Does Anybody Care About Trey Anastasio Anymore?

[gentlemonkey]

Havent heard much solo trey stuff since like 2002. But, I'm looking forward to hearing his new band in vegas! Might bail on the late night in favour of Umphreys though.

I always enjoyed phish's songs (for the most part) and definitley never had a problem with them taking it out there. I hope hes happy with it!

[MoMack]

Two things;

1. I dont think you can seperate the music from the scene. Dead or Phish. Its the hope etc. that is put forward in the music and expresses itself in the scene.

2. I bailed on Trey a long time ago. Its not "what have you done for me lately" its "why did you only do anything for me from 1995-1997 (I didn't see phish pre-1995, for obvious reasons).

That being said, I am excited for Vegas. Mostly because of the great seats Basher got us, and the fact that my one friend loves him and I'll take my joy from that if the thunder don't get me.

[Freeker]

He chose drugs and ego over the fans.

Jerry died for us.

Fuck Trey

[MoMack]

He chose drugs and ego over the fans.

Jerry died for us.

Fuck Trey

LMFAO! THATS AWESOME!

AMEN!

[Jaimoe]

Trey's gone underground musically. This is a cool thing. I don't think too much about Trey or Phish anymore. However, whenever Trey says or sings something, I'm listening.

[dimafleck: the living legend.]

what has Trey Anastasio ever done for anyone???

NOTHIN!

who cares about Trey Anastasio??

NO ONE.

[Chewie]

i never paid much attention to his solo stuff anyways...but i gotta tell ya, bonnaroo this year was AWFUL! the sound mix, the music was not good.

we moved on to see the brazilian girls i think and enjoyed that better than what we saw from trey

[richbass]

you acn say what you want, but deep down inside everyone wants to hear what trey is doing. I still say oysterhead was the best trey over the last 5 years maybe ever.......................uh oh, im going to go see him in buffalo our of curiousity

[Tooly]

Trey's gone underground musically. This is a cool thing. I don't think too much about Trey or Phish anymore. However, whenever Trey says or sings something, I'm listening.

im with jaimoe on this one. much more so than freekers comments

ps; oysterhead rocked

Edited October 1, 2005 by Guest

[PassedOutGuy]

dima, is that u really posting?

correct me if im wrong but u were throwing down as much as the next guy in Vegas seeing Phish...

or maybe u were there just for the "scene"...

[bouche]

After all the drama of Phish breaking up, Coventry, and the Zooma cancellation, the lack of discussion regarding Trey is remarkable.

Two tours have passed, with only a minimum of attention paid to them around here.

His current tour dates, announced this past week, can be viewed on this board....... in a thread found back around page 7 or 8.

His birthday wishes have been met with drug-abuse jokes and the relative sound of crickets chirping.

What a difference a year makes. If Phish had just announced their Fall Tour, this place would be agog with speculation and delight.

Trey: hope you like your new direction?

Please note, I am not ranting on Trey (that'll come in due course), just noticing the complete lack of excitement over a man who used to be at the absolute centre of whatever it is that inspired sites like this to come along, and all of us to find each other (whether you were a Phish fan, or a "jam" fan is besides the point).

What do you think?

I'll bet that if he is the Vermonter that I assume Vermonter's are like, he's probably happy to not be the frikken pinnacal of every conversation and plans of every wooks summer, spring or fall.

Trey took guitar to a new level for me, and I am hoping to continue to listen to everything he puts out. Trey will can't get worse. HE hasn't....right?

[Booche]

Trey will can't get worse. HE hasn't....right?

[color:purple]Riiiiiiiiiiiiight....................

Are we listening to the same guy? Fuck, I dont even know what you are saying but listen to him during SOTM from that Jerry benefit thingie and see if we know what we are talking about?

What?

Isnt it in D or sumphin?

A great man, or Dr.Huxtable, once aptly pointed out that a supergroup is the sum of its parts and that bashing/fellating one member doesn't always have the bruisy/spunky consequences one might think.

First off, let's not forget. Hux bruises like a peach.

[MarcO]

Turns out everything is just fine with Trey. He's doing well!

[TomFoolery]

My faith has been shaken since hearing Shine.

[Del]

My faith has been shaken since hearing Shine.

Mine has been shaken since 2002-12-31...

[MarcO]

where can I hear this album?

anybody?

[dimafleck: the living legend.]

dima, is that u really posting?

correct me if im wrong but u were throwing down as much as the next guy in Vegas seeing Phish...

or maybe u were there just for the "scene"...

actually, i went down to vegas for two things, and two things only.

hookers and drugs, both named molly. to sum up; banging molly while on molly was EPIC.

Edited October 4, 2005 by Guest

[Cully]

Everyone rags on Trey some times, including myself. The new album is weak, but most of the late phish recordings were weak, and Trey's first solo work isn't that much better (the live versions of these songs were much better) The fact is that Trey still puts on a great show, and he is playing better guitar right now than he has in 5 years. Enjoy it while you can...Oh, and the live version of Shine kicks ass!!!

Edited October 4, 2005 by Guest

[MarcO]

The new album is weak, but most of the late phish recording were weak, and Trey's first solo work isn't that much better.

huh. I thought his first CD was excellent, for the most part, certainly better than the last Phish CD at that time ("Farmhouse").

And "Round Room" is my favorite Phish CD. I thought it was an excellent collection of well-written songs, played well and with real heart and soul. It still holds up today.

"Undermind" was pretty bad, though not because of the songs, imo.

[phorbesie]

i care!

ok, maybe i don't.

http://c-ville.com/

On the cusp of a new tour that brings him to town to open for the Rolling Stones on Thursday, the former Phish frontman speaks out.

Interview by Spencer Lathrop

pluggedin@c-ville.com

My friend, Eric, has seen Phish 55 times, and frontman Trey Anastasio solo at least eight times. He states emphatically that Anastasio has been the foremost positive influence on many of the rock bands on the road today. As all Phish fans know, Anastasio and John Fishman formed the band in 1983 in Burlington, Vermont, while in college. Anastasio transferred to progressive Goddard College, and it was there that he studied music with Ernie Stires, began composing and then the band really came together. Phish toured and made records for the next 17 years, enjoying tremendous success as a live act and allowing fans to trade bootlegs that fans swear by. Fans fondly remember the annual Halloween shows where the band would cover classic albums, like The Beatles’ White Album or Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, in their entirety. Phish also played memorable New Year’s shows, including a Millennium show in the Florida Everglades that drew 80,000 fans and culminated in an eight-hour set that kicked off at midnight.

Anastasio put out his first solo record in 1996, while the band was still together, and his own records comprised music that was often unreservedly different from Phish’s loose, improvised rock. Since Phish split, first on hiatus in 2000 and then permanently in 2004, Anastasio’s music has been adventurous, never static, always searching in new directions. He has been in bands and made music with Marshall Allen of Sun Ra’s Arkestra, Police drummer Stewart Copeland, downtown jazz guitarist Marc Ribot, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds.

Trey’s new record, Shine, is due out in early November. The CD is made up of very crafted tunes that are as happy and tuneful as they can be, and out-and-out rockers that make you want to put the top down. There are lots of harmonies, plenty of B3 and tambourine, and very positive lyrics. “Come as Melody†begins with a verse reminiscent of Mystery Tour era Beatles, and develops a rocked upbeat chorus built on a fine guitar part. “Whenever You Find It†rings like post-Fab Fourdom, and “Sweet Dreams Melinda†could be one of those songs written for the beauty of the name alone. In Char-lottesville this Thursday, opening for the Rolling Stones, Trey will begin a 19-date tour with his new band, 70 Volt Parade, in support of that CD. For everyone who got a Stones ticket, get out there early and get turned on to Anastasio’s new tunes and band live.

When I talked to him by telephone last week, he had just returned from walking his daughters to school.—S.L.

C-VILLE: What is Ernie Stires’ influence?

Trey Anastasio: Not on my songwriting. He and I worked together a lot [when I was] a music student in the 1980s on orch-estration, composition and form. He is also a mentor and a great friend. He taught me how to write a fugue.

Do you consider yourself a songwriter first?

At this point, I do consider myself a songwriter. In the last five years, I am finding myself much more interested in expressing my emotions singing. I used to think of myself as a guitar player and an arranger, but I find myself more of a singer now.

Is there anyone who inspires your songwriting?

There are a lot of people who inspire me. It depends on the day. I listen to so much music. This week, I am listening to The Clash and early Bruce Springsteen. I’m having an early Bruce Springsteen renaissance. Last night I was listening to some of his early stuff and comparing it to where he is now. “Jungleland†is amazing, the operatic quality to the whole thing, with all of the sections. I grew up in New Jersey and I saw Bruce the first time when I was 12 or 13, 1977 or 1978 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. And I remember being just floored by the whole thing. Obviously anyone growing up in New Jersey in 1976, Born to Run was what you listened to. It was recently that I went back and listened to it and realized that it was verging on progressive rock. [laughs] Some of these section-y kind of ways of writing were in that music. It was cinematic. And this happened in the last two days, so if you asked me a different day I’d have said something else. I started realizing how much I was influenced by that music without really attributing it to him. The other thing I notice when I listen to Bruce Springsteen is how much of Tom Waits I can hear in him. I’d say that Waits is the best songwriter alive right now as far as I’m concerned. Top of the heap.

Other new artists?

This is going to sound like I am jumping on some kind of bandwagon, but I really like The Arcade Fire. I just saw them at Summer Stage about a week ago, and Bowie came out and sang with them. That was a great concert. First band I’ve heard in a while that to me…a lot of people say Talking Heads, but I am hearing more My Bloody Valentine at one end and Phil Spector’s wall of sound. Because they have got that ’50s big-chorus thing happening, but the chord progressions are more modern. And they did some cool stuff. It was super joyous and inclusive of the audience. Everyone was singing along because the choruses are catchy, but then they would change the bass lines. They were very unique.

Your new band?

I try to embrace all of the things that the other band didn’t have. The whole thing kind of built around the drummer, Skeeto Valdez. There was something that Fish [Phish’s drummer] and Mike [Gordon] did that was very unique that was dependent on the bass in a lot of ways. Strong bass player, and Fish is very feathery and he would dance on top, and Mike would lay down this strong rhythmic foundation. So I didn’t want to do that again, because nobody is going to do it like that. And the other band [his first solo band] was very metronomic, very deep in the pocket, but they never really varied and I wrote a lot of music for that band based around that quality. So I wanted to find a drummer who was more like Zappa’s drummers. Like real backbeat and heavy, like Aynsley Dunbar style, but when I would do solos they would go with me. I’m really happy about that. And then Tony Hall, who used to play with the Neville Brothers and Harry Connick, so it’s a lot more funky. I met Tony when I did the Dave and Friends tour.

I really liked the Dave Matthews and Friends band.

I loved it too, the whole band. Ray [Paczkowski] came with me to that band. He is an amazing keyboard player. We are going to redo that band in October for a couple of performances in Las Vegas.

To me, you seem unafraid to take chances musically.

I like taking chances. One of the reasons that I said I was looking into Bruce Springsteen is that I am looking into people who continue to progress into that stage of their life. I think he is embracing being the age that he is, in a way that seems very healthy to me. He is playing music that sounds very different, and that is something that I want to do. If you have these musical moments that are genuine and spontaneous, then you get that feeling, and that is the feeling that everyone wants to get. Like Arcade Fire, they have one album out, and there is a sense of discovery to their music, right? And I could see all these people from the music industry in New York there and they are trying to get a piece of this thing. It is so powerful, that feeling. The band does not even quite know what is going on. They do, but they are jumping around, because it’s new. So, if you want to continue to have that feeling, you have to be really careful. When you discover it, you feel suddenly plugged into that socket, you have to be willing to go into a situation where it is only going to happen again in a way that you couldn’t have predicted. So you have to keep moving forward and taking chances.

“He not busy being born is busy dying.†It is of the utmost importance to me, without being self-indulgent. The ultimate goal is to try to be inclusive. You want people to go with you. I want to.

Are you a catalyst for the jam bands out there today?

I don’t know. It is interesting that the band that I just put together, with the exception of Ray, and Tony because he played with Dave, but none of the others had even heard a jam band. Les [Hall—guitar and keyboards] loves Radiohead and Maynard and Tool, and I do too. If I am a catalyst, then I hope I am a catalyst to keep branching out.

Interested in jazz?

I love jazz. Classic music.

Musical achievement you are most proud of?

Maybe it’s not really musical, but the feeling that my friendship with Mike and Page and Fish continues to be so deep. At this point in time, as we are moving into different areas than Phish, that makes me very happy. Making that move that was so difficult, and making a left turn out of that world, the essential bonds stay healthy. Because it was a move that had to be made. Taking this risk. It was so hard, and everybody is fine.

Uprooted?

But I like to feel rooted and uprooted, both. When I made the new album, I went down to Atlanta to Southern Tracks. I was alone and went with a backpack. Before, we always went with an entourage, and that was very symbolic. I think you can hear it in the album. There is a light and unhinged quality in the music that I hadn’t heard in a while. Everything had gotten so big around the Phish world, more and more stuff and more people. And we were kind of attached to that world. I was in Atlanta alone for two months in a hotel, just me and Brendan [O’Brien, the producer]. It felt so right because it was just about songs. It was very much of a contrast, so that quality of being uprooted felt very good.

Stones?

I saw them in the 1980s at a stadium in Montreal. Sticky Fingers is probably my favorite. Exile on Main Street of course. I love Some Girls. I have not met them, but my apartment in the city is right next door to Keith Richards’. I have never seen him, although I’ve seen his daughters. I’m his next-door neighbor.

Enjoy making records?

I loved making this new record. I can’t wait to start another one, believe it or not. It is a great experience. Very pure in a certain way, and I needed that. Atlanta is a super-cool place to hang around. It is a great area. It had a big effect on the record.

How consciously charted is your career?

Not consciously. Try your best to follow your heart is all you can do. I try to do that. Some of the changes of the last year were difficult, but healthy on a deep level. I’d love to continue to take risks, but for the right reasons. Listening to that inner voice and trying to follow it, I hope.

[mark tonin]

I'm excited to see Trey play this fall - I'll be seeing him at Shea's Theatre in Buffalo.

I haven't seen Phish since they called their hiatus after the NYE '99 show - I lost interest then and when they started playing again I found myself digging lots of other bands and I wasn't really excited about seeing Phish again, especially if it meant a long road trip to do so.

I saw Trey at Darien Lake with the horns (and Fishman on a second kit) and loved it, and I saw Oysterhead at Massey Hall and really liked that show ... I love the Oysterhead cd, although Oysterhead is more Claypool than Trey, in my humble opinion.

I'm not really sure exactly why I'm excited about seeing Trey this time around. Part of it is the venue ... I've got fond memories of Shea's from years ago. It's certainly not anything I've heard of late, as I haven't really heard anything by him from the last two years, although I think I'll download some stuff in the near future and I'll most likely buy his new cd. It's a gut instinct thing ... I've loved what he has done in the past, when I read what he says in interview I feel like I can relate, I'm basically the same age as he is and feel like I'm at a similar point in my life in some ways, and I'm into the idea of hearing him play high-energy rock and roll. I hope that he decides to play his guitar like we all know that he can on this upcoming tour. He says in the above interview that he has most recently delved more into songwriting and singing, and that's fine with me ... I just hope he uses his guitar in a big way to accentuate what he has to say lyrically. Whatever it is he decides to sing or play, I'll be listening.

Peace, Mark

[peipunk]

Bwahahaha, I got nothing against Trey, just thought this pic was funny....

Edited October 6, 2005 by Guest

[mark tonin]

That pic made me laugh out loud. Three times.

Nice to see you posting on this board, Chris. I hope life on the island is treating you well.

Peace, Mark

[MarcO]

I keep hearing Trey's new single "Shine" on the radio and I am blown away.

Blown away by how bad it truly is. I like pop music quite a lot, and I think it takes real talent to write a catchy, effective 4 minute song. This is not one of those songs.

I am absolutely amazed at what Trey has demonstrated musically post-Phish. Is this the same person?

[secondtube]

just curious, what radio station is playing Shine?

(and no, its not the same person...at least thats what i keep telling myself.)