SOUNDTRACK: KASVOT VÄXT-“Cool Amber and Mercury” (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 picks things up a bit. It’s still slow but the tone is a bit lighter. The repeated chorus of “Cool Amber and Mercury” is upbeat and there’s a great poppy guitar riff for most of the song.
There’s also the return of the “foosiplant in torock” as Trey solos. This is a smooth grooving song and a nice pick up after the darker last few songs.
[READ: December 19, 2018] “They Told Us Not to Say This”
This is a story about young Filipino girls and how their lives evolved. It is told in the plural as they experience the world around them. Aside from having feelings for the boys in town, they also are keenly aware of how much more valued the boys are than them.
They note that the few white boys in their town could ball. Brent Zalesky talked about basketball all the time. He didn’t flinch at the sound of gunshots and he received detentions weekly. He stole cassettes and CDs and removed the security stickers with magnets and a BIC lighter. He even took requests for music. Everyone called him Z.
The story then goes to say that Brent took “her” to the movies in junior year. “Her” is Marorie (one of the “we”) and she described the date in wondrous terms.
Our parents said no boyfriends until we were thirty. But their brothers got what they wanted–brand new Honda Preludes on their sixteenth birthdays or Fender Strats for wannabe rock stars.
Sons never fucked up. Sons never had to pat rent. Marorie’s brother got a girl preggo when he was eighteen and they mooched of her parents for years His babies are good luck, her mother said.
The first time that Marorie went to Brent’s room, she was amazed at one poster he had one his wall–he had many posters, all sports heroes, but the one poster was of a woman–not a blonde goddess, but a dark-haired singer named Jocelyn Enriquez. Marorie had never heard of her–nor had any of the other girls, so he started getting them her CDs. The girls were thrilled to learn that Jocelyn went to high school just ten miles from them. And she sometime sang in Tagalog!
Their parents were ashamed of Tagalog but Jocelyn made it sound beautiful.
This inspired the girls to play harder, to work harder. They tried out for the girls’ basketball team and they were fierce. And even if when they grew up they didn’t have the same amount of respect (the ending is a splash of reality) for this one time period they did.
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