Welcome to the 334th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the third of July. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the three mystery clips. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, a hint will be posted. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Answer: Congrats to @Hamphish on his third win, slicing and dicing what i thought was an almost trollishly difficult MJM! The 8/15/15 "46 Days," the 10/8/99 "Tweezer," and the 6/23/04 "Scents and Subtle Sounds" – all played in shows featuring a "Halley's Comet" second-set opener. Stay tuned for MJM335 on Monday!

[The following is offered by dot net user Kylie, @Kyphi, for your consideration as the Summer Tour begins. She is an east coast gal and UVM alum, who moved out West for both work and play. She enjoys live music, travel, and exceptional food in the presence of good company. You can find her on lot this summer with a Heady Topper in hand. Be advised that the following reflects her views, and not necessarily those of Phish.net, or anyone who has ever volunteered for Phish.net over the course of Phish history. Thank you! -charlie]

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: PHISH summer tour. By now, your PTBMs have safely found their way to your mailbox and it’s likely you’ve been rapid-fire chatting logistics with friends for weeks as the days draw closer.

We’re all here eagerly visualizing what’s to come. Full summer tour — dead ahead.

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[this post is contributed by Phish.net user Paul Jakus, @paulj, who continues to contribute to the site in different ways. Thank you Paul! – ed.]

It seems unbelievable, but in 2018 Phish will embark on their tenth year of touring since returning from their breakup. Following last year’s Baker’s Dozen run, many speculated that we may have reached the peak of Phish “3.0.”

Setting aside one rain-shortened concert (7/19/2013), there have been 358 shows since March 6, 2009. The average show rating on Phish.net was 3.944 (out of 5), but the lowest-rated event was Grand Prairie’s 2.377 (10/25/16). If Phish reached “bottom” as recently as 2016, have they really been getting better since their return? We can use show ratings on Phish.net to test this hypothesis, but let’s start by getting a few caveats out of the way.

Ratings on Phish .net are unlikely to be representative of the population of Phish fans as a whole. First, I suspect that .netters are among the most enthusiastic members of an already rabid fanbase. This may bias show ratings up or down--frankly, the hyper-critical nature of .netters means the direction of bias is not clear, but some sort of bias could be present. Second, not every .netter rates every show and I’m guessing that most of us are more likely to rate shows we’ve attended or watched on live video. This is, of course, the attendance bias effect discussed so often on .net. If attendance motivates a person to rate a show, then ratings on Phish.net will be biased upward. Third, a hot show on a current tour will sometimes zoom to the top of the all-time list, only to drop lower as more people provide a ratings weeks, months, or even years later. This “recency bias” results in higher ratings for recent shows relative to those from long ago. Fourth, the number of users on .net has been growing in recent years; if new .netters differ from long-time .netters (having, say, less familiarity with Phish performances from years past), then ratings from 2017 may not be comparable to those of 2009. Finally, the data reveal a “herd effect” for outstanding shows: more people will rate a great show than will rate poorly received show. We’ll be using the average rating for shows, though, so it’s not clear that the herd effect will bias a show rating. These caveats mean that our statistical analysis applies only to those of us on .net, and does not necessarily represent the broader population of Phish fans. That said, let’s take a look at the data.

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The first academic conference highlighting research in the interdisciplinary field of Phish Studies will take place on July 21, 2018, at 1pm in the Gorge Amphitheater Campground. The event is hosted by Oregon State University’s School of History, Philosophy, and Religion.

An exciting lineup of scholars from across the country will present their research to OSU students attending the Philosophy School of Phish field trip to Phish’s three-night run at the Gorge Amphitheater. The conference will also be open to the public.

The exact location of the event will be announced on Friday, July 20th via Twitter (@phishedu) and Facebook (@philosophyschoolofphish). Please RSVP on the Facebook event page.

For more information, or to request accommodation for disability, contact conference organizer, Dr. Stephanie Jenkins ([email protected]).

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Beyond the Pond is a bi-weekly podcast in which Brian Brinkman (@sufferingjuke) and David Goldstein (@daveg924) use the music of Phish as a gateway to introduce the listener to many other bands, the vast majority of which are not jambands. An episode generally begins with a deep dive into a designated portion of Phish improvisation, and then can spin off to any variety of musical themes and other acts, the overarching purpose being introducing the listener to as many new and different bands as possible.

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Welcome back to “From The Tapers’ Section,” Part 2B. @wforwumbo here with another matrix of a 2017 show: Red Velvet night, 7/23/17.

Of all Baker’s Dozen shows to remaster, I curate 7/23/17 here for a number of reasons - the biggest of which is that it’s the Baker’s Dozen show I feel is the most under-discussed given the material contained within the show. It is the first show of the year that appreciates how special 2017 would eventually become; walking out of the venue that evening, this show destroyed my expectations for what Phish is capable of performing. To my ear, it is a precursor to what would come the next two nights of the run (though hindsight is always 20/20). Red Velvet night is also the first show that presents the 2017 jamming style in a fully-realized form, both in the “How Many People Are You” and “Wolfman’s Brother” > “Twist” > “Waves”; but more on that shortly.

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Welcome to the 333rd edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second easiest puzzle for the month of July. The winner will receive a MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the two mystery clips, which are connected by a theme that needsn't be part of the correct answer. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, a hint will be posted. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Hint: What does Phish have in common with Parksville, NY, Indio, CA, Auburn, ME, and Volney, NY?

Answer: Congratulations to @patper, who won his second MJM after using the hint, jams from Phish festivals, to identify the two tracks, the Coventry CDT, and the Scent Of A Mule from the Great Went. Phish held two early festivals in 1991, one at Arrowhead Ranch in Parkville, NY, on July 20 and 21, and a second at Larrabee Farm aka Amy's Farm in Auburn, ME, on August 3. Perhaps more familar to most fans were Camp Oswego, held in Volney, NY, on July 17 and 18, 1999, and Festival 8 in Indio, CA, which took place on October 30 and 31, and November 1, 2009.

Welcome to the 332nd edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first and easiest for this month. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, a hint will be posted. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

*Reminder: For the first MJM of each month, only folks who have never won an MJM are allowed to answer before the hint. If you have never won an MJM, please answer as a blog comment below. If you have previously won an MJM, but you'd like to submit a guess beforethe hint, you may do so by PMing me; once the hint has been posted, everyone should answer on the blog. If that's confusing to you, check out the handy decision tree I threw together to help guide you. If you're not sure if you've won before, check in the MJM Results spreadsheet linked below.

Hint:

Answer: Congratulations to @jimsleftear, who earned his third consecutive MJM win after identifying this week's clip, drawn from the 5/13/89 Whipping Post. With this win, @jimsleftear becomes only the 19th contestant ever to record a seventh victory, thereby elevating him to the MJM Hall of Champions and Emeritus status. Although now forced to retire from regular participation, the MJM does offer the occasional opportunity for all Emeriti to test their proven credentials against the current crop of top players. In addition, you may even see a role reversal some time soon, when the likes of @jimsleftear gets to select the theme and tracks. I hope everyone had a great holiday on the 4th. Enjoy summer - Tour beckons soon!

Beyond the Pond is a bi-weekly podcast in which Brian Brinkman (@sufferingjuke) and David Goldstein (@daveg924) use the music of Phish as a gateway to introduce the listener to many other bands, the vast majority of which are not jambands. An episode generally begins with a deep dive into a designated portion of Phish improvisation, and then can spin off to any variety of musical themes and other acts, the overarching purpose being introducing the listener to as many new and different bands as possible.

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Welcome to the 331st edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the fourth and most difficult of June. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the four mystery clips. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, a hint will be posted. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

[Note - MJM host @ucpete is still unavailable. In his absence, we once again welcome MJM Hall of Fame member @wforwumbo, who has put together a fun puzzle for you to solve. Please direct any correspondence for this week's MJM to @wforwumbo.]

Hint:

Answer: Congratulations to @jimsleftear, who correctly identified the four clips, the Waves from 6/28/12, David Bowie from 6/19/95, Scents & Subtle Sounds from 7/23/03, and the Halley's Comet from 8/3/98, after figuring out that the hint, the John Deere Company logo, suggested versions from the outdoor venue in Noblesville, IN, which at one time was affectionately known as Deer Creek. This win marks the second consecutive for @jimsleftear, and his sixth overall, leaving him just one victory shy of elevation to the MJM Hall of Champions and Emeritus status (as well as forced retirement). Will he make it three in a row? Thanks again to @wforwumbo for selecting this week's theme and versions.

Welcome to the 330th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the third of June. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the three mystery clips. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, a hint will be posted. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

[Note - MJM host @ucpete is unavailable due to a family emergency. In his absence, we wecome back MJM Hall of Fame member @wforwumbo, who has cooked up some tantalizing and tasty treats for you to ponder. Please direct any correspondence for this week's MJM to @wforwumbo.]

Hint: No hint needed.

Answer: Congrats to @jimsleftear on his fifth MJM win! The great sinister ear of Jim avoided the red herring of “jams from 8/14”, instead correctly figuring out the theme of “jams from shows immediately preceding festivals” in the form of the 8/14/97 Harry Hood, 8/14/96 Runaway Jim, and the 8/12/04 Scents & Subtle Sounds. Be sure to tune in next week where the puzzles reset in difficulty with a fresh month that also brings summer tour with it!

On this week's Under the Scales, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom about the 20th anniversary of "Story of the Ghost." Shortly after getting into the conversation, we realize we should probably call Trey to bring some more color to the conversation. We talked to him about the making of the album and much more.

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Welcome to the 329th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday! As mentioned last week, we have put together a special contest and prize for this week's MJM. Thanks to our friends at the Hachette Book Group and our regular supporters at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net, this week's winner will not only receive the usual LivePhish MP3 download code, but will also receive a copy of Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter of the Grateful Dead's Long, Strange Trip, by Joel Selvin. Fare Thee Well is a tell-all biography of the in-fighting of the Grateful Dead in the years following Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995. The book charts the band member's journey from Garcia’s death up to the Core Four's agreement that led to the series of shows celebrating the band’s fiftieth anniversary featuring Phish's Trey Anastasio, finally allowing for the sendoff of the group revered by so many. Author Joel Selvin is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-seller who has covered music for the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly 50 years. The book goes on sale next Tuesday, June 19th, and will ship to the winner then.

Regarding the Mystery Jam itself, as with our other special editions, this megaclip has many songs in it that you'll need to identify. Therefore, we will not be using the comments to guess this week. Instead, send an email with your guesses (for all of the clips) along with your .net username to [email protected]. If you have any questions, you can post them in the comments section. Do not post guesses in the comments section, or your comment will be deleted and you'll be subject to banning from future MJM participation. Also, no "trading" of answers is allowed: figure this out on your own. The first person to correctly identify the song and the date of each of the five jams will be the winner; These five jams are connected by a theme. Each person gets one guess by email – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET on Wednesday. In the event that no one correctly identifies all of the Mystery Jams, the winner will be the first person to submit the most correct jams: partial credit can take home the prize, so don't be shy. Good luck!

Note: In order to receive the book, you must be able to provide a US mailing address, or be willing to pay for shipping after we receive the book on your behalf and mail it you. Also, MJM Emeriti are eligible to participate, so don't dawdle!

Update: I received a number of email responses yesterday – none from anyone with fewer than 6 MJM wins, all with multiple correct clips, a couple with all of them correct, but one clear winner. The winner has been notified, and I'll update the blog in the next couple days.

Answer: Congratulations to @justino, who correctly identifited the 6/30/06 St. Stephen (Phil & Friends with Trey), 10/18/16 Twist (Phish with Bobby as guest), 7/17/16 Cumberland Blues (Phil & Friends with Mike), 4/17/99 Dark Star (Phil & Friends with Page and Trey), and 6/27/15 St. Stephen (Fare Thee Well Tour with Trey). The theme of this week's MJM was jams from Grateful Dead / Phish collaborations. With this impressive victory, @justino comes back out of his recently forced retirement to snatch away this week's special prize. Nice work. MJM returns Monday June 18 for its 330th edition. [Please Note: MJM host extraordinaire @ucpete is currently consumed with a family emergency, and a small group of volunteers will try to fill his big shoes until he's able to return. Please be patient with the temporary staff, and be respectful of @ucpete's family situation. Thanks.]

[be sure to check out part 1 of this series if you missed it, and click the tape icon at the end of this post to see a listing of each part as the series rolls along – @ucpete]

Welcome back, everyone! @wforwumbo here with the second edition of From the Tapers’ Section, and it’s a two part installment. Part 2A, 12/30/17, is here today for your listening pleasure; part 2B will follow in two weeks (Friday, June 22nd). Rather than focus this edition on cleaning up an older tape in need of overhaul, I opted for a slightly different approach this time: I took two already fantastic recordings and made a matrix recording from them. To make a matrix, one combines multiple source recordings to create an experience that draws from aspects of each original source. Referring to and inspired by Dan Healy’s days mixing the Grateful Dead, a matrix usually has a soundboard for one its sources; but this week’s From the Tapers' Section doesn’t, as sharing a matrix recording that includes the LivePhish source is both against Phish’s open taping policy and counter to the purpose of this blog series. Let’s all embrace the AUD fully, shall we?

12/30/17 is a slightly different breed of Phish: it’s got deep jams in both sets, and the band hammers away all evening in an attempt to create as good a show as possible, taking very few breaks for air. The entire performance is fluid and cohesive, with a solid narrative and high energy between band and audience. Given the historical significance of December 30th over the past quarter century, those of us in attendance were hoping for another all-timer; amazingly, Phish was able to match and eventually surpass our lofty expectations.

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Artist Jim Pollock has just done a solid interview with Ben & Jerry's, covering some background basics as well as some aspects of his process, and his thoughts on Phish Food.

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