SOUNDTRACK: KASVOT VÄXT-“Play By Play” (1981/2018).
Back in 1994, Phish started covering a classic album for its Halloween costume. In 2015 they covered the Disney album: Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House, which pretty much meant all bets were off. So in 2018, they decided to cover an obscure Scandinavian prog rock band called Kasvot Växt and their sole album, í rokk. This proved to be a big joke–they were a nonexistent band. They had so much fun creating this band, that they even enlisted others to expand the joke. This included impressively thorough reviews from WFMU and from AllMusic.
The joke is even in the name: when translated together Kasvot Växt and í rokk means “Faceplant into rock.”.
Here’s some more details they came up with:
The Scandinavian prog rock band purportedly consists of Jules Haugen of Norway, Cleif Jårvinen of Finland, and Horst and Georg Guomundurson of Iceland. The album’s label, Elektrisk Tung, supposedly went out of business shortly after the LP’s release and little information about the record appears on the internet. Bassist Mike Gordon made a tape copy of í rokk in the mid-’80s and Phish would play it “over and over in the tour van in the early ’90s.” In the Playbill, guitarist Trey Anastasio insisted, “Every time the Halloween discussion comes up, we talk about Kasvot Växt. We honestly were worried we wouldn’t have the chops to pull it off or do justice to the sound, but when it came down to it, we just couldn’t resist any longer.”
The decision to go with an obscure album few have heard or even heard of appealed to the members of Phish. “We’ve paid tribute to so many legendary bands over the years, it felt right this time to do something that’s iconic to us but that most people won’t have heard of,” Gordon said as per the Phishbill. “And with these translations we’re really performing songs that have never been sung in English before.” Keyboardist Page McConnell added, “I love the mystery surrounding this whole thing. If those guys ever hear we did this I hope they’re excited because we absolutely intend it as a loving tribute.” As for what Phish fans can expect? “A weird, funky Norweigan dance album! Get out there and put your down on it!” exclaimed drummer Jon Fishman.
While the listings for the 10 tracks on the original í rokk were in a Scandinavian language, the titles appear in English in the Playbill. Phish called upon a Nordic linguist to translate the lyrics to English for tonight’s performance.
These songs do not really sound like a Norwegian prog rock band. They do sound an awful lot like Phish (although with a more synthy vibe overall. The band has this part of their live show streaming on Spotify under the Kasvot Växt name. And I’m ending the year by talking about each song.
This song is darker and slower with a kind of dirty funky opening. It even gets more sinister lyrically: “perception is spoonfed.”
There a darker middle section with a badass riff and a repeated chant of “I hope someone notices.” The middle has a slow jam with a cool bass line and then the repeated synth which sounds like its saying “Wow” getting lower and lower and deeper and deeper. It’s cool and trippy and this section could be jammed out into some very interesting places.
For this particular version (which is nearly nine minutes long and is the longest song of the set) they definitely have fun with but I can see it going much further.
[READ: December 15, 2018] “The Ultimate Warrior”
Kroll-Zaidi’s previous story in Harper’s was a wonderfully written horrific story about a guy who kills a dog. This story was far less horrific and is more literary
The opening is certainly peculiar “I had finished lunch when I decided to attend the memorial service later that afternoon for Juno Wasserman, who had died the week before, just shy of seventy.”
Juno had been friends with the narrator’s mother at Vassar and Harvard. The narrator wanted to go the memorial so he could tell her mother something about the proceedings–the women didn’t talk anymore.
The service was in a Buddhist mediation studios near Union square. He looked around for the types of folks that Juno gathered on her world on trips to Patagonia and Formosa and other romantic place names that never were or no loner are the names of countries but still feel like they should be.
As he heads upstairs, he recounts Juno’s life. She was born June but since she was angry and tireless like the goddess, she didn’t want to have a quiet name.
The service includes music played by her nieces and then a recording of Juno herself reading a fairy tale about the Angel of Death.
He thinks it’s weird and that her voice sounds thin. The fairy tale is about a man who asks death to spare his life until each of his daughters is married. Each time death asks him a question and his farm animals help him to answer them.
We learn that Juno more or less raised the narrator when he was a young boy. That he loved watching the WWF and vividly recalls the day that Hulk Hogan defeated the Ultimate Warrior. He also distinctly remembers the day that Juno was unfairly evicted and he (as a young boy) went with her to track down her stuff which had been removed from her place.
The two of them went to a warehouse in New Jersey–Bayonne, maybe–and tried to convince the guy to give her her stuff back. A deal was eventually struck although the narrator never knew the terms.
The end, which shows his mother’s indifference is perfectly written.
I Just Read About That... 
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