Feinting with damn praise

From this week's SF Bay Guardian:

[. . . ] if you average out the good music from the amount of music the Dead produced, then you get a pretty large heap of awful, for-Deadheads-only doo-doo and a smallish pile of quality material. The important thing, as far as this article is concerned, is that what is left behind, the good stuff, is far from mediocre and really cannot be overlooked, and anyone who takes the usual stance that the Dead and their minions all suck is denying him- or herself some very essential moments, which can be found mostly on a few cuts scattered here and there, but in one case fill up an entire record.

See full article.