I will say this upfront to avoid the inevitable flames from the Phish Nation: I am not a Phish fan. I don't have anything against the godhead jam rock quartet from the great Northeast. I just missed the train to Weekapaug Junction in college and dug deeper into old school punk when so many of my Madison, Wisconsin contemporaries were getting their spin on.

I've seen the group twice before: Once near the very beginning of their career explosion when they played a small theater in Madison around 1990 (complete with their old shtick of trampoline jumping and vacuum cleaner solos) and then again in 2000 at Radio City Music Hall in a gig I vaguely recall being way more intricate and massive than the Hoover days.

And then I saw them again on Saturday (November 21) night at U.S. Bank Arena in my hometown. See, I have an inordinate amount of good friends who live and die by Phish and who are constantly trying to convert me to their cause even as I try to lure them to the Muse/Decemberists side. With a sold-out two night stand in my own backyard, I couldn't resist giving it another shot.

After traversing the shockingly brazen open-air drug bazaar that sprouted on the concourse outside the venue, we made our way inside and the sights and smells (oh, the smells) of my brief late 1980s dalliance with the Grateful Dead nation came rushing back like ... well, you know how that one ends.

I'll dispense with the talk of the onion soup-thick haze that predictably choked the air the second the group took the stage and just say this: I totally get it. To a true outsider, and avowed music geek, watching Phish do their thing for more than three hours is like taking in a master class from a fellow "33 1/3" junkie.

I'm told this was a classic set, and from the opening strains of "Wilson," I could tell both why the band decided to get back together and why their fans were ecstatic at the news. Read more...

The chill in the air is enough to convince us that fall is actually here. So rather than hitting the backyard barbecue, it's time for leaf peeping, pumpkin carving and watching college football. But before you wrap up the last of your work for the week and hit the nearest hay ride, be sure to check out everything you might have missed this week on the MTV Newsroom blog, from the deep dirt on Lady Gaga to some pre-emptively rejected Kris Allen album titles.

» Before Lady Gaga was a fashion-forward hit machine, she was just a New York University student desperately trying to eat a salad without hurting anybody.

» Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell forced the group to bow out of a bunch of promotional dates because he caught swine flu, but that didn't stop us from celbrating the release of the group's new album This Is Us.

» On "Dancing with the Stars," Debi Mazar and Tom DeLay both did the loser shuffle. Meanwhile, Chuck Liddell is gaining some serious skills, but the competition is still Mya's to lose.

» Kris Allen's debut album doesn't have a title yet, and MTV News' Jim Cantiello wants him to know what not to do.

» In other correspondent news, James Montgomery wrote some lovely things about Pink — so lovely, in fact, that she tweeted her gratitude.
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Ever since Phish announced that they would be hosting their own three-day festival, which will be taking place on October 30 & 31 and November 1 in Indio, California at the same site as the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, speculation launched immediately about what the band would do for their "musical costume." One of the group's many traditions is to cover a classic album in its entirety on Halloween (past costumes include the Velvet Underground's Loaded and the Who's Quadrophenia), and this year will be no different.

As a way to build anticipation for the Halloween show (and the weekend itself, which is simply being called Festival 8), the band's official Web site currently contains a massive gallery of album covers. Each of these covers will be eliminated one-by-one (via a scary animated axe, complete with horror movie blood) until the last record standing gets crowned the victor. (It should be noted that we managed to guess a whole bunch of the potential albums in the above blog posts, and we still think the best idea is Billy Joel's 52nd Street.)

So far, the band has ruled out the following albums: Duran Duran's Rio, Elvis Costello's This Year's Model, Pink Floyd's Meddle, the Beatles' Rubber Soul, Firehose's Flyin' the Flannel, the Who's Who's Next, Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man, David Bowie's Scary Monsters, the White Stripes' Elephant and Peter Gabriel's So, among others. The remaining albums are a mix of the strange (Hall & Oates' Private Eyes, Frank Zappa's Hot Rats), the divine (Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction, Radiohead's Kid A, Love's Forever Changes) and the too-on-the-nose (the Grateful Dead's American Beauty, the Allman Brothers Band's Eat a Peach).

Of the remaining albums, it's probably reasonable to eliminate all of the metal (which means Metallica's Master of Puppets and Black Sabbath's Paranoid can take a walk) and hip-hop (say goodbye to the Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty). Since the newest album the group has ever covered was Talking Heads' Remain in Light, it seems unlikely they'd roll out anything too new (like Radiohead's Kid A, Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or MGMT's Oracular Spectacular).

Any of the remaining albums could probably get the nod. The Newsroom's vote? Go ahead and jam on Purple Rain, boys. You've earned it.

After a few weeks of rumors and nail-biting, Phish have announced that they are returning to the festival game with an event they are simply calling "Festival 8," which will take place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California (the same venue that houses the annual Coachella festival). Over three days this Halloween weekend, the band will play a total of eight sets, and one of those sets will be another grand Phish tradition: The "musical costume," where the band plays a set that consists only of a classic album in its entirety.

In past years, the group has taken on epics like the Beatles' White Album, the Velvet Underground's Loaded and the Who's Quadrophenia. We've already made a handful of suggestions about what the group could tackle this year (it'll remain a mystery until they play the first note on Halloween night), but here are a few more ideas.

U2, The Joshua Tree
Trey Anastasio probably wouldn't be able to handle Bono's vocals, but the rest of the band would be able to capture the grandeur of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and Larry Mullen, Jr.'s rhythms would be excellent fodder for expert skinsman Jon Fishman.

Jimi Hendrix, Axis: Bold As Love
Anastasio has borrowed a lot of his guitar technique from Jimi (who hasn't?), so it only seems right that he pay homage to the man. The bluesy runs on "Little Wing" would probably melt a face or two.
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One of the most exciting things about the idea of a three-day Phish festival this fall is the fact that one of the dates of that weekend is Halloween. All Hallow's Eve is a special date for Phish and their fans, as the band traditionally covers a full classic album — which they call a "musical costume" — in concert on that night. In 1994, Phish began the tradition of playing three-set shows on Halloween night, with the second set devoted entirely to a classic album. The first attempt was the Beatles' "White Album," which won a fan voting poll. Subsequent years saw the band tackle the Who's Quadrophenia, Talking Heads' Remain in Light and the Velvet Underground's Loaded.

Phish are not the sort of band to buck tradition, so it should be assumed that they'll be playing through a classic this Halloween. But what record should they tackle? Here are a few suggestions.

Led Zeppelin, IV
Phish have dabbled in Zeppelin before ("Moby Dick" cropped up a bunch during the turn of the millennium), but the epic quality of IV suits the band well. After all, doesn't every Phish fan desire to hear a 25-minute version of "Stairway to Heaven"?

Michael Jackson, Thriller
Considering the recent passing of the legend, it seems like Phish might be interested in doing a tribute. What better tribute than the singer's crowning achievement? "Beat It" and "P.Y.T." are the perfect blend of rock and funk that draw Phish like bees to honey.
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I envy you ... the unwashed masses, the blissfully unemployed, the bearded and bedraggled. You get to go to Bonnaroo, to revel in four days of unadulterated muck and music and mind-altering substances. I don't, because I am stuck in meetings all week.

And this is most certainly a bummer. See, I love Bonnaroo. I think it's the best fest in America, an experience every music fan must have at least once in their lives (and I'm not just saying this because, back in 2007, I got to fly a helicopter there).

But this year, because of the time constraints due to back-to-back-to-back business meetings (read: impending adulthood), I'm not going to make it down to Manchester, Tennessee. I will probably regret this for the rest of my life, because Bonnaroo 2009 looks like it's going to be a blast.

And, yeah, I know that the weather forecast for Manchester could charitably be described as "cataclysmic" — the phrase "strong storms" is bandied about, which should make camping in an open field with 80,000 other revelers a rather messy affair — but that doesn't change the fact that there are tons of can't-miss moments spread out over the fest's four days. Which means that if you're brave enough to, uh, brave the weather, you're gonna be in for a treat.

So even though I won't be down in Tennessee with you, I figured I could still lend a hand. I've thrown together a Bonnaroo Cheat Sheet, highlighting some of the fest's best acts. These are the bands you probably can't afford to miss, even if you have to trudge through six feet of water to check them out.

» Thursday: A bit of a light schedule, as most of the 80k will still be setting up their tents, but you'd be doing yourself a favor if you checked out Passion Pit, a much-buzzed electro-pop outfit from Massachusetts who just released their debut disc, a dazzler called Manners. If you can get past frontman Michael Angelakos' pinched squeal, there's plenty of goodness.
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By Alex Shapiro

In Hampton, Virginia, this past weekend there was a resurrection. Phish came storming out of retirement in a frenzy of wailing guitar solos and fulfilled dreams.

Once afraid of becoming a nostalgia act, the band sounded like anything but that. Almost a reincarnation of their early years, the band returned to their old stage setup, with each member spread out in a line. As the house lights dropped during their first concert in five years, the crowd noise swelled and then erupted through the ceiling as the band began to play a rare song, so sought-after during the previous decade that it had taken on the lore of a unicorn.

"Fluffhead" — it was not only a beautiful rendition but a statement to fans that cemented Phish's epic return as the rock gods of the jam world. The rest of the weekend saw them play long sets of their most famous material. Playing what would be a "best of" iTunes playlist, Phish crushed any doubts that they might lack the fervent passion they displayed during their formative years. Read more...

By Alex Shapiro

The day I have been waiting for has finally come — and I don't mean the DVD release of "Iron Man"! Phish, by way of a video on their Web site, have confirmed the rumors that have been swirling for months: They're back!

The announcement came in the form of a time-lapse clip showing an artist painting an abstract portrait of (arguably) Phish's most storied venue: the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. The "Mothership," as it is known among fans, will blast off on March 6, 7 and 8 of next year when Phish play their first concerts in more than four years. Read more...

· Get ready for the return of the Osbournes. No, the former first family of reality TV is not moving back into their Hollywood mansion. Instead, they're ganging up to star in an upcoming hour-long variety show for Fox that producers are likening to such 1970s cheesefests as "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" and "Donny and Marie."

· Just to prove he's not mad at his old hometown, White Stripes/Raconteurs frontman Jack White has written a poem about Detroit. In the poem, "Courageous Dream's Concern," the now Nashville resident writes, "Detroit, you hold what one's been seeking/ Holding off the coward-armies weakling/ Always rising from the ashes/ Not returning to the earth."

· In other Motor City news, a Detroit resident filed suit against Eminem, seeking $25,000 in damages over claims that Em punched him while the pair were in the bathroom of the Eight Mile Road strip club Cheetah's on the Strip in July of 2006.

· Duuuuuude! It totally, almost, nearly happened! Phish fans who attended the inaugural Rothbury Festival in Michigan over the weekend got an unexpected treat. Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman — three out of the four members of the band that may or may not be reuniting — got together onstage to cover the Beatles' "She Said, She Said."

· Sheryl Crow, Nelly, 3 Doors Down, Colbie Caillat, Army of Me, Clique Girlz and Kate Voegele are among the acts who will record exclusive songs for an AT&T-sponsored Olympics-themed album called Team USA.

By Alex Shapiro

It might be time to grow those dreads back and unpack your tie-dyed Ts, because a Phish reunion might be on the way.

Reunion rumors began to swirl on Internet message boards a month ago, after Rolling Stone published an article in which Phish frontman Trey Anastasio hinted at his desire to bring the band back together. Anastasio (who recently completed a drug-treatment program stemming from his December 2006 prescription-drug arrest) has been recording with longtime writing partner and friend Tom Marshall, at his recording studio in Saratoga Springs, New York. In an interview with PopMatters.com, Marshall poured more fuel on the rumors. "Trey wants Phish to come back," he said. And when all of the members showed up at the Jammies in May to accept their lifetime achievement award, talk continued.
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