uncle john's blog

Call for Papers & Presentations

The 24th annual SWPCA conference will be held February 12-15, 2003 in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Albuquerque Hilton Hotel. Details regarding the conference (listing of all areas, hotel, registration, tours, etc.) can be found at the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association website.

The Southwestern Popular Culture Association invites you to submit paper or presentation topics on The Grateful Dead. Any aspect of the Grateful Dead can be explored. All proposals are welcome. Papers and presentations are typically limited to 15–20 minutes. Panel discussions can involve several participants and can take up to 90 minutes.

Suggested topics/panels could include:

• Deadheads
• The Other Ones
• The "Europe '72" tour
• Critique of books about the Dead
• Jerry Garcia solo bands
• Phil and Friends
• Ratdog

The SWPCA conference is primarily an academic conference where participants pay their own expenses. However, the Grateful Dead sessions typically include non-academics who also present papers, participate in panel discussions, or simply enjoy the Grateful Dead presentations.

Please send a 200 word abstract to one of the area chairs by Dec 1st (email for snail contact info):

Barry Barnes
Email: barry@huizenga.nova.edu

OR

Nicholas Meriwether
Email: ngm@deadlettersmagazine.com

by Christian Crumlish at 10/5/2002 05:45:42 PM

Other Ones to Play Oakland 12/5 and 12/6

From: mark kraitchman
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 4:59 PM
To: dead-heads
Subject: announce [The Other Ones December 5 & 6]


The Other Ones
Thursday & Friday December 5 & 6
Henry J. Kaiser Arena, Oakland CA

Tickets: $42.50 ga
On Sale Sunday October 13 at Ticketmaster

Archives of setlists may be found at:

gopher://gdead.Berkeley.EDU:70/11/set-lists/
ftp://gdead.Berkeley.EDU/pub/gdead/set-lists/
***********************************************************

by Christian Crumlish at 10/3/2002 05:22:12 PM

PHISH RECEIVE 1ST ANNUAL "WE'RE LUCKY JERRY DIED" AWARD

By Derek Van Cleef

NEW YORK—The superjam group PHISH who penned classics such as "Gumbo" and "Wilson," were the proud recipients of the first annual "We're Lucky Jerry Died" award. The award was presented at this year's third annual Jammy Awards at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City on Wednesday, October 2, 2002. This award recognizes a band that was able to bank off the untimely yet predictable death of Jerry Garcia on August 9th, 1995. Once the Grateful Dead ceased touring, they left behind a plethora of lost, rich, white kids who would drive their brand spanking new SUVs to follow the Dead on tour. Phish seemed to pick up most of them while developing a following of spoiled teenage loyalist vandals.

Other bands in the running for the award were String Cheese Incident, .moe, Widespread Panic and Medeski, Martin and Wood. "Since PHISH has made the most money, they were obviously our number one choice," said Carl O'Connor, a member of the selection committee. "They can play their instruments well; still we chose them anyway. Plus making millions of dollars off doing covers is true to the Grateful Dead tradition," mentioned O'Connor.

The Jammys recognize the achievements of the out of tone, sporadic tempo, nonsensical lyric writing "jam bands." Some call it improvisation, some call it jazz exploration with touches of blues and soul thrown into the mix. Others call it crap.

"It's crap," says anti jamband guy Byron Lister of Boulder, Colorado. However jam bands have been around since the late sixties with the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape and The Mothers of Invention, all being the among the patriarchs of this musical genre. Some might argue to the roots of jam dating back to the Civil War. White Union and Confederate soldiers would congregate and bang on their instruments out of tempo right before they would run into each others gunfire only to be painfully slaughtered.

Today's "jam bands" pay homage to the roots of jammyness by covering the songs of their jammy ancestors. The covers usually have instrumentation that are out of tune like Jerry's guitar, way off tempos and their out of key vocals that make Bob Weir sound like he has the intonation of Placido Domingo. Just listen to Page McConnells backup vocals on the cover of the Rolling Stones "Loving Cup" to get an example.

This award will be presented by a bitter John Rider of the longtime Dead cover band, Max Creek. "We've been f*ckin doing this forever," said Rider. "If I have to play another Help/Slip/Frank medley, I believe that I am going to vomit," uttered a disgruntled Rider. "I'm on freakin food stamps, plus I have to play the campus rathskellar for the 100th time at SUNY-Oneonta this weekend. Our crappy 1982 Ford Econoline van broke down again on the New York State Thruway and we dont know if well make it to another $100 gig. And just remember that we were covering 'Ripple' when Fishman was sucking off his Mom's nipple," explained an ungrateful Rider over a pay phone while stranded at the Exit 20 Mobile station, just off the Thruway.

Max Creek will also be receiving a special award at this year's Jammys. If they can make it down the Thruway, Mike Gordon will be presenting them with the "Longest Time Touring Without Making A Profit" award. " I remember seeing them at the campus rathskellar back in '83. I asked if I could sit in that night and Rider snubbed me," said Gordon.

"Of course I didn't forget that when he begged us if they could open up for us at the Air Force Base in Plattsburgh in front of 100,000 plus fans. Today we got a brand spankin new tour bus; they have an early eighties model Econoline van. Tourbus, Econoline, tourbus, Econoline, symbol, saxaphone, whoops, sorry, I got carried away," said Gordon as he smiled and thought about the phat ducats in his bank account.

And watch out for DJ Logic at this years Jammys. He just might be sitting in for a change.

(via forshac)

by Christian Crumlish at 10/3/2002 05:16:40 PM

Dix Pix (Twenty) Six

(from the inestimable Michael Z) In case you haven't heard (and if you care):

Not yet official, but planned for release next Tuesday, Oct. 9:
4/27/69 and a few selections from 4/26/69

CD #1: Dupree's Diamond Blues > Mountains of the Moon > China Cat Sunflower > Doin' That Rag ; Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > The Eleven > The Other One > I Know It's A Sin ; Lovelight > Me and My Uncle > Sitting on Top of the World

CD #2: Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight ; Morning Dew

by Christian Crumlish at 10/2/2002 03:34:58 PM