When is a covers album not a covers album? When it’s this elaborate prank by the men of Phish. For more than two decades now, the jam-band vets have been covering a classic album in its entirety at their Halloween shows. They’ve done everything from The White Album and Quadrophenia to Exile on Main Street, Ziggy Stardust, Remain in Light and even Disney’s Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House. This year, they announced they’d be recreating something even stranger: An album called í rokk by an obscure Scandinavian band called Kasvot Växt. They even enlisted assorted online sites to publish fake bios, reviews and interviews with the supposed band. All of which is a long way to go just to disguise 10 upbeat, playfully silly Phish songs that are totally worthy but hardly miles out of character — and most assuredly sound nothing like any Scandinavian band you’ve ever heard. Next time, they might want to mix it up a bit more musically if they really wanna pull the wool over our eyes. Or just bite the bullet, learn Physical Graffiti and be done with it.
