Amfibian Five Years Ago, Phish Lyricist Tom Marshall and His Longtime
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Amfibian Five years ago, Phish lyricist Tom Marshall and his longtime writing partner, Phish front man Trey Anastasio, got together in Vermont with high school friends Matt Kohut and Peter Cottone to practice a number of Marshall/Anastasio songs originally intended for Phish. The band, called Utalk, was to have a small New England tour to play the new songs. Their first practice failed for various reasons -- none of which had to do with the quality and urgency of the material. On their fateful ride home to Central New Jersey, Marshall, Kohut and Cottone decided the music must be heard, but a different band needed to be assembled. AMFIBIAN was about to be born. With music in hand, Marshall, Kohut and Cottone enlisted the talents of three other musicians to form the first version of AMFIBIAN. Armed with those Anastasio-Marshall songs, along with several curious covers, such as Tom Petty's "Face in the Crowd," Pink Floyd's "St. Tropez" and The Band's "Long Black Veil," AMFIBIAN played five successful shows before taking a break to record the band's first album. Amfibian Tales was released in April 2000, and the band proceeded to tour the East Coast from Virginia Beach to Vermont through mid-2001. AMFIBIAN sold out such prestigious venues as the Wetlands in New York, the Middle East in Boston and Higher Ground in Winooski, VT, while selling over 3,000 copies of Amfibian Tales, primarily on the road and through the band's website, www.amfibian.com. Three years later, Amphibian’s second album was released. FROM THE ETHER features an all-new line- up, anchored by Marshall on lead vocals and his writing partner, Chris Metaxas, on keyboards along with New Jersey guitar legend Anthony Krizan, and the rock-solid rhythm section of drummer Joe Larsen and bassist Bob Kay. Writers Marshall and Metaxas were lucky to find Krizan, who played with the Spin Doctors and Noel Redding and is a writing partner of Lenny Kravitz. The new and improved AMFIBIAN has created an album full of lush vocal harmonies on top of music that occasionally feels like "Penny Lane" or perhaps something from "Sergeant Pepper's." At times reminiscent of Steely Dan and at others early Pink Floyd, FROM THE ETHER is never ambiguous about its Beatles influences. It's a hard-hitting rock album, peppered with Marshall's unique lyrical take on several subjects. With no promotion, FROM THE ETHER sold over 500 copies in February 2004, its first month of availability. It is now sold online through the Phish.com website and through Home Grown Music Network (www.homegrownmusic.net) and CD Baby. The healthy early sales are clearly due to Marshall's close ties to the Phish community and its insatiable appetite for all things "Phishy." It is this same community of "Phish heads" who supported Marshall and his first incarnation of AMFIBIAN by selling out several venues that even established bands have trouble booking. Vermont's Higher Ground sold 600 tickets to three separate AMFIBIAN visits in 2000 and 2001, and the venue sold masses of tickets online for the new Amphibian’s April 24, 2004 debut show. Subsequent shows at NYC's BB King's, New Jersey's Stockton Performing Arts Center, Mayfair and other venues have also done well for the band. AMFIBIAN has been quite busy this winter, recording a brand new album, release date TBA. website: www.amfibian.com Contact: S.C. Entertainment 360 West 22nd Street, Suite 9A New York, NY 10011 Phone: (212) 929-0630 Fax: (212) 929-0122 E-mail: [email protected] Websites: www.amfibian.com www.scentertainmentonline.com .