Dead Files

Less a homage than an interpretation, less a rereading than a resurrection, Deadjazz gives new life to the music of the Grateful Dead, the legendary group of the psychedelic era. Drawing inspiration from a cult repertoire, played by musicians who have had an unwavering bond with the Belmondo brothers for decades, this collective project is an immersion in a crucial moment in the history of music: when jazz became electric to the rhythms of rock and rock freed itself from the constraints of the song format through improvisation.

Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead is a live album consisting of audio and video recordings from the Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead concerts performed by surviving members of the Grateful Dead Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart, with Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti…

The 14th installment of Dave's Picks is devoted to another 1972 show, this one taken from an appearance at New York's Academy of Music on March 26, 1972 - i.e. before the Dead headed across the Atlantic for their legendary series of European shows. Generally, it's a pretty muscular performance, getting off the ground with a driving "Greatest Story Ever Told" and featuring a hefty dose of Pigpen in the first set, including "Mr. Charlie" and the one-two punch of "Big Railroad Blues" and "Big Boss Man." Here, his blues leanings seem of piece with the other roots the Dead lay down early - Jerry Garcia sings Hank Williams' "You Win Again," Bob Weir turns Marty Robbins' "El Paso" into one of his signature cowboy rambles - but by the time Pigpen surfaces toward the end singing the crawling "The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)"…

The ongoing Dave's Picks archival series takes on the lifelong challenge of presenting some of the best of the Grateful Dead's endless back catalog of live sets, cherry-picking recordings from nearly four decades and literally thousands of gigs and revisiting them with refurbished sound and meticulously detailed presentation. Vol. 13 of the series presents the full three-set performance from the band's February 24, 1974 date, the third of three nights at San Francisco's Winterland Arena. This date finds the band in fantastic form, using a sound system that predated their famous "wall of sound" amplifier system by just a month, and spinning their cosmic wheels through a spirited first set of rockers like "U.S. Blues," "Candyman," and "China Cat Sunflower" before relaxing into more wide-reaching territory in the second and third sets on extensive jams like "Weather Report Suite"…

Dead Meadow's unique marriage of Sabbath riffs, dreamy layers of guitar-fuzz bliss, and singer Jason Simon's high-pitched melodic croon have won over psychedelic pop/rock and stoner rock fans alike, while elements of folk and pop would creep into their formula over time. Although the band's members met while attending all-ages shows in and around Washington, D.C.'s punk/indie scene, the trio draws more of its sound from such classic rock legends as Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath. The trio formed in the fall of 1998 out of the ashes of local indie rock bands the Impossible 5 and Coulour, with singer/guitarist Simon, bassist Steve Kille, and drummer Mark Laughlin. The three members set out to fuse their love of early-'70s hard rock and '60s psychedelia with their love of fantasy and horror writers J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft. Collection includes: "Dead Meadow" (2000); "Howls From The Hills" (2001); "Got Live If You Want It!" (2002); "Shivering King And Others" (2003); "Feathers" (2005); "Old Growth" (2008); "Three Kings" (2010); "Warble Womb" (2013).

A sealed, unlabeled box sat undisturbed for decades on a shelf in the Grateful Dead’s San Rafael tape vault on Front Street, its contents an enduring mystery, even to those few with access to the vault. All David Lemieux knew about that box when he became the Dead’s archivist was that it contained tapes belonging to Bear—Owsley Stanley, the Dead’s first soundman and architect of the Wall of Sound. Even in the Dead Heads’ Holy of Holies, the taped-up box was tantalizing. But this was Bear’s personal property, and so he didn’t touch the box out of an abiding respect for the elder luminary of sound. Bear’s archive of Sonic Journal recordings had been kept safe for him for years within the Grateful Dead’s vault—over 1,300 reels of tape stored in heavy-duty cartons like old banana boxes. At any time, David could have popped the tops and explored them to his archivist heart's content. But they were off-limits without the nod from Bear.

One more Saturday night at Winterland! Yes, we're back to home base for DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 42, the complete show from Winterland, San Francisco, 2/23/74. The one that featured the earliest amalgamation of what would soon become the Wall of Sound, the one that is so "loud, clear, and defined," it's been ripe for release for quite some time and we're glad it's finally getting its due. First set or second, there are no wrong answers here. From the unique show opener of Chuck Berry's "Around And Around" and an incredible "Here Comes Sunshine" that would then disappear for 18 years, to a medley of WAKE OF THE FLOOD tracks - "Row Jimmy," "Weather Report Suite," and "Stella Blue" - cementing their status in the canon and an unstoppable hour through the classic 1973-1974 Dead that is “He’s Gone”>“Truckin’”>“Drums”>“The Other One”>“Eyes Of The World,” it's all exceptionally hot.

Steamboats and BBQ, ice cream cones and Mardi Gras - are you ready to laissez les bons temps rouler with the "gateway" to the Grateful Dead? Meet us, won't you, in St. Louis for seven complete and previously unreleased Dead concerts that capture the heart of the band's affinity for the River City.

"Certain people" will know that we're coming in hot with one that's got all these things and more, Dave's Picks Vol. 41: Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, MD, 5/26/77. Yes, there's still plenty of spectacular May '77 to go around. Nearly chosen for Dave's Picks Vol. 1, 5/26/77 delivers three-fold. There's one count for the energy - all the precision of the Spring tour conjuring up the raw power of the Fall tour that was to come. There's another for the setlist which featured beloved songs from WORKINGMAN'S DEAD and soon-to-be favorites from the freshly recorded TERRAPIN STATION. And a third for its element of surprise (or shall we say surprises) from an astonishingly peak 15-minute "Sugaree" to new delights ("Sunrise," "Passenger," "Jack-A-Roe') to a rare first-set finale of "Bertha" to the second set's "Terrapin>Estimated>Eyes," traveling leaps and bounds towards the improvisational journey that is a nearly 17-minute "Not Fade Away."

“For the Grateful Dead's second live album, released two years after its predecessor LIVE/DEAD, the band delivered an equally magnificent, but entirely different, Grateful Dead sound. Whereas LIVE/DEAD was a perfect sonic encapsulation of the band at the peak of their Primal Dead era, SKULL & ROSES captures the quintessential quintet, the original five piece band, playing some of their hardest hitting rock 'n' roll (‘Johnny B. Goode,’ ‘Not Fade Away’), showing off their authentic Bakersfield bona fides (‘Me & My Uncle,’ ‘Mama Tried,’ ‘Me & Bobby McGee’), and some originals that would be important parts of the Dead's live repertoire for the next 24 years (‘Bertha,’ ‘Playing In The Band,’ ‘Wharf Rat’).