Monday, January 31, 2011

PB&J RIDE STRIKES BACK: Tour De Franzia. A hit? I think yes.



The PB&J ride is an unbelievable mass bike ride that happens about once a month in Santa Cruz. Though the people who started PB&J (Party, Bike & Jam), were not the first to think up these massive group bike rides around the city, they are keeping the flame alive and feeding what is seemingly becoming a quirky tradition of Santa Cruz.


The energy of Friday night's event was almost too much to handle. It all began in front of the Clock Tower downtown, where what seemed like several hundred of Santa Cruz's youth gathered together eagerly waiting to accomplish their goal of partying, biking, and jamming. And that's exactly what they did. When the leaders of PB&J said when, the group took off, stopping traffic and gaining the attention of onlookers all over. After a victory lap around downtown, the group rode for about an hour before arriving at the first stop to hear some awesome jams. The bands at the first house were, James Rabbit and 2001. The energy in the first house was out of control as people danced on couches and hit into overhead chandeliers. It wasn't until the second location, however that the PB&J ride really seemed to make some musical history.


The second stop is where the epic Santa Cruz band, Of Melting Moons played. When the mob of bikers descended upon the little yellow moon house, home to the local groove kings, Of Melting Moons was ready to serenade the audience, face paint and all. The fellas' moon juice, which they have been crafting in their laboratory for the last year and half, was certainly flowing. People were so infatuated with the music that they piled onto the roof, banisters and anywhere else they could fit their bodies to enjoy the band's zany energy. The house was aching due to the sounds of the 5-piece jazz-rock mother funkers, who riffed on their all-original set, rocking and jamming into the night. They played fan favorites, including "Electric Elepants," "Shadow Gliders," and "Bubble Dancers / In This Castle."


Though the bands Grizzel Toe and Nessie & Her Beard were expected to play that night as well, their time slots were unfortunately reduced to nothing when police interference ended the music and the riding.


Over all, the night was a great success and I am personally grateful that I got to experience yet another PB&J ride. Keep your eyes and ears open for the next one!


- DJ Mands

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Mystery Lights, Blackbird Blackbird, Old Arc and more on The Rising Tide!

Hey everybody,

As you may have noticed, we now have a widget displaying 5 songs from previously recorded episodes of The Rising Tide. As the year progresses, we'll be swapping in and out tunes from recent and past episodes to enrich your blog-viewing experience and, hopefully, entice you even more to listen in to the show live this friday night!

Speaking of friday night, allow me to introduce the first of friday night's guests: Blackbird Blackbird and Old Arc.

Blackbird Blackbird

Blackbird Blackbird is the monicker of Mikey S., a San Francisco-based electronic artist whose work has attracted the attention of the press (The Bay Bridged, The Hype Machine and The Fader, among others) in recent months. Though firmly in the hypnotic and hazey world of chillwave at surface level, Blackbird Blackbird forgoes the vocally-focused approach of the genre for a more glitch-and-dreampop sound that fits nicely between Gold Panda and Baths. Remixes and covers of the likes of Beach House and Modest Mouse demonstrate that Blackbird Blackbird is an artist who refuses to rest on his laurels and not challenge himself.

Tune in on friday night to hear Blackbird Blackbird talk about the upcoming CD release of his debut record, Summer Heart, his forthcoming performance at the SF Weekly's All Shook Down event, and what ever else he has in store for us this year!

Blackbird Blackbird will be joined on air by the local group who will be backing him up at the SF Weekly event mentioned above, Old Arc.

Old Arc

This local two-piece has been burning up lately, amping up their psychedelic synth pop sound with a live show that's equal parts MGMT-inspired tribalism and utter youthful exuberance. Similarly ambitious in scope as Blackbird Blackbird, Old Arc have remixed the likes of Toro Y Moi and Local Natives, and their collection of demo recordings, EPs and remixes have been on rotation on The Rising Tide for the last few weeks.

Old Arc will come into the studio on friday to talk about their live collaboration with Blackbird Blackbird, their forthcoming recordings, and what they have planned for the year as well.

And to wrap things up, we'll be joined live in the studio by our third guests that evening: The Mystery Lights.

The Mystery Lights

Hailing from Salinas, CA, The Mystery Lights relentless garage rock assault has terrorized this part of the state for several years. Sounding like something of a fever dream straight out of a 60s psych festival, The Mystery Lights are poised to deliver the goods in 2011, including the follow up to 2009's Teenage Catgirls and The Mystery Lightshow. The band has been laying low for the past few months, but they are returning to help support the one-night-only reunion of The Spurts at the Crepe Place on Thursday, February 3rd (also playing are Sugar Shack).

Tune in Friday to hear from The Mystery Lights and more!

- DJ PassiveTheory

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Rising Tide Zine Review

Howdy all,



If you are a zinester in the bay area or anywhere along the central coast, send us your zines for review on our blogspot and we'll give your zine a nod on air.  Also, if you are interested in having your zine in a distro, talk to me.

Send your zines to or e-mail them to us at:

KZSC
c/o The Rising Tide Collective
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, Ca 95064

or

devilsclawdistro@gmail.com

Monday, January 24, 2011

The Scarring Party coming to the Crepe Place!

Hello all!

This announcement may be a bit premature and I will most likely post again as the time draws near but the Scarring Party are coming to the Crepe Place on April 28th with The Post Street Rhythm Peddlers. The Scarring Party is a dark cabaret band that has revived the sounds of 20's cabaret and vaudeville and mixed it with punk beats of a bygone age. They are descending on Santa Cruz from their native home of Milwaukee, a land renowned for its beer, post-industrial splendor and now The Scarring Party itself.

The band has recently released their second album and be sure to listen to the rising tide for a taste of dark cabaret more towards the 10 o'clock hour as April approaches. Also, for those who love dark cabaret, gypsy, and  klezmer music, keep an eye out for the Underscore Orchestra coming to the Crepe Place March 24th or go see Gogol Bordello at Coachellafest, about six minutes from my mom's house, no joke!



I used to play them on my old show Baro Faro Death Circus for those who listened to it on KZSC.

listen here or here

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Gay Genius and The Art Museums on The Rising Tide!

Hey all,

First off, a quick reminder that a number of photos taken of our last two Rising Tide radio programs, including January 7th's show with The Album Leaf, Carry Yrself Home and The Sacred Orchard and last week's program featuring Man/Miracle and Worker Bee are currently available online right here on our Rising Tide photo account! And for earlier photos of performances from last year, check out photographer Brian Baumgartner's photo page dedicated to the photos he took of performances from last year's shows right here.

With that being said, let's dig into the bands who'll be coming up to our treehouse up in the woods this friday night...

The first of these bands is Gay Genius.

Gay Genius

This local two-piece group is comprised of Nessie from Nessie and Her Beard and Tyler from James Rabbit, both of whom are Rising Tide alum in their own right. The duo banded together as a result of a rapturous performance piece at one of SCUM's Panbandamonium events that took place last year and got together to write last year's release, Perfect Dark. The two trade harmonies and lead vocal duties over synth pop beats that recall Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Soft Cell, among others.

Gay Genius will be coming on to the show on friday night to talk about their collaborations, their forthcoming live performances (including a show this Saturday night, the 22nd) and what the future holds for Gay Genius!

Later on in the evening, The Rising Tide will host SF's own The Art Museums as guests.

The Art Museums

The duo of Josh Alper and Glenn Donaldson have played in a number of folk and americana oriented acts both in Santa Cruz and in the bay area. However, joining forces as the Art Museums has taken their music in a decidedly different direction. As last year's Woodsist-issued Rough Frame EP can attest to, the band plunders the sounds of lo-fi indie pop music from the genre's forebears, echoing The Pastels and Guided By Voices, among others.

The group will be performing alongside The Sandwiches, The Soft Bombs and local artist Rachel Fannan (formerly of Sleepy Sun) at Slim's in San Francisco next tuesday, January 25th. But before that, the Art Museums will come on the radio to talk about the show, let us know about their upcoming work, and regale us with stories of being a band to watch for in the big city!

Tune in for these and more on The Rising Tide on KZSC! Tune in to 88.1fm if you're in the Santa Cruz, Monterrey Bay or San Benito counties, or online at www.kzsc.org starting at 8:30pm!

- DJ PassiveTheory

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Worker Bee and Man/Miracle this friday night!

Hey all,

Hopefully some of you managed to catch either (or both) of the Album Leaf shows that recently went down at the Crepe Place, but they were excellent in my estimation. You can check out the photos from Jimmy LaValle's appearance on The Rising Tide (as well as photos of Keith P from Carry Yrself Home and The Sacred Orchard) by clicking here.

But now it's onto the pressing business set before me today, telling you all about our wonderful guests that will be appearing on The Rising Tide this friday night!

First, we'll be having the band by the name of Worker Bee come into KZSC for a chat.

Worker Bee

Hailing from just over the hill in San Jose, Worker Bee have steadily built a dedicated following over the last 4 years. The band's unique take on post-rock, noise and americana has culminated in releases such as 2009's excellent record, Tangler. Worker Bee's music would find itself comfortably placed in anyone's record collection between Tortoise and Nick Cave, among others.

The band will be coming into our studio this friday night to talk about their upcoming show at Cafe du Nord on January 20th and maybe spill the beans concerning their follow-up record to Tangler due out sometime this year.

Next up, we'll be treated to a visit and live performance from Man/Miracle.

Man/Miracle

Though they now call Oakland home, this indie-pop four piece used to call Santa Cruz home and met while going to school at UC Santa Cruz. Drawing on a sound that echoes artists as far-flung and disparate as King Sunny Ade, Wild Beasts, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Man/Miracle's debut LP that came out last year, The Shape of Things, shows signs of a band that has taken their musical prowess to the next level.

The Man/Miracle boys will be coming into the studio to talk about their forthcoming musical ventures, their experiences on the road touring with artists like Rogue Wave, perform a few songs live in the studio, and talk about their forthcoming show at Metavinyl Records this Saturday night with former Rising Tide guests Hermit Convention and Grizzel Toe (as well as New York's own Dinosaur Feathers).

Tune in for these and more this Friday night on The Rising Tide!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

New Year Means New Opportunities

This quarter The Rising Tide will be making some small changes and doing some outreach that all you lovely people may enjoy.
First, we are going to release a best of 2010 CD. These CDs will come in handmade cases and will feature music that was played live on our show and we may include one or two small clips from interviews. Second we will be releasing Rising Tide CDs quarterly beginning this quarter. Third, keep a look out around Santa Cruz, possibly further for our fliers, stickers, and CDs.


One other thing that our collective has been discussing is getting more involved in the local music scene. It's one thing to have bands on air but it's another thing altogether to go see them. So, time permitting, we will be putting together on campus shows for local/ touring bands and will try to work with local promoters to set-up shows in town. Please e-mail us if you are interested in helping or if your band wants to play a show and we will see what we can do.

Cheers!,
Farrago
Devil's Claw Distro

Sunday, January 2, 2011

First Show of the New Year! THREE GUESTS!

First things first... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010 was quite the year, and I'm going to look back on it someday with a degree of fondness in my heart, especially as far as this radio show is concerned. That being said, we're moving on and have a number of surprises in store for all of you! The first of which being the new blog redesign that coincides with our brand new Rising Tide logo/decal designed by none other than the otherworldly-talented Stacie Willoughby (check out the rest of her art!).

That being said, we're not even waiting until the actual start of Winter Quarter to whip out the BIG GUNS.

Yes, there is a Blazing Saddles reference there, somewhere...

This friday night, January 7th, The Rising Tide will play host to three amazing guests. The first of which is a band hailing from Santa Cruz called The Sacred Orchard.

The Sacred Orchard

This local folk quintet cites freak-folk luminaries like Akron/Family and Bon Iver as influences and has been gaining a quietly growing audience over the past year in the city. They'll be performing at the SubRosa Infoshop and Cafe's Benefit Show this Saturday night, but first they'll stop by the studio to play some songs and talk about their experiences of being in a young and promising local band.

After that, we'll be joined in the studio by Keith Petrocelli of Carry Yrself Home.

This will be Keith's second time coming on the show, and as expected of one of Santa Cruz's busiest music personalities, he has a whole host of shows to come on the air to talk about. Not only that, but we'll also be talking to Keith about his involvement with booking The Rio Theatre in 2011, and what future projects he has in store for the city of Santa Cruz.

But Keith won't be alone when he comes on air this friday night, for joining him on air to talk about the two nearly-sold-out-already shows taking place next week, is The Album Leaf.

Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf

The Album Leaf's take on folk and indie rock is as diverse in it's instrumentation as it is profound and appealing in it's quality. Never afraid to incorporate live electronics and loops into his music, The Album Leaf fall along a similar line of modern musicians such as múm and Eluvium, while the San Diego-born Jimmy LaValle has made Santa Cruz his home in the last few years. A pair of upcoming hot-ticket shows at the Crepe Place (see the link above) attests to his ever-constant popularity and prowess.

I'm fucking stoked to welcome The Album Leaf into our studio at KZSC this Friday night and ask about his forthcoming projects, his experiences as a globetrotting musician, and to talk about what makes these two shows at the Crepe so special and so explicitly local.

These and much more when you tune into KZSC Santa Cruz this Friday night at 8:30 pm for the FIRST Rising Tide of the new year!

- DJ PassiveTheory