Phil Smith with the Jazz Society of Santa Cruz County at Bocci's Cellar, which has live music seven nights a week.
For a city as small as Santa Cruz, our music scene is impressive. There are cool venues that cater to some amazing local bands, as well as a constant stream of national acts. There are places to buy music, instruments and just about anything music-related—if you know where to look. Still, some of the really cool music happenings are under the radar: the lesser known venues, the special monthly dance nights, the annual record swaps. If you look hard enough, there’s a lot to find. Fortunately, we’ve done the leg work, so you don’t have to. This list goes to 11:
SHEA BUTTER AT THE RED: From San Jose’s BVMO Crew, DJ Shea Butter spins great dance tunes at the Red every first Friday of the month. Shea spins modern and classic soul, hip-hop and reggae, most of it obscure, with a couple choice Top 40 tunes in the mix. Bring your dancing shoes, or at least dancing Birkenstocks, and pay nada, as the Red’s first Fridays are free. 1003 Cedar St., Santa Cruz.
SOUNDSWELL: The Santa Cruz Public Library is in the process of building a comprehensive, iTunes-like database of local bands’ music—current as well as long-since-broken-up. It’s a win-win program. The library is paying any local band actual money for their music, and anyone with a valid library card can download it for free. Follow Soundswell’s progress at santacruzpl.org. 224 Church St., Santa Cruz.
SUBROSA COMMUNITY SPACE: One of the strangest places in town to see shows. The shows are always non-electric, and feature music or performance art (or both). Events here are sporadic, but they have an open mic night every Thursday from 8-10pm. One friend told me he saw a woman at an open mic night hand out scissors to the audience. She asked them to cut her dress off. That was her act. Entrance fees are between $3-7. 703 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz.
PLEASE STAND BY ON KPIG 107.5 FM: For 15 years, Sleepy John Sandidge has been bringing local and national bands into the KPIG studio on Sundaymornings for some cool in-studio live performances. Why go to church when you can sit at home on Sunday mornings, drink beers and listen to country, folk, soul and blues bands over the radio? Keep an ear out for drop-ins by KPIG favorites like Todd Snider, Fred Eaglesmith and others.
THE POCKET: When does a dive bar stop being a dive? Probably when it loses its character—and when the young cool kids start showing up. The Pocket, which is located in Pleasure Point, still has all that great divey charm, not to mention that it hosts blues, folk and Americana bands various nights of the week. There’s no cover on Saturdays. Thursday nights are jam session nights. 3102 Portola Dr., Santa Cruz.
BOCCI’S CELLAR: Local musicians from every genre always seem to be saying that Bocci’s Cellar is the cool underground venue in town. That’s because they have live music seven nights a week, and they literally let bands of any style of music play there. It doesn’t hurt that they have bocci ball, as well as food and booze. 140 Encinal St., Santa Cruz.
CLUB KUUMBWA: For decades, only fairly well established bands got to play Kuumbwa Jazz Center’s killer stage (and use their equally awesome sound system). But now, once a month, there is “Club Kuumbwa,” where they allow lesser-known Americana and indie bands (often times local) to play. The tickets are less expensive, and there’s cheaper booze on tap, which draws a younger crowd. 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz.
KZSC 88.1 ULTIMATE MUSIC SALE: Once a year, Santa Cruz vinyl fanatics rejoice when KZSC presents its annual Ultimate Music Sale (which happens to be a fundraiser for the station). The vinyl-heads are lulled into a blissful trance as they wander the room filled with a dozen record vendors selling rare, obscure and, in some cases, discounted LPs and singles. The next UMS is Saturday, Nov. 23 at UCSC campus.
BANE SHOWS: Santa Cruz has a huge scene for all things loud and noisy: hardcore, sludge, punk, metalcore, screamo and just straight up noise. A vast majority of these shows are booked by Bane Shows. So if, say, some weird prog-metal-avant-noise band from Eugene, Oregon comes through town, guaranteed it’s Bane Shows that brought them. They also bring big acts like Deafheaven and Titus Andronicus. Lately most of the shows have been at the Catalyst Atrium, but sometimes they are in ultra-obscure venues that don’t even have names, just addresses. Keep an eye out for the fliers posted around town, or check out Bane Shows on Facebook.
FELTON CONTRA DANCE: Twice a month, opportunity awaits anyone interested in trying out some good old-fashioned New England-style folk dancing. Don’t know the first thing about folk dance? No problem. There are lessons before the actual dance—or just follow the instructions during the dance. There is a caller, after all. There’s a different band at every dance. On the first Fridays, the dances are at the Felton Community Hall. On the third Fridays they’re at the Veterans Memorial Building. Rumor has it that once or twice a year, a big group of punk rockers shows up and gets down with their bad selves—folk-dance style. Tickets are $10; $6 for students and volunteers. First Fridays: Felton Community Hall, 6191 Highway 9, Felton. Third Fridays: Veterans Memorial Building, 846 Front St., Santa Cruz.
METAVINYL: Santa Cruz is a great place to get vinyl LPs. While you’re running up and down Pacific Ave., don’t forget to check out Metavinyl, which carries rock, jazz, blues, electronic and indie. It's not quite the master purveyor of obscure used records that Logos is (although there are some gems to be found), but they have quite an impressive selection of new records. Plus they also sell vintage turntables. 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz.
