Dog Gone Presents

SUMMER OF DEAD: Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte North Carolina, March 22, 1995

IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN. After taking last year off, I’m reviving the Summer of Dead series. I’ll be taking another 30 trips around the sun with the Grateful Dead … only this time I’m taking those trips in reverse! Wow, right? I think it’ll maybe give me a little more momentum? Or something. Who knows. Shall we go, you and I, to the dark starless days of 1995?

I enjoyed this show, believe it or not – the audience tape really captures that special blesh, with the crowd becoming another instrument in the mix. Sure, there are plenty of questionable moments, with the Dead sleepwalking through some segments. Garcia sounds totally checked out on “Lovelight,” that is for damn sure. And beware of the awful Beatles cover! But there are good moments too – the long, laid-back “He’s Gone,” a pair of jaunty Dylan covers (“When I Paint My Masterpiece” and “Quinn The Eskimo”) and of course, a bizarro Drums > Space, complete with gnarly synths and midi-horn guitar. The good shit.    

HEADS: A Biography of Psychedelic America

HEADS is here! Jesse Jarnow’s thoroughly absorbing ramble through 50+ years of acid-soaked American history is one of 2016′s best reads – I raved it up over on Aquarium Drunkard. Short version is that you need to get it. And while the it goes way beyond being Another Book About The Dead, Heads will have you headed to the Archive to dig various recordings … in particular, it sent me on an early ‘66 bender. I recommend you check out the Longshoreman’s Hall Acid Test tapes; it’s pretty incredible that we can dial these up and hear some real psychedelic history being made. 

Jesse’s Heads Twitter account is always great, and he’s also set up one those TinyLetter email newsletters, which is packed with good info and recommendations (like this bizarro Dead-meets-drum-machine rehearsal tape from 1983). Finally, he’s doing some readings in New York soon – check out the dates and go say hi… 

An American Dinner. Pie town, Nevada.