iSound

Top Dead Center -- A Biography In 1999, several local Tucson musicians, from a multitude of different bands, finally decided to pursue a project which they’d toyed with for decades: that is, a Grateful Dead cover band. From backgrounds almost as varied as those of the Dead themselves, this group of friends locked themselves away in a small studio on Stone Avenue with their instruments and a stack of bootleg tapes. Emerging after six months with a name and a large (and ever-expanding) repertoire of (mostly) Dead material, the newly-minted Top Dead Center began to play in clubs and bars around Tucson, carrying on a tradition of music as American as it gets. Often narrowly described as "a country band on acid," in fact the Grateful Dead’s music ranges from bluegrass to electronica, from folk to rock’n’roll, from country & western to tribal drum marathons, often within the same song. In reality, the Grateful Dead’s music simply defies description, and Top Dead Center ha...