Carrie Brownstein and ... Phish

Did you ever think you'd hear those words in the same sentence? Me neither.

Neither, it seems, did Carrie Brownstein. Recently, on the heels of a "convince me why you love certain bands" blog challenge, Brownstein decided to take up the mantle offered to her by a reader/Phish enthusiast and give the idea of becoming a Head a try.

Since then, she's posted a few brief blog updates that straddle the fence between sincerity and cheekiness, and today posted a wonderful little video montage of her first trip to the record store to buy Phish recordings.

This is a particularly interesting story to me since, as regular readers know, Brownstein has previously been awarded the Cleveland Bachelor's creepiest prize, the temporary indie rock crush status, AND because CB himself served a stint as a Phish Phan in college. By the time the band broke up, though, I was well over the scene, mostly because everything they were doing then sounded a lot like everything they had been doing for the previous several years AND because the parking lot/phan scene was just so lame and gross. However, I'm happy I had those years, because the band's laudable tendency to craft ingenious and surprising covers turned me on to a lot of things I'd likely not have checked out before.



Anyway, check out Brownstein's odyssey by clicking on the following links. She's only halfway through the week of Phishiness, so what you'll find so far is not yet complete. However, here is her initial Phish-related announcement, with its Strangelovian title ("How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Phish"), and here are updates one and two (check out particularly her hilarious documentation of her - and her pets - pre-Phish wardrobe status). The video that got me writing this whole blog post is below, too.

Buying My First Ever Phish CDs from Carrie Brownstein on Vimeo.

UPDATE:

This just keeps getting better. In Update Four, Brownstein basically says that rather than keep sending her suggestions via her blog's comments sections, why don't all the local (i.e., Portland) readers just meet up at a bar with her. (How freaking cool is that?) That's it - Carrie Brownstein is back to being my indie rock crush, forever. Anne Lise Frøkedal, your 6-week reign has ended.



SECOND UPDATE:

Carrie finishes things up here in a well-thought and honest post. You want the verdict between her and Phish, you'll just have to read.