Osiris Media ‘The Drop’ Podcast Profiles JamBase’s ‘Cluster Flies’ Compilation

The latest episode of Osiris Media’s The Drop podcast is devoted to Cluster Flies, a compilation put together by JamBase featuring 17 Phish covers from some of our favorite artists. An interview with JamBase CEO David Onigman detailing the process that led to Cluster Flies kicks off the episode before members of the Undermine team highlight their favorite tracks from the compilation.

Undermine contributors Brian Brinkman and David Goldstein, who co-hosted the Beyond The Pond podcast, spoke with DaveO via video chat a few weeks back. Onigman explained where the idea for Cluster Flies came from and why paying tribute to Phish’s Farmhouse album was perfect for a tribute. “I thought it was really good, especially with the type of artists we wanted to reach out to, that it was a record like Farmhouse rather than Rift,” Onigman said. “I love Rift and I love Farmhouse but the collection of songs are very mature and not as wacky, there’s not a whole lot of silliness to it. [Cluster Flies] turned into a really nice tribute to the songs themselves in addition to some jams.”

DaveO went on to take Brian and David through how JamBase decided on the group of artists pitched for the project. “One thing that all of these artists have in common is that they’re all people that we legitimately love to listen to at JamBase,” Onigman stated. He also shared the story of how Cluster Flies evolved from a straight tribute to Farmhouse’s 12 tracks to a complete reimagination of the LP featuring 17 tracks.

Brinkman, Goldstein and Onigman discussed specific tracks on Cluster Flies including what Ryley Walker did with “First Tube.” DaveO also shared how special the experience of hearing the covers for the first time was, selecting Joe Lambert to engineer the compilation, the sequencing of Cluster Flies and more. The Drop concludes with Undermine’s RJ Bee, Jonathan Hart, Brad TenBrook, Goldstein, Noah Eckstein, Matt Dwyer, Brinkman and Tom Marshall, who co-wrote many of the songs on the compilation, selecting and talking about their favorite Cluster Flies tracks.

The limited-edition Cluster Flies 3LP release including custom artwork and a poster created by longtime Phish collaborator Jim Pollock is available for pre-order through May 3 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Head to www.clusterflies.com for purchasing information as well as full album credits and tracklist details.

Stream the Cluster Flies episode of The Drop below:

JamBase is the media partner of Osiris Media.