Phish is terrible shit. Bat For Lashes, while not my thing, is 500 times better than Phish.
yeah, they're shit . . . that's why they have only been a band for 21 years, sold over 8 million "studio" albums (not including the number in millions of live show albums off their website), hosted 7 three day festivals where only they played, have sold out every single show they have ever played, no matter what the size of the venue, regularly played 10 months of the years every year for 10 - 15 years, have the respect of many bands and guitar players from all genres of music ranging from bluegrass/country/rock/indie/rap, had their tickets scalped for as much as $1000 for just 1 of their shows, are only four people who can create such a sound that they do, are a jam band who have never covered a single dead song, rolling stone magazine called them the "most important band of the nineties," have a ben and jerry's ice named after them which donates part of the proceeds to a vermont charity, each band member formed their own succesful side project (some two), have songs on rock band video game, have a tickets by mail order process thus bypassing ticketmaster and livenation, have fan-run charitable organizations dedicated to music education for children which have announced two $5,000 grants a year, all members are mental giants who all have their doctorates, have received a lifetime acheivement award, a cult following in the millions by now that will tour with them no matter where they go, be it anywhere in the states or other countries, been on the simpsons.
While a lot of this is true, and I am a Phish fan, there is also a lot in this little rant that is not true, including:
*Have sold out every single show they have ever played
*Never covered the Dead
*Bypassing Ticketmaster and Live Nation (pre-sale this time was handled by Music Today, owned by Live Nation)
*Each band member formed their own successful side project (though I suppose this depends on your definition of "successful," but Jon Fishman - to my knowledge - has not formed his own group independent of Phish, though he has sat in with others)
*Each band member has their own doctorate
Like I said, I'm a fan - but you can defend Phish without making shit up.