Numero Group Wants Your Grateful Dead Tapes

Archival record label Numero Group wants your old Grateful Dead bootleg cassettes. The Chicago-based label’s shipping department features a pair of Deadheads who spin Grateful Dead cassettes all day and are looking to expand their collection. Numero Group issued a call for more bootlegs on its blog.

Pictured here is our new shipping space, or as it has come to be known, ‘The Dead Zone.’ That is because our trusty shipping duo, Drew Davis and Stephen Arndt, has been playing literally NOTHING but Grateful Dead bootlegs since we arrived. And while the commune still has sufficient musical rations to last through the Winter, it got us to thinking: perhaps YOU have some Grateful Dead tapes we could have? So this is a call to arms, Code Name: BRING OUT YOUR DEAD. Have your Dead tapes have become clutter in the digital age? BRING OUT YOUR DEAD! Trying to obscure your transient past from your new family? BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!

Top Wants:

-ALL Pigpen Era shows (1966-1972), ESPECIALLY examples of the Phil Lesh tune “Cardboard Cowboy.”

-Soundboard tapes are preferred but not mandatory.

-Stephen calls is quits in 1989, while Drew enjoys the Spring Tour of 1990.

-Acoustic Sets

-Overall, “sick-ass J-cards” meaning cassettes that have custom Grateful Dead/fan templates

If you have questions or have a large collection of tapes you’d like to ship to Numero Group, send a note to davis@numergroup.com. If you just want to send your tapes their way, send them to: The Dead Zone c/o The Numero Group: 2533 S. Troy St. Chicago, IL 60642. And yes, they are well aware Archive.org has a collection of streamable Grateful Dead recordings.

The Numero Group’s mission is “to dig deep into the recesses of our record collections with the goal of finding the dustiest gems begging to be released from their exile on geek street. No longer would $500 singles sit in a temperature- controlled room dying for a chance to be played. No more would the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who made these records happen go unknown and unappreciated.” Artists featured on Numero Group releases include Syl Johnson, Codeine, Dinosaur Jr., Hüsker Dü and Unwound.