picture credit score: Gillian Garcia
There’s a corny previous area rock trick we have all seen, whereby a performer throws purple meat to their followers by informing them that they are “crucial members of the band”, or some such. When it involves the Grateful Dead and their offshoots, although, there may very well be one thing to it.
Whole cottage industries have grown across the Dead over time, all created as a present of devotion, a method to unfold the Good Word. These artisanal hordes descend upon the open-air “Shakedown Street” markets that pop up in each Dead-related present’s car parking zone to ply their wares: streetwear referencing the band, enamel pins, and “blotter artwork” (prints made on the perforated sheets of paper usually used to distribute LSD), amongst an amazing many different issues, are supplied on the market or commerce. These people, one may argue, are the true caretakers of the band’s standing within the tradition at massive.
Most importantly, albeit much less profitable by design: over five-plus many years, the band’s legacy has been largely secured by the numerous hours of bootleg stay tapes traded amongst rabid followers. This follow, lengthy tolerated by the band so long as the tapers weren’t cashing in on it, has perpetuated a preferred notion that the Dead’s exploratory stay recordings are of larger worth to listeners than any of their studio information. Many newer followers might forego the analog route in favor of streams on archive.org or the various apps devoted to jam band stay recordings, however the central impulse is kind of the identical.
Around 2010, conceptual artist and sculptor Mark A. Rodriguez, himself a teenage Deadhead, began to build up bootleg tapes once more, each to revisit his youthful obsession and to collect supplies for an in depth artwork undertaking. This resulted first in documenting the tapes’ fan-designed tape covers (“j-cards”, in cassette tradition parlance) as Dead Tape Collector on Tumblr and Instagram; later, the tapes have been compiled in a collection of assemblage sculptures, made up of big cassette racks containing hundreds of the tapes. Said tapes ranged from pristine grasp copies to dubs in rising phases of degradation (many dubbed by Rodriguez himself), thus the titles of the items within the collection: 1st Gen, 2nd Gen, and so forth.
Now, Rodriguez’s ongoing undertaking has yielded a espresso desk ebook, After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead, 1965-1995, out September 20 from Anthology Editions. Beyond compiling pictures from tons of of customized j-cards, Rodriguez gives up a wealth of taper-centric info: up to date interviews with the likes of Dave Lemieux (the band’s audiovisual archivist and legacy supervisor) and David Gans (cohost of Tales from the Golden Road on Sirius XM’s Grateful Dead channel), classic interviews with Jerry Garcia and Dead tape archivist/uber-collector Dick Latvala (of “Dick’s Picks” fame), even early assembly notes documenting the band and their group discussing the taper phenomenon. Garcia’s daughter Trixie even provides a foreword, giving Rodriguez’s undertaking an implicit seal of band approval.
We sat down with Rodriguez just lately through video chat to debate the ebook, his historical past with the band and with taper tradition, and the way fellow Deadheads have reacted to the conceptual artwork side of his ongoing undertaking. Here, edited for size and readability, is that dialog.
AllMusic: How did you first come to the Grateful Dead? Were you drawn extra to the iconography, the music, or one thing else?
Mark A. Rodriguez: I used to be drawn to the Dead as a tweenster, and in accordance with my sometimes-faulty reminiscence, I feel it was extra for the music. There was a little bit of mystique with their visible references, however I haven’t got that widespread story of getting an older sibling exhibiting me the “steal your face” factor and getting me into what they have been into.
I grew up within the midwest, which is the world of traditional rock, and being the curious individual I used to be, I spent a variety of time trying via my mother’s information. She by no means collected Grateful Dead information, however she did go to see a bunch of bands on the Fillmore East and went to Woodstock. She had a narrative of speaking to Phil Lesh at some present in Buffalo, however Jerry was asleep or one thing… she had a bunch of tales like that. So, after I was at an age to buy music, I acquired curious and acquired the What’s a Long Strange Trip It’s Been set.
So, I type of acquired into them alone, with no information. Bob Weir’s voice was very bizarre to me at first, however I additionally discovered it compelling; Jerry’s voice additionally appeared odd to me! There have been simply odd stress factors, I’d by no means heard singers like this. There was a variety of forwards and backwards on whether or not I preferred it or not on that stage, however I nonetheless felt like I may get into the music.
I used to be actually younger within the early Nineteen Nineties, so I could not actually go to concert events. Instead, I did a variety of analysis: I used to be all the time on the library, taking a look at books on the historical past of music. My aunt gave me a ebook about “favourite albums of your favourite musicians”, and Phil Lesh contributed a bit about John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass. It was form of a long-term analysis undertaking that expanded into all types of music, and digging in greenback bins at file shops.
AllMusic: Right, catch as catch can. I relate to that very strongly. I spent years crouched on my knees within the greenback bins at file shops.
Rodriguez: You’re youthful, you do not have as a lot disposable revenue. That impacted how I acquired into the Dead, too, although, as a result of it was such a sluggish accumulation of knowledge.
In the web 1.0 period, although, all this stuff got here alongside that sped up the method: message boards, Dead.web, all that stuff. From there, I acquired into tape buying and selling.
AllMusic: Deadheads have been very early adapters to internet 1.0, so far as utilizing it for dialogue and tape buying and selling, so it appears applicable that that might pull you in deeper! After All is Said and Done is a reasonably deep dive into that bootleg tape tradition surrounding the Dead, which includes a variety of handmade, distinctive artwork. As an artist your self, did which have something to do along with your moving into the tape buying and selling aspect of the band?
Rodriguez: Not after I first acquired into it as a child, no. The tape buying and selling was simply an attention-grabbing factor to participate in, and I wasn’t actually associating it with artwork.
If we’re speaking about starting the undertaking that result in creating the ebook, although, the reply is rather less clear. I used to be trying extra at use these objects as a cloth. The tapes had seemingly misplaced their efficiency at that second in time, round 2010. It’d been 15 years since Jerry died, and whereas there have been totally different iterations of the band and the entire jam band scene was going ahead, it was thought of type of laughable by lots of people at the moment, like third wave ska.
AllMusic: Yeah. Being in a jam band in 2010 wasn’t going to make you the cool individual on the social gathering.
Rodriguez: No. The members of the Dead have been nonetheless working, too, however had type of petered out for just a few years between the early 2000s and their fiftieth anniversary exhibits. So, these tapes did not have as a lot perceived cultural worth as they as soon as had, or as they’d sooner or later, however I’d determined to begin accumulating them once more.
It turned on the market have been a lot of individuals on Craigslist all throughout the nation with 200 bootleg tapes or no matter, and so they simply needed them to go to a superb dwelling. I’d contact them and clarify what I used to be doing, and over time of accumulating I’d discover all these attention-grabbing new facets to take advantage of as an artist.
AllMusic: What questions do you assume you have been making an attempt to reply with the Gen collection? What was the motivation?
Rodriguez: It took me 4-5 years to determine I used to be going to begin one thing, as a result of there’s an inherent battle in there: how far do you go together with the gathering? Do you get to the place it is a full assortment? At that cut-off date, that wasn’t actually attainable, and even now there are nonetheless round 160 tapes lacking. I’m on yr 12 within the accumulating a part of the undertaking; I may conceive of it taking one other 12-15 years to chip away at that checklist. So, when would I begin the precise artwork half?
There was additionally a query of how I’d match this into my bigger artwork follow. There are a variety of themes of repetition in my work, and replicating Americana in a manner the place my hand is ideally not that noticeable. That’s how I developed this means of dubbing from one assortment to the subsequent.
The general idea, although, was creating a set and performing the sisyphean process of accumulating each obtainable Grateful Dead present on tape. Within that, there is a simultaneous effort on my half to degrade the data because it’s being generated as a set. That’s form of the principle crux of the undertaking. I simply wanted to determine finest current it to an viewers visually.
From there, there have been a variety of different questions: what in regards to the artwork on the tapes? How do you current that? I finally selected to copy Napa Valley cassette cabinets and simply make a very large model of that, and show every thing in a deceptively mundane type of manner.
So, there have been a variety of totally different questions occurring. Rather a lot to meander over!
AllMusic: That appears applicable for a band as famously meandering because the Grateful Dead.
Rodriguez: Yes, however it finally wraps up right into a neat package deal. Hopefully, I make it look simpler than it was, however there have been years of thought going into it earlier than I even began the sculpture a part of the undertaking.
Even with the ebook, there have been so many informational paths to decide on. The Grateful Dead has so many alternative connections to totally different varieties of individuals all around the world; a lot of subject material can discover its manner into it. I knew that individuals would count on a variety of tape covers, and there’s a lot of that, however what was most attention-grabbing to me was to carry out much more analysis, and to get to speak to individuals I’ve been studying about for years and ask them about trivia that they did not actually bear in mind.
AllMusic: As you’ve got type of implied, a variety of Deadheads who had actually prized their tape collections at one cut-off date began surrendering them as CD-Rs, archive.org, and the like turned obtainable. Is there one thing that you just’re particularly drawn to about cassette tapes, past their utility in your work?
Rodriguez: I’ve been grappling with that internally. Looking again on the undertaking at this level, I ponder if it is partly me contending with my highschool self. I do not know fairly but: there could possibly be a consolation in revisiting that point in my life, after I was tape buying and selling as a youngster. I’m undecided what I’m accessing there, however it was extra of a carefree time for me.
When I began a Tumblr web page in 2010 to get the phrase out in regards to the accumulating finish of the undertaking, it bolstered my pleasure about it, as a result of I used to be speaking with Heads once more. It was gratifying to have the ability to strategy the topic as an grownup, fairly than as a spaced-out child.
As far as how I really feel about tapes now: they’re an superior medium. Some of the tapes in my assortment are from the Nineteen Seventies and nonetheless sound wonderful, after in all probability going via all types of climate and storage environments. The know-how itself may be very strong, however its continued existence depends on this small group of individuals believing within the know-how.
So, there’s this private narrative I’ve with tapes, however there’s additionally this appreciation I’ve as somebody working with the medium. Typical artwork stuff: “as I used to be working with the medium, I got here to respect it because it subsumed me and took over my life”.
AllMusic: Between the truth that the Gen items are made up of recordings of 1 band making their artwork, and the objects themselves are graced by designs by fans-turned-folk-artists, have you ever caught any flak for being appropriative in your work? If so, what would you say to such a cost?
Rodriguez: I’ve gotten extra flak for going towards the unstated settlement amongst Deadheads of not promoting the tapes. I knew very effectively that I’d be moving into that, although.
In the artwork world I occupy, that is probably not an accusation that goes round at this level. You begin with Duchamp and transfer on via Warhol, Koons, Kaws… it is simply probably not an argument. When I first began this undertaking, inside the artwork world it was virtually laughable that I used to be working with the subject material of the Grateful Dead, however that modified with the resurgence of acknowledgment of the Dead inside popular culture. So, what had been a joke to some inside that group become them making an attempt to narrate to me by speaking in regards to the Grateful Dead, however with out their realizing lots of the intricacies of the historical past across the band and the subcultures round that.
Meanwhile, after beginning the Tumblr, I used to be additionally functioning inside the Dead neighborhood as a fellow fanatic. I used to be having extra real conversations across the band in that context, the sort I’d been used to as a Deadhead teenager, however that neighborhood did not actually know in regards to the artwork side of what I used to be doing.
What ended up occurring that was controversial is that this: I confirmed two of the Gen items, two tape racks, on the Frieze Art Fair in LA in 2019. I actually needed to try this, as a way to present what was occurring with the undertaking conceptually. I truly needed it to be three, the purpose being that the viewer would see three tape racks, perceive that they are separate entities, then begin to query why there are three very comparable issues hanging at this prestigious artwork honest having to do with massive portions of Grateful Dead tapes.
The undertaking began to get a variety of press, which was wonderful, but in addition created some points for me, as a result of some Deadheads began questioning my motives. They thought that I used to be discounting the historical past of this stuff and being untrue to the unstated settlement to not promote them, and so they did not actually take the conceptual or sculptural component into consideration. They simply noticed it as utilizing sacred objects for my very own egocentric functions.
AllMusic: All artwork is manufactured from sacred objects, although, proper? If you made artwork out of a chunk of wooden, to someone that tree was a sacred object.
Rodriguez: Heady! I prefer it. But yeah, it simply is determined by the viewers and what line of communication they’re utilizing. In this case, I used to be getting flamed on Instagram as a result of the worth of one of many items was revealed on some weblog, so it was type of this traditional cliche of “Hey maaan, the music is sacred and free! It cannot be owned by anybody!”.
I’m fairly jaded on that stage, although: the Grateful Dead is a really industrial automobile, and has been for a very long time. They nonetheless do good issues, and donate to righteous causes and people and the like, however there is a clear industrial side.
AllMusic: They’re a particularly in style band that performs stadiums, and who had a line of costly neckties within the Eighties. It’s not an anarchist commune.
Rodriguez: Right. So, it was attention-grabbing, however traumatic. Being public with it was not my favourite factor, although it was a pinnacle I needed to achieve with the undertaking. It’s gotten higher, however hopefully it would not occur once more with the ebook. Hopefully, individuals recognize my making an attempt to make one thing that is actually heady and informative.
AllMusic: I’ve acquired another, extraordinarily necessary query: favourite “Dark Star”?
Rodriguez: Oof. For me, I’ve by no means taken the path of “I’m going to hearken to EVERY “Dark Star”, although I can now. I’ll hear moments I actually love when I’m dubbing, however I’m not organized sufficient to do any of it from begin to end. Like, the John Oswald album Greyfolded (an album through which the “plunderphonics” artist took hours of stay recordings of ‘Dark Star’ and edited them into an “final” model) is a tremendous undertaking in that regard… I solely hope the ebook might be one thing that bizarre and attention-grabbing!
That stated, “Truckin'” on 11/6/77 at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton, NY, which was launched as Dave’s Picks Vol. 25 a pair years in the past, is especially wonderful. The tape that I heard it on, although, was this nice viewers recording: the viewers goes apeshit, the crescendos are so intense and elongated… they’re clearly having a tremendous time enjoying that evening. Moments like that reinvigorate my religion in tapers capturing magic to be handed right down to youthful individuals.
Mark A. Rodriguez’s espresso desk ebook, After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead, 1965-1995, might be obtainable on September 20 from Anthology Editions.