The National curate Grateful Dead tribute album, featuring Bon Iver, Kurt Vile, Vampire Weekend & more

Following on from 2009′s Dark Was The Night uber-compilation, The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner will again curate a charity release for AIDS awareness organisation Red Hot.

The release in question will be a tribute LP to indie favourites The Grateful Dead, with friends of the band and those influenced by them contributing to the release.

While the former compilation, which featured everyone from Arcade Fire to Sufjan Stevens, focussed mainly on individual contributions from the artists involved, this one will be more of a collaborative affair. As Relix note, the LP “will hone in on a few all-star ensembles assembled for the project as well as select featured guests.”

Among the contributors secured this time round are Bon Iver, The Walkmen, Kurt Vile, Vampire Weekend and The War on Drugs, while the Dessner brothers are also interested in recruiting Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan to contribute guitar parts.

“We’ve done a lot of work talking to various artists and laying the groundwork,” Aaron told Relix recently. “It is kind of an ambitious project both because of the legacy and the material. We are obsessed enough with the Grateful Dead that it is kind of a monumental idea.”

There’s been no firm release date for the tribute album given yet. But until then, check out a video of The National performing with The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir below:

Photo by CrazyBobbles.