Another way to fight the absence of any baseball on this "Black Wednesday" has been Carrie Brownstein's Monitor Mix blog at NPR. She was Sleater-Kinney, which were never a favorite band of this blog, but she's quite entertaining when featured on All Songs Considered and in her blog. This week she has taken on an interesting challenge, which while silly in premise, actually points out a fairly legitimate truth.

She's challenging herself to listen to Phish all week. Yes, this is one third of a formerly seminal indie/hip/fem-lib band listening to Phish for a week straight and not as a joke. She's doing it because she acknowledges that Phish have a very devout fanbase and a deep catalog of music, yet she doesn't really know anything about them, other than she can't really relate to those devout fans. The issue she is exploring rings very true, though. Phish is probably the band most reviled by some segments of the listening public simply because of who their fans are and what preconceived notions people have of a band, even if they've never heard a note of their music. Granted, not everyone can like Phish, just like not everyone can like any other act. But whereas most bands get some radio play or other mainstream outlet for people to base opinions on, Phish is judged pretty much on who wears their shirts and stickers, not to mention that one huge three-letter word: "jam".

It's sorta refreshing to read some of Carrie's posts so far, even though she hasn't really gotten around to talking about the music yet. This is a big of a let down since she is a musician and should be able to listen with a fairly discerning ear. She seems a bit hung up on what people will think or explaining for the 47th time that Phish are best known for their live concerts and live recordings, rather than studio albums. She did start a little bit of analysis in the most recent entry, but it'll be interesting to see if tomorrow yields a fair assessment of what she thinks of just humorous anecdotes about tonight's Phish listening party she's organized in Portland.