Night of the Living Composers Samples Unexpected Arrangements
The New Music Works’ 23rd annual mystery tour through chamber music and song by not-yet-departed composers is about to lift off. And there’s a reason the composer anthology of short works took its name...
View ArticleMusic Preview: That 1 Guy Brings His Magic Pipe to Moe’s Alley
For 20 years, Mike Silverman, aka That 1 Guy, has toured the world with his custom one-of-a-kind instrument the Magic Pipe, which looks like a scrapyard cello Tom Waits would play in a post-apocalyptic...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: Dayna Stephens Liberty Trio
Jazz musician Dayna Stephens loves the saxophone. In fact, on his recently released ninth album, Liberty, he plays four different saxes, really showing the listener the full range of the instrument....
View ArticleDavid Dondero’s New Album Delivers a Political Message
The one supposed upshot of the Trump presidency was that it was going to usher in a new era of fierce protest music. Four years later, however, most artists have steered clear of politics. But not...
View ArticleSanta Cruz Vets Hall Brings Back Live Music
While on Damian Abraham’s punk podcast, Turned Out Punk, Dave Havok recalled one of his favorite shows his band AFI ever played—which was in the basement of the Vets Hall in Santa Cruz. The 2000 gig...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: Getter
Tanner Petulla is a producer, actor, rapper and comedian from San Jose—a town that doesn’t normally yield big name celebrities. But the thing you really need to know about Petulla is that he’s an...
View ArticleDuster Hits Reset After Gaining Legend Status
Back in the late ’90s, a trio of San Jose indie rockers called Duster released two full-length records and a handful of EPs to little attention. They played dingy basement shows and never toured beyond...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: Roberto Fonseca
Afro-Cuban music and jazz have had a long history together, and Havana-born Roberto Fonseca has kept this beautiful marriage alive his entire career. For his ninth studio album, Yesun, he’s taking it...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: Marc E. Bassy
Former UCSC student Marc E. Bassy showed off his pop chops with his former group 2AM Club. That was nothing compared to his solo career, which focused much more on R&B with elements of hip-hop. As...
View ArticleAlt-Rock Band Local H Collaborates With Fellow ‘Lifers’
Scott Lucas, singer/guitarist for the two-piece alt-rock band Local H, couldn’t wait for the group’s third album Packing Up The Cats to turn 20 in 2018. Long before the landmark anniversary, he had big...
View ArticleMusic Picks: March 11-17
Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of March 11 WEDNESDAY 3/11 ROCK BIDDADAT The game changed in 2017 when Thundercat unironically brought Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins in to...
View ArticlePussy Riot Reaches the Height of Its Power
Early last month, Russian punk collective Pussy Riot was filming a music video for their new single “Rage.” An hour into the shoot in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, they received a...
View ArticleLove Your Local Band: Wide Eyed
For nearly a decade, Brett Nickel wrote highly personal songs while struggling with depression and addiction. But other than the occasional open mic, it was a private affair. That changed in 2017,...
View ArticleFunk-Soulster Fantastic Negrito’s New Alter Ego
Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz talks a mile a minute when on the topic of his alter ego, Fantastic Negrito. In 2015, he shot up from obscurity as the 2015 winner of NPR’s Tiny Desk contest. Now with two...
View ArticleLove Your Local Band: Jesse Williams
Santa Cruz musician Jesse Kenneth Cotu Williams might be best known for his absurd bands that push hilarious gimmicks to the next level. Take his project the Randy Savages, a “punk rock wrestling...
View ArticleSanta Cruz Rockers Homebrew Highlight Their Full Range
In 2016, local band Homebrew hopped in their van and traversed the Pacific Northwest for a string of consecutive shows. The Santa Cruz crew of musicians had been performing since 2010 around town and...
View ArticleRyan Lee Creates ‘Tiny Desk’-Style Channel for Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz’s Ryan Lee never imagined a record label interested in his solo recordings. In fact, the only reason he recorded the three songs on his Pinky Swear EP, which was released last week on Gold...
View ArticleCall It A Quarantstream: Musicians Take Performances Online
For local musician Mahlon Aldridge, there’s always something special about volunteering at the Hearts and Hands Post Acute Care Rehab Center in Santa Cruz, where he’s been performing for 23 years with...
View ArticleDrain Grabs Hardcore World’s Attention with Debut ‘California Cursed’
In the last nine months, Santa Cruz-spawned hardcore quartet Drain signed to one of the biggest independent labels in their genre for their debut full-length California Cursed, recreated an iconic...
View ArticleStreetlight Records Copes by Turning to Online Sales
Long before COVID-19, the friendly neighborhood independent record store had already had a lot of practice in dealing with seismic shifts in the marketplace, and even in facing an existential crisis...
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