On the turntable this Sunday...Junta

Junta (/ˌˈdʒʊntəˈ/ juun-tə) is the first official studio release from the American rock band Phish. The album was independently recorded at Euphoria Sound Studio, now known as Sound & Vision Media, in Revere, MA by engineer Gordon Hookailo. Some of the recording was documented on video tape by studio owner Howard Cook. The recording was released on tape in 1988, and did not appear in stores officially until May 8, 1989. The album was re-released by Elektra Records on October 26, 1992. The album is named after Ben "Junta" Hunter, the band's first official manager/agent, whose nickname is pronounced with a "hard" J and a "short" U.

In addition to a few more traditionally structured songs, Junta contains symphonic-like epics and multi-part progressive rock suites.

The album was certified gold by the RIAA on October 9, 1997, and was certified platinum on July 7, 2004.
In February 2009, this album became available as a download in FLAC and MP3 formats from LivePhish.com.

On February 13, 2012, it was announced that Junta would be released on vinyl for the first time on April 21, 2012 as Limited Edition Deluxe 3-LP vinyl set, as part of Record Store Day. The LE Deluxe 3-LP vinyl set is limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies. The vinyl release was created from the original stereo master reels with lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, and pressed onto 180g audiophile grade vinyl and includes a free MP3 download of the entire album (transferred from the new vinyl master). Chris Bellman also made two digital transfers from the original stereo master reels, one recorded at 24 bit / 96 kHz, and a second digital transfer recorded at 24 bit / 192 kHz. These digital files were sold at HDTracks. Interestingly, on this new release "Contact" is over a minute longer than in previous releases.

"Union Federal", "Sanity", and "Icculus" did not appear on the original cassette release, but rather only on the Elektra version, which had extra space on the CD format. "Union Federal" was taken from a jam session, while "Sanity" and "Icculus" were recorded live on July 25, 1988. There was a mix up in adding them to the Elektra version post-date, so the May 3, 1988 date inside the album notes is incorrect. The 2009 LivePhish.com digital download also contained these three extra tracks, while the 2012 re-releases did not contain the extra tracks, as these were not part of the original album's stereo master reels.

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