Music Picks: Nov. 27 – Dec. 3
Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of Nov. 27 WEDNESDAY 11/27 SKA THE SKATALITES You like ska, but have you ever experienced the magic of the Skatalites in an intimate club? Now’s...
View ArticleGetaway Dogs’ Unexpected Dream-Pop Manifesto
In early 2018, Kai Killion thought he was going in the studio to record a simple EP for his Santa Cruz dream-pop band Getaway Dogs, which he would release three months later. He did go to the studio,...
View ArticleMusic Picks: Dec. 4-10
Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of Dec. 4 WEDNESDAY 12/4 SALSA ISSAC DELGADO Timba is a salsa subgenre that incorporates elements of funk, R&B and afro-Cuban folk music. The...
View ArticleJulia Nunes’ New Strum
During one of the recording sessions for Julia Nunes’ latest album Ughwow, her producer Shruti Kumar put her in a room with a microphone that had lots of washed-out echoing and reverb effects. Kumar...
View ArticleHow Mike Stern Glued Together a Comeback
Mike Stern has had a hell of a career. A bona fide shredder schooled in both jazz and rock, Stern was just a fresh-faced kid out of college when he was recommended to Blood Sweat & Tears by Pat...
View ArticleSantana’s Man in Watsonville Takes Center Stage
Talk about a quintessential Bay Area cultural experience. With images spanning his entire half-century career projected behind him, rock god Carlos Santana led his band in the final show of its 2019...
View ArticleLove Your Local Band: Mike Renwick
Every August, Mike Renwick’s annual obsession begins: Mike Renwick’s Holiday Deluxe. For the past 17 years, he’s gathering his musician friends to play a local holiday concert. It started at Boulder...
View ArticleMusic Picks: Dec. 18-24
Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of Dec. 18 WEDNESDAY 12/18 CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY HITS SINGALONG Music is therapeutic. That’s why in 1985, Sean Seman founded Young At Heart, a local...
View ArticleWhite Album Ensemble Celebrates 50 years of ‘Abbey Road’
Local musician Dale Ockerman—who played with the Doobie Brothers for many years, among other classic Bay Area bands of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s—recalls when his current group the White Album Ensemble...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: Hula’s and Leif Vollebekk
Who wouldn’t like an evening out munching on Hawaiian food and jamming out to melodramatic indie-folk, Canadian style? I know that’s a very specific game plan, but your date will be thrilled to join...
View ArticleMusic Picks: Jan. 1-7
Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of Jan. 1 THURSDAY 1/2 JAM ROSEBUD If you have a map in your car, I suggest you toss it in the trash. Not knowing where you’re going is half the...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: PAMELA ROSE & TERRENCE BREWER
Most folks know that Ella Fitzgerald is one of the greatest American singers of all time. In her huge discography, a few records that deserve a spotlight are the four she made with phenomenal jazz...
View ArticleBuilding on the ’80s Sound with Bandaid Brigade
If you ever saw Zach Quinn play live, he was probably shirtless and a little insane. As the singer of New Orleans hardcore band PEARS, Quinn is an explosive front man—part Iggy Pop, part Henry Rollins....
View ArticleMusic Picks: Jan. 15-21
WEDNESDAY 1/15 FOLK SVER If you like your folk from way back—and I’m talking way back—look no further than Nordic folk quintet Sver. Presented by the Celtic Society of Monterey, Sver brings the crisp...
View ArticleShow Highlights Composer Jon Scoville’s Adventurous Career
The world of music is riven with rabbit holes into which composers, musicians and even fans often fall, never to emerge again. Veteran Santa Cruz composer Jon Scoville has not exactly avoided those...
View ArticleHow Hardcore Rock Band Fury Found its Way
Jeremy Stith wasn’t sure if his hardcore band Fury had anything left to say. This wasn’t an unusual thought—every time the group released something, he and guitarist Madison Woodward talked about how...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: ‘Wynonna & The Big Noise’
Wynonna Judd is one of country music’s biggest stars. In the ’80s and early ’90s, she racked up a string of singles with her mom Naomi in their group the Judds. Then in 1992, Wynonna kicked off a run...
View ArticleRank Tanky Delivers Gullah-Inspired Music
Even in their home country, many people don’t know of the Gullah people, a subculture of African Americans spanning the coast and nearby islands of the Carolinas, down through northern Florida, who...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: Atmosphere
In the early 2000s, Minneapolis duo Atmosphere would almost single-handedly redefine indie-rap with their two landmark records God Loves Ugly (2002) and Seven’s Travels (2003). Rapper Slug is...
View ArticleHawktail’s Instrumental Bluegrass Soars
Paul Kowert stood in the kitchen of his Nashville home, his upright bass in front of him. Sitting nearby, guitarist Jordan Tice, Kowert’s bandmate from the bluegrass group Hawktail, placed a capo on...
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