Dead Notes is back—kinda, sorta. Though our normal column remains on hiatus, we had to fire things back up for a talk with Mark A. Rodriguez about his new book of Dead art, After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead 1965-1995.
Category: Grateful Dead
Dead Notes :: The Re-Up, Vol. 1-15
Back by popular demand: for the first time since 2018, we’ve just re-upped the entirety of the music featured in our Dead Notes column, as penned by D Norsen from 2013-18. Get ’em while they’re hot. The two PDF zines included.
For heads, by heads.
Ned Lagin :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Experimental composer Ned Lagin began composing Seastones during his time at MIT, building off of his love of free jazz and his studies of Renaissance music. But it took firmer shape through jams and recording sessions with various members of the Dead (Garcia, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh) and other Bay Area luminaries like David Crosby and Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick. Originally issued by Jerry Garcia’s Round Records, it’s being reissued by Important Records. Lagin joined us to discuss the triumph and heartbreak of this pioneering electronic work.
Blanks And Postage: San Francisco Radical Laboratory and the Mysterious Moogist of Altamont
The Bay Area convergence of art, technology, drugs, and other disciplines is well-documented, but one mostly forgotten node is the San Francisco Radical Laboratory at 759 Harrison Street. The home base of composer Doug McKechnie and electrical engineer Bruce Hatch …
Blanks And Postage: News From the Silk Trombone / Delving into the Deadhead Tour Zine MIKEL
As Dead & Co. fire up the machine for their fall outing, a remarkable stash of the early ‘80s Deadhead zine MIKEL provides a DIY window into what life on Grateful Dead tour was (sur)really like in the early ‘80s, before 1987’s In the Dark blew the band into the top 10 and football stadiums…
Boots In Transit: An Appreciation of the Dead on Cassette
Author’s note: this article originally appeared in 2012 on a now-defunct website called Dead Journalist. It has been salvaged, edited and updated for Aquarium Drunkard. – j jackson toth
From the Eagle Mall to Terrapin Station: A Skeleton Key to Robert Hunter
Dig this. Jesse Jarnow on “The Giant’s Harp,” Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter’s mysterious novel set in the expanded “Terrapin Station” universe and how it connects to a lost suite of 1968-1969 Dead tunes by Jerry Garcia.
Dead Notes #15 :: The Mickey Hart Interview
In late 1967 at a Count Basie concert at the famed Fillmore Auditorium two brothers in the groove were introduced by a stranger who quickly disappeared into the technicolor ethers […]
Dead Notes #14 :: The Howard Wales Interview
It’s no secret Jerry Garcia was a freak of nature when it came to juggling his time with the Grateful Dead and multiple side projects. In 1970 alone, he was […]
Aquarium Drunkard & The Jerry Garcia Family Present: Grateful Shred & Friends, August 1st – The Teragram Ballroom
August 1st – in celebration of Jerry Garcia’s 75th Birthday – Aquarium Drunkard & The Jerry Garcia Family Present: Grateful Shred & Friends, live at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles. Tickets: HERE . w/ Delicate Steve ++ […]
Dead Notes #13 :: Cornell, May 8, 1977
If you’ve been lucky, you’ve found yourself in some college dorm, surrounded by DayGlo tapestries, Nag Champa wafting in the air, stinging your eyes. Your singularly nicknamed but gracious hosts […]
Dead Notes :: The Zine, Issue #2
How many Deadheads does it take to screw in a light bulb? 1000. One to do it and 999 to tape it. There was a time when yellow envelopes stuffed […]
Wax Wonders: Grateful Dead – Anthem Of The Sun (1971 Remix)
A cornerstone of psychedelic music, 1968’s Anthem Of The Sun has long been unfairly brushed off by critics and heads alike. While the group were unhappy with their studio debut […]
Dead Notes #12 :: June 8,1974 — Oakland, CA
1974 is one of the greatest and most transformative years within the Grateful Dead’s history, with two major events setting the tone: the official unveiling of the infamous ‘ Wall of Sound ’ […]
Dead Notes #11 :: March 31,1973 – Buffalo, NY
Welcome to Dead Notes #11. Forty-two years ago, in the early days of March of 1973, Pigpen and a photographer friend sauntered into the band’s rehearsal space at Stinson Beach Community Center […]