Drone Diplomacy

12/16/99, Raleigh, NC, Reynolds Coliseum

SET 1: Wilson > Chalk Dust Torture, Lawn Boy, Limb By Limb, Horn, Back on the Train, Roggae, Heavy Things, Camel Walk, Possum

SET 2: Sand, The Mango Song, Wading in the Velvet Sea > Tweezer > Runaway Jim

ENCORE: Bittersweet Motel > Tweezer Reprise

Listen

As someone who has been arguing for Phish’s indie rock bonafides for decades, I was delighted to find them included on the recent Cardinals at the Window compilation. Assembled as a benefit for the western North Carolina communities damaged by this summer’s Hurricane Helene, the digital album is an exhaustive who’s who of the modern indie scene, with youngsters like MJ Lenderman and King Gizzard, Peak Pitchfork faves like Real Estate and Les Savy Fav, and old heads like REM and Jeff Tweedy. And there, tucked at the very end of the 136-track playlist like they were trying not to scare off any potential donors, is Phish.

And not just any Phish track, but the Raleigh Sand, a 22-minute epic that is absolutely dripping with the advanced-level 1999 sound. It’s pretty obvious why Phish Inc. selected it – in addition to its regional significance, it’s also from a previously released show, so no mixing or mastering necessary*. But there’s still something hilariously bold about submitting a 22-minute track to a multi-band compilation, even if it wasn’t fighting for limited physical media space. They could’ve sent in something more broadly palatable like Roggae or Limb – both excellent tonight – or, god forbid, Heavy Things, but instead they went with the evening’s heaviest slab of music.

It’s a perverse choice, and I love it. It’s also sort of smart in terms of building a potential bridge to the breed of indie rock fans attracted to the roster on Cardinals at the Window, which favors a particular domain of the genre that is more Phish-adjacent than it likely realizes. It’s a world of artists that traces back to a scene that itself emerged in the mid-to-late 90’s, several rungs down the venue ladder from Phish destroying America.

That scene was post-rock, a kind of clunky and very vague genre name that nevertheless stuck. Best known through bands such as Tortoise, Slint, Godspeed You Black Emperor or Sigur Ros, the sound described artists using mostly rock instrumentation but fluid with sounds from jazz, electronic music, modern classical, and the potpourri category of “experimental.” As a 90’s Chicago kid, post-rock was the local sound I graduated to after the grunge/alt boom faded. And as I mentioned in my essay for the Gold Soundz show, Phish never felt that far away from Tortoise to me, despite the cultural distance.

People don’t throw around the term “post-rock” so much any more, but I think the loose assemblage of artists under that umbrella remains a huge influence, if you know where to look. While mainline indie rock has sunk into a dead-end pit of dreary, polished singer-songwriter melancholia, there’s still deep pools of interesting, independent music being made that, to me, sounds clearly descended from Tortoise and their ilk (in some cases, directly). And lots of those bands turn up on Cardinals at the Window, from Nathan Bowles’ ghostly bluegrass and Bill Orcutt’s guitar symphonies to Mary Lattimore’s astral harp and Mind Over Mirrors’ drone hypnosis.

Does the Raleigh Sand sound like any of these acts? Not exactly**. But it does sound like three acts I adore that could’ve easily slotted right into this compilation – Natural Information Society, Bitchin Bajas, and Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet. What all these groups share in common is their embrace of repetition and improvisation, playing glacial, generative pieces that absolutely scramble my brain, in good ways. Many times I’ve seen or heard these groups and experienced the same out-of-body euphoria I get from a great Phish jam, even though the musicians would probably be deeply insulted if I ever mentioned that comparison.

If you want to find the Phish improvisation closest to how those groups sound, you couldn’t do much better than a December ‘99 Sand – assuming festival secret sets are out of bounds. This isn’t my favorite Sand of the month, as I think Providence just pips it. But the stretch from 4:00 - 13:00 is unquestionably an excellent lure for snaring post-rock fans that think Phish is all wiggly hippie music. Synth-heavy from both sides of the stage and layered over that dark, relentless rhythm, it could fit right in as a section of “Djed”. The last ten minutes are the dicey part; once Trey’s back on guitar, it’s probably a little too butt-rock for the hardcore indie chin-strokers at first, but it builds up to a Sonic Youth-y climax by the end that could win them back.

It’s certainly a better crossover candidate than Raleigh’s other big jam. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great Tweezer, and it’s nice to hear our special boy back in form after a mostly disappointing 1999 campaign. But straight talk: Tweezer has very stupid lyrics, and even the Phish-skeptical who somehow make it past the first five minutes would likely be reaching for the skip track button with all the bass-poppin’ in the initial jam – post-rock can be a lot of things, but rarely is it this funky. And even if they stick around, my imagined snobs might not appreciate the expert build of the jam’s second half, from quiet microfunk up to triumphant rafter-rattling climax, as it’s music designed for venues much bigger than indie bands typically frequent.

I used to be the internet’s biggest advocate for indiejam, but I’ve mostly grown tired of the campaign – appreciation for the Dead is now completely established, but the jamband reappraisal mostly stopped short of critically rehabilitating Phish***. Then again, there are still people to convert. Like Grayson Haver Currin, a fellow Pitchfork alum I knew mostly as an appreciator of experimental music, who just wrote the best mainstream Phish profile in years, maybe ever. Currin, one of the curators of Cardinals at the Window, was surely responsible for Phish’s invite to this cool-kid party. But once there, the Raleigh Sand is the track that has to break the ice, and I’m hopeful it will for at least a couple open minds who make it to track 136.

* - They’d save those resources for the charity release of 10/26/94, a show I mostly remember for the fan chaos.

** - I do think Mary Lattimore sounds like if mid-90s DDL Jam Trey played harp instead of guitar.

*** - The exception being Vampire Weekend, who is still out there fighting the good fight by “bringing it back to 1998.”