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The National Goes Back To High School for Grateful Dead Benefit Album

Back in high school three members of indie-rock band National were in a group that performed a fair share of Grateful Dead music. As we reported in our feature on the group last fall, Bryan Devendorf, Bryce Dessner and Aaron Dessner were “in a band called Equinox, which played a lot of Allman Brothers Band and Grateful Dead covers and featured the singing and saxophone playing of Kevin Seal who is now the executive producer at Internet radio site Pandora. (Earlier this year, Seal told The Indiana Musical Archive, “Equinox sounded a bit like Traffic. Sorta jammy and the product of listening to a lot of Phish and classic rock radio.”)

It now turns out that the trio (and Devendorf’s brother Scott) will revisit that catalog via a forthcoming benefit album (like its previous Dark was The Night which raised money for AIDS/HIV research). In a piece posted to Spinner.com, bassist Scott Devendorf explains, “We’re actually working on a new compilation record, like we did the Dark was The Night record, that’s going to be a Grateful Dead covers record.” Devendorf adds that Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver look to be interested in participating, while the National likely will perform a Phil Lesh composition, with “Box of Rain” currently the band’s top choice.