer), and successful musicals Grey Gardens and, yes, The Little Mermaid. (One-man shows about German transvestites can’t pay all the bills, no matter how many Tony’s they win.) It also has a newbie composer in Trey Anastasio, who has shown his own brilliance writing pop/rock songs in varying styles for various contexts, and was up for the challenge of writing to the very specific parameters of the stage. And it was fast-tracked for Broadway after an initial run as a La Jolla Playhouse commission last season.

So, does it transcend those built-in hurdles and make a virtue of its challenges?

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by Mockingbird Foundation Volunteer Chris Glushko

(Note: Mockingbird Foundation volunteers often participate in Type II Cast Phish podcasts. For this particular episode, we thought we would cross-post it to the Phish.net audience to allow them to chime in and play along. Special thanks to Steve Olker for producing Type II Cast. As always, if you enjoy the content here, please donate to The Mockingbird Foundation. Plus, don't forget to preorder The Phish Companion, 3rd Edition.)

If you’re reading this, you probably consider yourself somewhat of a Phish nerd—someone who gains an unhealthy amount of pleasure in discussing best songs, shows, sets, venues, cities, lyrics, compositions, recordings, jams, lights, and more. With that said, we decided to hold the ultimate Phish nerdgasm, a 64-team March Madness style tournament to determine the best Phish jam of all time. Now, this is nothing new to the Phish blogosphere. We’ve all seen Phish March Madness brackets before, and I’m sure we’ll see them again. But we wanted to make ours just a little different. We did so by taking ourselves way too seriously. And I knew that if there was one person to take on this project with, it was fellow Phish.netter, Mockingbird Foundation volunteer, and list-maker extraordinaire, Steve Paolini.

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For the 135th time, the Blog welcomes you to Mystery Jam Monday here at Phish.net. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Thursday Answer: Move over, Rabeldy, Pauly and Bl002e, there's a new addition to the MJ Faculty. After correctly identifying the 2/23/97 "Mike's Song," ghostboogie has notched his seventh win. Ghostboogie will be leading courses in late '90s cow funk with six of his seven wins covering the '97-99 era. Congrats! The Blog will be back on Monday with another Mystery Jam.

“There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met. Part heaven, part space, or have I found my place? You can just visit, but I plan to stay. I'm going to go back there someday.” - Kenny Ascher and Paul Williams

The day before our friend, Robert “Barefoot Bob” Eckhart passed away, @ivy_light and I were contacted by @Furry_Thug and @DrPeterVenkman with a wonderful proposal: Why not get together some great prints and raffle them off to raise money for the memorial fund which had been set up for Bob’s children? It was a fantastic idea, and one that allowed us to combat our feelings of helplessness by doing something positive.

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Welcome to the 134th running of the Mystery Jam here at Phish.net. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Thursday Answer: Congrats to ghostboogie for scoring his sixth MJ win with the 12/15/99 "Free." The Blog will be back on Monday with another MJ...

Welcome to the 133rd Mystery Jam here at Phish.net... we're one-third of the way to MJ500 MJ400! As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to docgonzo for being the first to ID the 7/22/03 "Melt." The Blog will be back on Monday with yet another Mystery Jam...