Assembly of Dust ringleader Reid Genauer's previous band, Strangefolk, was based in Burlington, VT in the mid-'90s, right around the same time that a certain foursome from that area were blowing up nationally, as they are once again, now that they've reunited and recently headlined Bonnaroo twice in one weekend. Genauer's bands always had a -- pardon the pun -- strange relationship with Phish fans as they were a jammy band from the same town but weren't a "jam band" per se.

Still, when Genauer came up with the idea of recording a CD filled with marquee-name collaborators (a la Santana's 'Supernatural'), the thought of including Phish bassist Mike Gordon was a natural notion. "Truthfully, I nearly fell off my chair when he got back to me saying he would do it," Genauer tells Spinner. "He did it in his home studio. He was text messaging me during the session with comments like 'This is rockin!' and 'Sounding amazing' and I was just pacing with excitement."

Gordon spent two full days laying down bass for the song, entitled 'Arc of the Sun,' during the time when his own band, Phish, was firing up their own engines after a five-year split. "It means a lot to me that he approached it with such intent and attention to detail," says Genauer. "It also reinforced what a huge part of Phish's sound Mike Gordon is. What's more is, after our listening session was done, he and his wife fed me dinner."

It's not the same as Prince serving up pancakes but we'd take it. Assembly of Dust's album 'Some Assembly Required' is now on July 21 and also features collaborations from Bela Fleck, Keller Williams, Grace Potter, Al Schneir of moe., Richie Havens and others.

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