Grateful Dead about to become uber COOL

Deadheads have a reason to jam when the musical video game Rock Band hits stores this holiday season. The Grateful Dead will have 18 songs in the game, including Truckin', Uncle John's Band, Touch of Grey, Sugar Magnolia and Casey Jones. All of the songs will be original master recordings.

"Grateful Dead's unique fusion of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, and jazz challenged traditional musical boundaries and pushed the limits of creativity to produce a signature sound that is undeniably their own," said MTV's Paul DeGooyer in a press release. "With an enormous legion of fans all over the world, "Rock Band" will give players a chance to interact with the music of these beloved rock pioneers and experience what Grateful Dead did best — jam from the depths of their souls."

MTV Games and Harmonix, which created Guitar Hero with publisher Red Octane, are developing Rock Band, which takes the music-based game category to new multiplayer levels by including two guitar controllers, a drum controller and microphone to recreate the dynamic of a real band. Electronic Arts is publishing Rock Band for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. No official release date or prices have been set. But pre-orders at online retailers such as Amazon.com start at $60 and go up to $200 with guitar, drums and microphone with availability for Nov. 20.