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Aoxomoxoa was one of the first GD records I got in high school, before I was really into the band. I think I picked that one because the cover art was cool. St. Stephen is awesome, of course, but my darkhorse favorite from that record has always been Doin' That Rag.

I have nothing to add at the moment. Just enjoying the fact that this thread has stayed near the top of this section all day. Way to go, Wilco-heads.

True. GD keyboard player is almost as notorious as Spinal Tap drummer. Definitely not a great track record there...

For the most part I don't have much love for Donna's contributions, but in select situations she is okay. For example, I always enjoy her "harmonizing" in Beat It On Down the Line. When that tune is really rockin', her caterwauling adds an out of control feel that somehow makes that song deleriously happy, imo. Can't explain it. Other than that...yeah, I don't care much for her.

True, its not a "pure" live album--its almost a unique entity somewhere between a live album and a studio album. Remarkably, it works pretty darn well if you ask me. As a gateway album, all I can say is that its definitely the album that got me "off the fence" and into full-fledged geekdom. (I was a little surprised to find recently that the Eur'74 "Brown Eyed Women" has the highest play-count on my iPod!) There's some good stuff there, but yeah, tip of the iceberg...

That does sound like a weird combo, but I'd like to hear it. Has anyone heard that Grayfolded cd compiled from a bunch of version of Dark Star? Is that any good? The concept sounds interesting enough...

I'd like to see a classic artist like, say, Carlos Santana, teamed up with a bunch of young, hip pop stars. Wait, no. That one didn't work out so well, did it?

As cool as that thing looks, I have no practical need for it. I already have a phone with a camera I rarely use, and web/texting features I never use. The more features they add, cool as they may be, I never use them because I hate being nickel and dimed to death on the bill. I already pay too much for the amount I actually use my phone. I guess I'm a tech-geek by profession only. In my personal life I actually tend to shun most of these gadgets. (Except you, iPod. I'll always love you...)

Agreed. I also like Mars Hotel a lot, but probably only half of it. (ie, they nailed Ship of Fools, but Money Money is just horrid, imo)

Yeah, the Bird Song is very different sounding. It was pretty new at this point, correct? I love hearing songs evolve. I recently dl'd a show from '74 with the first "It Must Have Been the Roses" and it was interesting to hear it before it was real polished. I like stuff like that that makes you hear songs in a different way.

...is either annoyingly overrated or criminally under appreciated by the world at large, depending on how I'm feeling that particular day.

Ha, we could merge this one with the other GD thread we've got going on right now. (when is the last time we had multiple GD threads going on at VC?) Not sure what to tell you about starting points...I've slowly gotten into the band over the course of 15 years or so and have only become really addicted in the last few years. You could start with the studio albums just to get a familiarity with the catalog (as noted, American Beauty and Workingman's Dead are probably the strongest studio efforts, although not wholly representative of the band's sound overall). As for live albums, Europe '72

Yeah, that's pretty cool! Thanks for the tip on this one. I got this last night--I've only listened to the first disc and a half, but I love it. The sound is amazing--I think this is probably the best-sounding recording I've heard. At first I kinda wished "Bertha" and "Beat It On Down the Line" were just a bit more uptempo, but ahh, when it sounds this good I've got no place to complain. Thanks!

Looks like a winner.

Thanks, guys. Yeah, I started really collecting shows around about the same time the SBDs got yanked from archive.org. Doh! Still lots of good stuff to listen to there as long as you don't mind being tied to a computer while listening. In addition to having a bunch of the studio records (most of which I rarely listen to anymore) the only "official" live releases I've collected over the years are:Live/DeadEurope '72Hundred Year HallWithout a NetThus far I've not even yet ventured into the DP or Vault releases, but have collected a fair number of traded recordings. One of these days when I

Later-period Dead is a mixed bag. Not that its necessarily all terrible or anything, but like you guys said, 9 times out of 10 I'll opt for something from those "golden years". Its funny. I'm 30 years old and Jerry's been gone for well over a decade, and I'm only now becoming a serious fan. I went to one show back when I was younger (probably around '90), and I went mostly out of curiosity. The crowd was okay--some real nice people and some real asshats--and the music really didn't knock me over that particular night. Not really sure what prompted it, but its only been the last few year

How so? (I haven't heard it yet--just curious)

Can't really prove it, though. When my family relocated recently, my wife had applied for several jobs that she was more than qualified for (both internal transfers within her old company and external ones) and she kept being told that she was a "top candidate" and kept getting to the final rounds of interviews, but mysteriously was never offered any of the jobs. The reason, pretty obviously, was that she was six months pregnant at the time. Who wants to hire somebody who is going to go out on maternity leave shortly after starting? Technically, its not legal to discriminate based on somet

I have an Aux input jack on my car now, thank god, because the FM transmitters were driving me insane. The first one I had was a XtremeMac AirPlay, which was okay except for the constant, high-pitched squeal it emitted. It was always there in the background, just quiet enough that you didn't always notice it if you weren't listening for it, but loud enough that it subliminally worked its way into my head and slowly drove me mad. I then switched to the iTrip, which eliminated the squeal, but I found myself changing stations more often and it seemed to have more static and poorer audio q

Will be 31 in a couple weeks.

I doubt this in violation of anything, legally (if for no other reason than HR departments are very good at getting around such things), but it is undoubtedly a pretty crappy way to treat an employee. (which, again, still doesn't surprise me) I'm gonna go home and down a couple shots now b/c this situation hits a bit too close to home for me.

My memory is foggy on this, but I'm pretty sure they played the "album version" at the Poughkeepsie show at the beginning of the AGIB tour. After that, I couldn't tell ya. FWIW, I still vastly prefer that song that way.

I'll go with Warren Haynes, especially when he's in full guitar-solo-grimace-mode.

There's something to be said for persistence.

Indeed. Even Ben Harper, who IMO hasn't released a decent record in a decade, is definitely worth seeing live.