Several songs from the Grateful Dead cover album, Day of the Dead, have just been released and are available for streaming.
The album is headed by The National, with Aaron Dessner producing the album and Bryce Dessner and Josh Kaufman co-producing. Day of the Dead has been in the works since 2011, when the band first released the idea to produce a Grateful Dead tribute album after their last compilation album Dark Was The Night, was a major success.
The band has been busily putting together the album, and in 2015, they released more information saying there would be at least 70 contributions. As the band continued to work on the compilation album, they hinted more and more at who would be featured on the record, from Courtney Barnett to Wilco, and just about everyone in between.
The record is set to be released on May 20th, 2016 via 4AD. It will be released as a limited-edition vinyl box set, CD, and digitally. The enormous box set will contain 59 tracks on it, putting it at over 6 hours of play time. It features contributions from The War on Drugs, Courtney Barnett, Wilco, Flaming Lips, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Jenny Lewis, J Mascis, Fucked Up, Perfume Genius with Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan, and many, many more.
In addition, Day of the Dead will raise money for Red Hot, a charity that aims to fight HIV/AIDS through pop culture.
Now, several covers are available for streaming. One of these is The War On Drugs’ cover of “Touch of Grey.” The cover of the 1987 classic maintains the fantastic psychedelic nature of the song, while adding The War On Drugs’ contemporary indie folk touch to it.
Four other covers are available to stream online. These include Jenny Lewis & Friends and Phosphorescent’s cover of Sugaree, Bruce Hornsby and DeYarmond Edison’s cover of Black Muddy River, Courtney Barnett’s rendition of New Speedway Boogie, and The National’s cover of Morning Dew.
Don’t forget to grab a copy of the album when it comes out on May 20th via 4AD. In the meantime, take a listen to the covers that are available to stream right now, below.