In the spring of 1971, Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten, along with the band Touchstone, produced and performed the music for an off-broadway show at the Circle in the Square in New York City.
The performance was called Tarot and the music was later recorded and released in 1972 on United Artists. The performance and resulting album both fell into obscurity and is now highly sought-after by collectors of rare prog and psychedelia.
The 2009 Dead made their last stand on July 4th at Rothbury. The second year of the Michigan festival was a rousing success and the Dead’s solid show was a definite highlight. While the band got off to a shaky start on their spring tour, they proved their mettle beneath the Independence Day sky rockets.
Now if there was only a fall tour to start getting fired up about.
You can get the boards of the Rothbury show at dead.net and you find several excellent audience recordings on Etree.
Today we’re looking at some rehearsals and soundchecks from the ’90s, but I do have some pretty remarkable recordings of Jerry Garcia in the studio from 1969 for your downloading pleasure. Enjoy.
Sherman, set the wayback machine for September 1990. (more…)
I love the new Bob Dylan album. I do. Because the older Bob Dylan gets, the more he sounds like Tom Waits. Seriously, though, Together Through Life is another solid, rich album. You can check out the zydeco vibe on “It’s All Good” in the mix down below. Also you’ll find some new Neil Young, some old George Harrison and a couple artists covering the Grateful Dead, including Jane’s Addiction.
Rhino has just released A Cabinet of Curiosities, the ultimate Jane’s Addiction “live, rare, and unreleased” package. A little wooden curio cabinet filled with voodoo dolls, lyrics, reproductions of old fliers, along with the discs (a regular edition in a plain ol’ cardboard slipcase will be released next month). You’ll have to supply your own eyeliner and Nag Champa incense, though.
I got into Jane’s Addiction during the heady summer of 1991 (or was it 1990?) A friend had taped Ritual de lo Habitual for me and while at first I didn’t like “that weird LA shit,” I had to admit it was growing on me. I was having a cigarette (it may even have been a clove cigarette) and listening to side two’s centerpiece, “Three Days,” unfolding like the warm summer evening outside.
Two girls heard the music and came to my window — they crawled into my dorm room and we all sat down on my futon and got acquainted. We instantly became friends. We shared all our stories and some grass. Staying up all night talking, laughing, and playing that tape over and over endlessly. In the morning the three of us watched the sun come up and we ate waffles together. (more…)
The Grateful Dead collection at the Live Music Archive contains not only thousands of Grateful Dead concerts, it also holds a good number of band rehearsal, soundcheck, and studio session recordings. As the latest incarnation of The Dead kick off their 2009 tour, I wanted to take a look at some of these hidden gems.
Today we’re looking at a couple soundcheck jams from the ’90s, and a rehearsal from 1976. In future installments we’ll look at some of Keith Godchaux’s first rehearsals with the band, some more backstage antics in the later days, and a look at what studio outtakes are still in taper circulation, ie: the stuff Rhino left off the studio album reissues.
March 17th, 1995, The Spectrum, Philadelphia
Of course by now, virtually no stone has been left unturned in the Dead’s back catalog. Between Phil Lesh and Friends, Ratdog, and Mickey and Billy’s various projects, we’re pretty far removed from the days when rumors of “they soundchecked ‘St. Stephen’!” ran like wildfire over motel payphones, archaic BBS systems or in actual Grateful Dead fanzines.
When the Grateful Dead had settled into a fairly rigid template for songs and sets, any deviation from the formula or “break out” of an old tune was cause for much celebration and a renewed enthusiasm within the group-mind of band and audience. The best-known example of this is the great Hampton Coliseum ‘Dark Star’ breakout of 1989. The band’s signature psychedelic showcase had fallen in and out of the repertoire since the 1970s and was back in rotation throughout the early 1990s.
But while fan favorites like “St. Stephen” and “Cosmic Charlie*” never reappeared, in the otherwise bleak year of 1995, the Grateful Dead did blow collective minds when they broke out “Unbroken Chain” at the Philadelphia Spectrum on March 19th.
“Unbroken Chain” originally appeared on the band’s 1974 sleeper From the Mars Hotel — a proggy Phil Lesh composition with lyrics by his longtime collaborator Robert M. Petersen. The song was one of the handful of songs on the album that were never performed live. It’s a complex tune filled with unusual chords, myriad changes and a funky, funky bridge.
This remarkable tape recorded two days prior to showtime illustrates Phil’s enthusiasm and intensity for teaching his bandmates the material. He even uncharacteristically bitches out a roadie at one point. Even Jerry is on-board and enthusiastic about breaking out this long, lost gem. (more…)
Hola Amigos! I know it’s been a while since I last rapped at you, but with being a new dad and all, I’ve been busier than a one-armed bass player. No disrespect to any one-armed bass players out there, but you know what I’m saying. We’re still a long way off from the beginning of Festival Season, but lots of information is coming out every day.
As I’m sure you’ve heard by know, Bonnaroo announced its 2009 lineup this past week — Springsteen, Phish, Nine Inch Nails, Beastie Boys, and a cast of thousands. It’s a hell of a strong lineup so far, and more are to be announced. Last year’s ‘Roo was probably remembered for Metallica’s old-school set, My Morning Jacket fresh and tumescent off the release of Evil Urges, and of course Kanye West making folks wait for two hours while his crew set up his enormous light show. Oh yeah, and who could forget Lez Zeppelin?
While no artists have been announced yet, Rothbury 2009 is going to go down July 2nd-5th, again at the Double JJ Ranch. This comes a week after Langerado 2009 was cancelled due to sluggish ticket sales. Folks weren’t too happy when Langerado was going to be held at a different location this year. I’m told that the organizers are going to try and host Langerado 2010 once again at Big Cypress Indian Reservation.
Mountain Jam has announced its preliminary line-up for this year: The Allman Brothers, Government Mule, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Coheed and Cambria, Girl Talk, U-Melt, Ray LaMontagne, and others are scheduled to jam out in Hunter Mountain, New York, May 29th-31st.
Yonder Mountain String Band, STS9, Sly & Robbie, my man Matisyahu, Buckethead and others are set to rage Wakarusa in Ozark, Arkansas, June 4th through 7th.
The Disco Biscuits have announced dates for their 2009 Camp Bisco. Once again at the Indian Lookout Country Club in Mariaville, New York. The eclectic festival has hosted the likes of Snoop Dogg, Shpongle, Infected Mushroom, Soundtribe Sector Nine, and others in the past, and this year’s lineup is still in the works. I’ll send out information as it comes in for this, and other festivals.
If you can’t wait until the warm days of festival season, there’s plenty of good music coming at your face — Soundtribe Sector Nine are getting on the road with their winter tour including a historic four-night stand at The Fillmore in San Francisco at the end of this month. Lotus are kicking off their tour with a pair of shows at the Recher Theater in Towson, Maryland. Their new album Hammerstrike was one of my favorite releases last year. They’re a great band, tight and precise, and totally uplifting. Check ‘em out.
The Improv-Electro-Trance-Your-Ass-Off unit EOTO is bringing the heat to your town with some newly-announced dates. Every EOTO show is completely improvised, and if you have the time, check out some live recordings. The musical ground this duo cover is amazing. I saw Michael Travis a couple years back (remember that night Arnold?) with the improv trio Zilla (with Aaron Holstein and Jamie Janover) and they were amazing. Travis is an incredible drummer and I hope to see EOTO, or Zilla for that matter, soon.
Okay, now on to the Valentine’s treats. (more…)
Free Phil!
Phil Lesh has just released a free Soundboard recording of the Phil Lesh and Friends concert at the Warfield in San Francisco, May 13th of this year. That was the first night of the run to close out the historic theater before being renovated and re-opened by new management. Fitting, since so many historic Dead and Dead family shows went down in that beautiful place. Myself, I saw everybody from Sonic Youth to The Allman Brothers there.
May 13th was the night that the band played the first two Grateful Dead albums in their entirety – 1967’s self-titled debut and 1968’s Anthem of the Sun. Bob Weir sat in that night as well for vocals and some serious jamming. A fantastic night of music and it’s all available here! (more…)
“I would like to thank everybody here for coming, thank you to the clowns for their nice entertainment. They were quite good. Thank you…”
Grateful Dead 12/6/80 Mill Valley Recreation Center, Mill Valley, CA
This is a pretty remarkable and strange little show. Just a couple months after their acoustic residencies at The Warfield and Radio City Music Hall, this great recording finds the band playing a Christmas party at the Mill Valley Rec Center for some kids and their parents. After a lady calls for quiet from the audience, she proceeds to introduce the band to hilarious effect. Before “Cassidy,” a young man can be heard saying “I want rock and roll,” to which Jerry replies, “You do? This is sorta like rock and roll.” Also I’ll be damned if I don’t hear a ping pong ball being volleyed around in the background.
Oh and the “Special Guest” the emcee lady mentions was none other than Santa Claus.
All novelty aside, this is a real solid performance (killer “Jack-A-Roe,” great “Cassady,” and check out that jam in “Bird Song”), and the sound quality is pretty good. Recorded by the famous Betty Cantor, it’s a Betty AUD tape, and when was the last time you came across one of those? And because it’s an AUD recording, you can go ahead and download the sucker!
For more acoustic Dead, check out:
“Phil and Friends” Berkeley Community Theatre 9-24-94
Bob: “I was plugged in, I was just plugged in backwards.”
Jerry: “Just like you always are man…” (more…)
