The Best Friends on The Rising Tide tonight!

Hey all,

It's been an exhausting last couple of weeks, but nothing's going to slow down The Rising Tide! As you may have noticed from our sidebar, we've got a slew of wonderful performances to look forward to in the month of May! Interviews with Pangolin, The Ian Fays, The Beggar and The Coal, and more, so keep an eye out on the blog for more information about our upcoming guests.

Speaking of which, it's my pleasure to introduce you to this week's guests on The Rising Tide, a band by the name of The Best Friends.


A 5-piece consisting of UCSC students who all met in the Stevenson dorms in their freshmen year, The Best Friends bring together the best of roots rock, r&b and funk in a way that echoes artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and George Clinton. The group's cooperative ethic is best seen in a live setting, where the band members share the front stage by taking turns at the microphone. It is here that the group really thrives, whether it be powering through their own original material or laying down an authentic cover song or two, for The Best Friends are the closest thing Santa Cruz has to a legit party-all-night band.

The group is coming onto The Rising Tide tonight to talk about their upcoming shows (including their May 11th show at the Crepe Place with Good People and The Jolly Llamas), possible future recordings, and whatever else 2011 has in store for the group.

This and more on The Rising Tide tonight at 7pm sharp! Listen live at 88.1fm or http://www.kzsc.org/

Good People on The Rising Tide

Hey all,

The weather's been strange and my life has been stranger, so let's just get down to business and let me tell you about a little band that I know called Good People.

This rag-tag group of Santa Cruz musicians has been kicking it together since late 2009. Though individually schooled in different forms of music, the group music takes on indie rock, afro beat, math rock and dance rock with equal parts fervor and ambition. The group draws on influence as far flung as Fela Kuti, Discovery, Ryland Bouchard and Tera Melos.

The fivesome have pulled off a couple of coups in Santa Cruz, opening up for local folk punk heavyweights Blackbird Raum and also sharing a Crepe Place bill with the likes of Hermit Convention and Magic Bullets, but the band has stayed largely inactive since the summer, only venturing forth for a couple of shows. The reason for this is that the group has been hard at work completing their debut full-length (which has ten official titles, reflecting the band's quirky nature, but for simplicity's sake we'll call it Good People) which is bound to come out soon.

Good People will be coming into the studio this friday night to talk about their band, what it's like to balance the pressures of being students at UCSC while also trying to make a band work, and what 2011 holds for the group.

This and more on tomorrow night's Rising Tide! Tune in around 8:30pm at 88.1fm or listen online at www.kzsc.org!

- DJ PassiveTheory