Transforms from tow truck to robot and back!

AUTOBOT: HOIST

FUNCTION: MAINTENANCE
"You have to be rolling before you can be fighting."

"No exceptions!" -- All Autobots must submit to his maintenance schedule...knows they must operate at peak efficiency in battle. Jovial, enjoys job and is good at it--will find any problem, from engine overhaul to smallest leaky gasket. As tow truck, hauls 40,000 lbs. As robot, very strong--launches heat-seeking missiles from wrist sockets. Full spectrum multi-sensor behind his head determines an objects' composition, density, tensile strength, energy properties.

  • Strength: 8
  • Intelligence: 6
  • Speed: 3
  • Endurance: 7
  • Rank: 4
  • Courage: 8
  • Firepower: 6
  • Skill: 9
Transformers Tech Specs


Hoist appeared a few times in the cartoon, but I can't recall him ever being used much. He was a variation on the Trailbreaker mold with towing tools in place of the camper cover, and looked a fair bit cooler. I wish I'd bought him as a kid instead of the much-neglected Skids when I had the chance.

Phish's 1993 studio effort; at the time, phans decried it as sell-out, mainstream pop. It features the conspicuously absent Horse from Rift's cover on the front. All you have to do is make this your virgin listen to Phish, and you'll see that the fans take the band for granted. This is not mainstream. There are horns, there is a banjo, there is Hebrew, there is Julius Caesar, and there's even a reference to Jane Fonda--that traitorous bitch. Find me a "pop" album that has all that, and I'll buy it off you for greater than a cookie.

Sure, it sticks to Phish's more palatable rock and roll roots, and yes, the number of must-listen tracks on this album is lower than most of their others, but there are forays into country, jazz, and the inevitable, ubiquitous jamming that makes Phish phishy. What the fans mean by "mainstream" is that it lacks Phish's experimental evolution; up until Hoist, each album had been a new phase in their metamorphosis. I've heard it said of Hoist that you can put every track from it on an earlier Phish album, and it fits that album's theme. Sad, but true. This is not their most innovative work, but that is relative to Phish!

Julius opens the album with toe-tapping, horn-infused funk song that would be right at home near the beginning of Lawn Boy or the end of A Picture of Nectar. It turns into a driving song about Julius Caesar with a chorus of sassy females on backing vocals. Down with Disease has none of the lyric mastery of Julius but the live versions usually involve too much wanderlust for my taste, and this tight four-minute studio version is a nice low-fat tune. If I could features Alison Krauss on backing vocals, singing a love song with Trey Anastasio that recalls the slower, more tender middle tracks of Rift. Riker's Mailbox features Jonathan Frakes, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame, on trombone. I won't say any more here. Axilla (Part II) flows out of it naturally, and is a Junta-esque examination of the speaker's place in the universe... neither written nor jammed as well as Junta's core songs, but still a competent tune. Lifeboy is another quiet one, a song about losing one's faith, and quite touching when done live. Sample in a Jar has been called Trey Anastasio's favorite song, and it's almost worth getting the whole album for this track--even though you can get a live version on A Live One, it's good to know this version. The simplicity will fool you into thinking it's a tossed-off pop single, so listen twice, and--gasp!--listen to the lyrics... they make sense this time. Wolfman's Brother has the simple, practically content-free lyrics that sound great, and are fun to sing. I'd bet money your 3-year-old would be singing along in a heartbeat with this, Contact, and Sparkle; that's just how some Phish is. Listen closely to Wolfman's Brother for John Fishman's cameo singing part: "Shirley Temple," which presumably takes the place of his vacuum solo. Scent of a Mule is the token country/bluegrass song from this album, and it's one of their funniest (or at least silliest). Dog faced boy is, if I'm not mistaken, a quiet, plaintive tune about Vietnam and leaving the girl you love. Demand caps off the album with a jazzy rock tune, a car crash, an extended jam on Split Open and Melt's structure, and the haunting Hebrew funeral song Y-Rushalayim Schel Zahav, which you may recognize from the end of Schindler's List.

All in all, it's a fine album with the performances you expect from the masterful musicians in Phish. Something is missing, but I can't figure out what--I'm tempted to say it's character. The album's distinguishing characteristic is that, unlike their others, it doesn't have any distinguishing characteristics. The songs are all well performed and well written, and it's a great album--objectively. Subjectively, relative to what they show themselves capable of on albums like Lawn Boy and The Story of the Ghost, it's mediocre Phish at best.


  1. Julius feat. the Rickey Grundy Chorale & the Tower of Power Horn Section
  2. Down with Disease
  3. If I Could feat. Alison Krauss
  4. Riker's Mailbox feat. Jonathan Frakes & Béla Fleck
  5. Axilla (Part II)
  6. Lifeboy feat. Béla Fleck
  7. Sample in a Jar
  8. Wolfman's Brother feat. Tower of Power Horn Section, Jon "Greasy Fizeek" Fishman
  9. Scent of a Mule feat. Béla Fleck
  10. Dog Faced Boy
  11. Demand%~%~Split Open and Melt%~%~Y-Rushalayim Schel Zahav (Jerusalem, City of Gold)

Rift-=%{Hoist}%=-A Live One

Hoist (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hoisted; p. pr. & vb. n. Hoisting.] [OE. hoise, hyse, OD. hyssen, D. hijshen; akin to LG. hissen, Dan. hisse, Sw. hissa.]

To raise; to lift; to elevate; esp., to raise or lift to a desired elevation, by means of tackle, as a sail, a flag, a heavy package or weight.

They land my goods, and hoist my flying sails. Pope.

Hoisting him into his father's throne. South.

Hoisting engine, a steam engine for operating a hoist.

 

© Webster 1913.


Hoist, n.

1.

That by which anything is hoisted; the apparatus for lifting goods.

2.

The act of hoisting; a lift.

[Collog.]

3.

()() The perpendicular height of a flag, as opposed to the fly, or horizontal length when flying from a staff. (b) The height of a fore-and-aft sail next the mast or stay.

Totten.

Hoist bridge, a drawbridge that is lifted instead of being swung or drawn aside.

 

© Webster 1913.


Hoist, p. p.

Hoisted.

[Obs.]

'Tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petar. Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.

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