Kasvot Vaxt is a fictional band that was created as a hoax by Phish. The band set up an elaborate backstory for Vaxt, painting them as influential 1980s prog rockers who produced a single album. According to JamBase, Phish’s second set at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Halloween show in Las Vegas included songs from Vaxt. The band told the audience during their Vegas show that the would be covering another band’s album in its entirety, that album would be Vaxt’s i rokk.
Kasvot Vaxt means “Faceplant into rock” in England, the band said. Although Google Translate does not recognize the term as meaning anything.
There is no word in Scandinavian to describe how honoouured we are that obscure American band Pfish has chosen to share our Magnum Opus with their pfans #phish #HappyHalloween
The elaborate backstory created by Phish includes backdated articles and blog posts about the influence of Vaxt. A Twitter account, @KasvotVaxt, features two messages from “the band.” The first read, “There is no word in Scandinavian to describe how honoouured we are that obscure American band Pfish has chosen to share our Magnum Opus with their pfans #phish #HappyHalloween.” The second read, “We cannot handle all this love. Seriously, you are melting our Ericsson phones. Please enjoy Set I, the final stanza before the great awakening.” The bio on the Twitter page simply reads, “Obscure Band.” The band’s location is given as “Scandinavia, NV.”
One blog post about Vaxt, from Allmusic, says that the band released a single album, i rokk, in the 1980s “on a label so small it was essentially a private press.” That piece says that Kasvot Vaxk broke up shortly after the album was released. Another part of the scam was a Perfect Sound Forever interview with Vaxt member Georg Guomundrson that was allegedly from February 2006. Guomundrson says in the interview that he joined the band because he needed a summer job. The preamble to the interview sees the writer say that he has never even heard Vaxt’s album in its entirety. He described i rokk as one of the “many albums that are more heard about than actually heard.”
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