Music Mag's Gotham Bash

Paste Magazine, the heavy-stock tunes-and-flicks pub for those who can read without actually having to move their lips, flexed a little music star power in Gotham Thursday night. Williamsburg BoHos and record flacks mingled peacefully with Sony and Columbia Records execs as Son Volt provided an outstanding live soundtrack to much of the evening.

Mag editor Reid Davis, looking like an expecting father, nervously peered over his guest’s shoulders looking for his recent issue covergirl Norah Jones. Alas, Jones was no show (Bad Norah!). “I was wandering around looking for Norah and opened a door and there was Brandi Carlile. Total surprise.” Kaki King delivered a set that enthralled a room full of jaded hard-bitten industry types. Carlile floored the aud with a surprise set highlighted by a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.” MTV’s Bill Flanagan and Fountains of Wayne bandmembers mingled through the crowd beneath the blood-red stage lights smoke effects.

We caught up with Phish lyricist Tom Marshall, who we haven’t seen since some mid-1990s show in the band’s backstage inner sanctum, cheekily named Betty Ford Clinic. Life after Phish? Not bad, he says. “But we don’t stay in five star hotels anymore. It’s more like 1 ½-star hotels.” No matter, Marshall, Lenny Kravitz and guitarist Anthony Krizan have founded a new label, Thunderburn Entertainment. The first album out will be “Skip the Goodbyes,” the sophomore effort by Marshall’s Beatles-influenced band Amfibian, which features Marshall on vocals, Krizan on guitar, John Korba on keys, John Hummel on skins and Kevin Hummel handling the bottom. Phish? Phish who? (J. Clarke Jr.)