Junta

Product Description:

Originally recorded in 1988, this album was previously available only at the band's concerts.

Phish: Trey Anastacio (vocals, guitar); Jonathan Fishman (vocals, trombone, drums); Page McConnell (vocals, piano); Mike Gordon (vocals, bass).

Principally recorded at Euphoria Sound Studios, Revere, Massachusetts in 1988.

At the time they recorded their first album, the 1988 double-disc JUNTA, Phish were just an unsigned band from the not-exactly-happening college town of Burlington, Vermont. But by the time Elektra reissued the album, adding 40 minutes' worth of previously unissued live tracks from the band's early days onto disc two, Phish were both the leading lights of the jam band scene and the group most likely to take up the Grateful Dead's torch. What's most surprising about JUNTA is how fully-formed the Phish aesthetic is; despite its somewhat thin sound, the album has the loose, shaggy feel of the group's live sets and the band's trademark sense of oddball humor, as well as their knack for organic, evolving arrangements, on full display throughout songs like "David Bowie" and the 25-minute live showcase "Union Federal." Later albums added just a bit more structure and a hint of pop sheen to the proceedings, but JUNTA proves that Phish arrived on the scene basically fully formed.