Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho there! Welcome back to another installment of Tape Cases, the jambands.com forum for the tape trading community. This is the place for you to sound off about live music recordings. Please send us reviews of your favorite tapes, CDRs, MP3s, and DATs. Don't feel obligated to review a whole show, or even a whole set; just a song or a few general comments would be fine.

There is a B & P offer wherein one contributor will be chosen at random each month and offered one thing from my collection. For now the offer is analog, but hopefully CDRs will be included in the coming months.

I got some great feedback on last month's discussion of the importance and influence of our collective tape collections. Instead inflicting my own opinions on you, I thought I'd let you hear from some other people on the subject. Laurie is a great friend of mine, and Eli edits the "Jam Between the Dials" section of this very magazine.

You know I really agree with what you said about the tapes and how in a way - on a different level you can get more enjoyment out of them than being at the actual concert. For me -- it's simply put just easier to listen to a tape than to see it live. Maybe it's because I'll listen to it over and over and my ears become trained - but somehow I feel like I can hear more stuff on a tape than if I'm at the concert. My theory is SENSE Deprivation. At a show I'm overwhelmed by the crowd and the stage and the lights and the BIG space I'm in -- my whole environment is new and different...........but when I listen to a tape it's at home or in the car -- environments that I know well (- maybe too well !) --- so since my senses aren't all overwhelmed by the whole concert experience I can really focus on the tape -Laurie

I feel very much the same way about my tapes. They are a great soundtrack to my commute along the NYC subway ride every day. The smelly bum who sits next to me smells so much sweeter when I hear a great Rob (from moe.) bass solo, or a Page jam. It revives me on my trip home, and enables me to get on with my evening. But the best story I can tell you about my own tape-listening experience happened about a year ago. I was in this small town in Germany called Berulsheim, a town where my family lived for 400 years until the Nazis got to them, as part of the last 4 living members of this once vibrant Jewish community. Anyways, the town brought us (me, my uncle, my uncle's cousin, and an old lady) in to sort of make themselves feel better. They erected a statue, rebuilt the synagogue, and declared a regional holiday. It was a really big deal to them, and on my part, it was a very emotional experience. One night, I was walking around this cool village listening to the 98 Virginia Beach Phish summer show. And the progression from "Antelope" to "Brain and Robert" to "Waste" just sent my head spinning. My mood was cemented by the music and the scene. That is a time I will remember the rest of my life. -Eli

There you have it folks! So send your reviews, thoughts, reflections, and odes to your tape collections; we want to hear from everyone out there! People in the trading world can always use suggestions, so why not help someone out? This section is only as great as you want it to be. And now, on to the music...

The Disco Biscuits, Townsend, MD, End of Set I, SBD > FM, 1st Gen., 55 min.
Set List: Helicopters > Run Like Hell > Helicopters, Magellan

I'm very new to the world of Bisco; in fact this tape was the very first time that I heard the band. Being an unabashed live music snob (Sco and Percy Hill are the only two performers whose studio work I listen to regularly, and that's only because of a lack of tapes), I avoided picking up a CD. But when this set was broadcast on a Boston radio program (Space Jam) I was ready and waiting. I was absolutely floored by the performance; it was something totally different, and at the same time, it was a comfortable fit. Since then I've gathered a handful of really nice HQ shows, but have only been able to catch the band when they were playing truncated sets. I was actually able to catch the Irving plaza in the beginning of December but I wrote the tape review beforehand:

The music fades in during the first verse of "Helicopters". After it ends, a circle goes up with a repeating keyboard blip. The drums build slowly in tempo, but it's not until Marc makes a shift that things really start to move. You're pretty much running through a tunnel, things getting a bit more hectic, as you go. Finally things quiet down, but only for a sec, because Jon starts to lay out these washes, building rhythm in between. You can hear unmistakable hints of "Run Like Hell" but it's not fully there. A brief keyboard interlude leads to a pair of final washes before they rage into "Run Like Hell". The lyrics are solid, with a real angry tone. Some more nice board work breaks up the verses, Jon lending his own two cents here and there. The jam picks up where it left off, moving at a good pace. As I said, I am still an outsider on the subject of Bisco, but I want to make the observation that the Disco Biscuits have a "blob". (You know, that ambient sound that Phish returns to in so many jams nowadays, the outgrowth of a practice exercise) Their "blob" is upbeat and relies heavily on keyboard rhythm work, from what I can tell. It seems to permeate many of the jams in or between songs, to the point of establishing a theme or cohesive, underlying sound.

Back to the jam- Jon strums a build and the bass kicks in, giving it a good bounce. Everyone starts to play around a little but the pattern keeps coming back to the bounce. Eventually it gets caught up on a series of plopping sounds and train wrecks before melting into a series of puddles. A flute sound eventually rises to the surface, and its wake laps out, waking Marc. The new baseline takes over, giving the jam definite direction. The band follows suit perfectly, building to Jon's declaration that "Helicopters" are coming. The echoing lyrics are great, and bring down the final avalanche before...

"Magellan" starts up, and it's one of those tunes that is immediately satisfying, like "Scarlet Begonias" or "A Go-Go" or "Add your own choice here." The first jamlet, which still works on the theme of the song-proper is pretty, with nice piano work. But soon enough Marc starts churning up waves with grinding bass, and Gutwillig stirs up some wind. After the second verse Jon plays on that triumphant theme over some great bass and drum work. Aron lights in with a bar or two of organ that pushes things along, before laying low, playing behind the scenes. The oceans calm and a visage spreads out; you can see the darkened clouds hanging on the horizon, but you tentatively rest in the eye. A bit of synth work here and there speckles the scene with flashes of lazy lightning. A pretty keyboard round develops and Jon's somewhat gritty guitar moves over it, closing the space. The music builds, finally becoming furious; Sam announces the end of the jam with a short roll. It sends Marc driving behind Jon, trying to catch up, and snap! The peak is reached, the wave crested. You ride it back into the familiar harbor of the third verse, ecstatic at the homecoming. Organ swells lap at the sides. The pensive section of the song drifts in, at once calming and beckoning. Beautiful piano work dances about the bay. "Once around the world and now I think I'm done".