Here's something that I feel compelled to address, because I believe there might be some "misconceptions" that have the potential to taint this listening experience right out the gate. That being said, I kind of chose this album for that exact reason, so... there's no one else to blame for that and little I can do to prevent it.
The main thing is that I believe that the "jam band" concept and title in itself is kind of flawed, because the Dead is the Dead and that's all they ever were. Anybody that enters into their music with a preconceived notion in their head contrary to that already has one major obstruction positioned firmly in front of them. The Dead just kind of took more of a jazz approach to their music and allowed themselves to improvise and try new things on the spot, rather than restrict everything to tight 3.5 minute pop and rock tunes. A major reason for this is because they built their sound and approach as the house band for Ken Kesey's acid tests, where they'd trip out and play for hours to a room full of other people tripping out.
The Dead was ground zero for the "jamband" concept, the same way that the Beatles influenced so many others, but people don't refer to the Beatles sound as anything other than the Beatles. They exist in their own realm and anyone that is noticeably influenced by them is considered Beatles-esque or having Beatles influences. They aren't considered peers and the Grateful Dead doesn't really have any peers, either. The Beatles covered a lot of ground, but most people here are probably more familiar with their different eras than they would be Jerry Garcia's.
To refer to the Dead as a "jam band" groups them in with every shitty imitator that came after them, and none of them have or will ever come even remotely close to what they did, or really sound like them. When they do, they sound like cheap knockoffs. Anyone that achieves anything near their level will do so by sounding like themselves, which will, inherently, separate them and make them their own thing, as well. The Dead were carving their own path. By following their distinct path... I guess read Siddhartha for the answer on that one.
The Dead were fans of Howling Wolf and covered his music. They were fans of Otis Redding and performed on the same stages as him. They had Branford Marsalis and even Ornette Coleman sit in with them. Bruce Hornsby had a stint as their keyboardist. They had tons of different influences. They did a full tour and released an album with Dylan. They were friends with jazz musicians that tipped them off to the problems with their contracts, informing them that "rock musicians" like them were getting paid by the song, while they, as jazz musicians, were getting paid by the minute. It's why the Dead's Anthem Of The Sun album sounds like it does. It was partially assembled in studio, but -- if I'm remembering correctly -- they kept most of the money for the studio and went on tour. Then, they spliced the best bits from different shows together into one massive track. They had to, later, cut it up into tracks, somewhat arbitrarily, and designate random titles to the segments. They were the last of the Haight St bands to sign to a label, because they had so much leverage due to the fact that they made all their money playing shows and didn't need a label. So, when Warner Bros signed them, they had a ton of creative control, which drove producers mad and out of the studio. They were experimenting and doing weird shit like putting coins inside of the piano. They were doing weird shit with tape. They were fucking around the same way that someone like Amon Tobin would and does. Owsley's Wall Of Sound was revolutionary.
So... what I'm getting at is that the irony of the Dead is actually that people refer to them as a "jam band" and that term has become something reductive that's supposed to refer to a very specific concept and idea. But, the truth is that, the only reason that they were ever referred to as a "jam band," is because they did way too much different shit for anyone to know what to refer to or classify them as. Nothing like that ever existed before in that exact way. They made rootsy folk albums at one point, yet began fully working tribal and indian drums and all manners of left-field percussion into experimental electronic trip-out noise passages in live shows toward the end of the 1970s. Certain fans couldn't hang with the transition and, even stopped following them as they'd mutate and evolve, but they kept changing it up and pushing their sound forward anyway, from Blues to psych to disco-tinged funk tunes, to... whatever Terrapin Station is and beyond. They tossed gospel elements in with the country twang of the Flying Burrito Brothers. And, they played spaced out psych music, crazier than anyone. So, the fact that there was ever a psych-rock revival and some of the same people deep into it and current bands like King Gizzard (2 drummers?) still hate on the Dead would be mindblowing, if it wasn't so absurd, especially since those very bands will tell you who influenced them. For the outsider, it sounds surprising that a lot of their favorite artists are fans of Jerry and his crew, but for anyone that knows what the Dead actually did and what they actually [have the ability to] sound like, it's glaringly obvious. Anyone who likes The War On Drugs should know how shamelessly they rip them off -- while wearing Steal Your Face shirts, no less. They aren't hiding it and aren't trying to; it's a means of tribute. In fact, all you have to do is just look at the roster of who contributed to The Day Of The Dead box set -- The National, Bonnie Prince Billy, Phosphorescent, Jim James, Kurt Vile, Wilco (w/Bob Weir, mind you), Cass Mccombs, Hiss Golden Messenger, The Flaming Lips, UMO, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Oneida, Real Estate, Courtney Barnett, etc. etc. etc. -- none of them even remotely surprising to me.
This isn't a "jam band" album, but I know that some people are still going to have difficulty entering into this without saying/thinking, "I don't know if I'll like this. I'm not really into jam bands." Somehow, folks are even still hearing "noodling" even though Jerry is playing incredibly restrained and is using a pretty straight ahead jazz guitar approach in the only areas that I can hear, which might be construed as such. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to present this album blind, which is the best way to do it, because that would help prevents anybody from bringing their pre-conceived notions in with them. But, I am hoping that this is an opportunity to hear something unexpected, which can make some folks recognize that Garcia existed -- and continues to exist -- beyond their limited current understanding of him. If nothing else, they can say, "Well... I did hear one project from him that wasn't completely terrible." The real truth of the matter is that, while this may be a bit of an outlier in his catalog, the idea that he had a full career with endless deviations -- a large portion of which most of the uninitiated might be equally surprised by -- is the bigger point.
And, to be completely honest, the misconceptions that I feel might exist -- I mean, some can argue that they've heard plenty and I'm wrong about this, and I might be -- aren't solely on the shoulders of those with limited experience with their music. There was a writer for the local weekly in town who wrote an incredibly sincere post about wanting to try and be open to hearing more of the Dead. He asked for recommendations and an entry point to explore them. But here's the problem: there are typically only two types of suggestions that people ever make. The first is that they tell the person inquiring to check out really basic radio friendly tunes, which they feel might be more accessible. The problem there is that there's nothing particularly special with those songs, so, while the listener might not hate them, it also makes it hard to see what all the hype is about. The other suggestion is always the polar opposite, where they urge them to listen to some super spaced out 35 minute jam that's incredibly inaccessible. I offered to send the guy a bootleg of the 1982 show of Jerry Garcia playing acoustic with John Kahn at the Oregon State Penitentiary. He thanked me, because he'd never heard that side of them and really enjoyed it. Then he sent me a drawing of Doc Ellis. I tricked my girlfriend by playing Shady Grove -- Jerry's album of traditional covers with mandolin player David Grisman -- and then later played a 1994 live video of the Dead playing Peggy O, which has such an incredibly beautiful sound to it that it completely penetrates my emotions in a way that no other band ever has. She hated them more than anything. Now she loves them. I'm not saying that's going to happen to anyone else, because it probably won't for most, but stranger things have happened. It's no secret that the fans can of anything can very easily tarnish the image of whatever they are a fan of. A lot of these "jam bands" out touring, are just fans.
To anyone giving this a chance, I chose this album knowing full well that you might hate HOOTEROLL?, but I do implore you to try and check it out with an open mind and I really do appreciate that it seems like everyone is doing their best to approach it that way. Thanks again for listening to it; I promise to do my best to try and remember to check out whatever album is posted in here next, because that's what this thread is all about and it's awesome. Hooteroll? really doesn't sound like the Dead. But, the truth is that, there's a really good chance that you might listen to bands that sound like the Dead, already, and are fans of it, to some extent, without even being fully aware of it.
