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A brightly lit outdoor festival tent glows with vivid blue, green, and purple lights at night, surrounded by trees and artistic decorations under a starry sky.

RPM OCTOBER CHARTS

October is in full swing along with our Fall schedule and we here at KZSC are eager to share our music playlist with you. Hungry for some sweet electronic tunes? Here are our Top 10 albums and tracks for October 2016:…

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New KZSC merch is here!

New stuff!! You can donate to Santa Cruz's community radio station and receive our new special edition KZSC shirt printed on a 50/50 blend in navy blue .     And, we're bringing the tote bag back! A canvas bag with our beloved "peel slowly and see" Andy Warhol/Velvet Underground-inspired banana slug shows off both your love of music, and appreciation of the Santa Cruz banana slug. The 11-inch, over-the-shoulder handles and 15.5″ x 14.5″ x 7″ size allows you to haul your LPs, groceries, beach gear, or books! Rep your favorite local, non-commercial, community radio station everywhere you go.

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A close-up of a black cat with glowing yellow eyes, illuminated by intense red lighting, giving the image an eerie and dramatic effect.

LOUD ROCK OCTOBER CHARTS

The spookiest season of the year is here! Perfect time for some charts of the best Loud Rock albums that have come out recently or are coming out soon! Blow out your eardrums and headbang along to these tasty new jams... Neurosis -…

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A colorful vinyl album cover for "Odessey and Oracle" by The Zombies, featuring psychedelic artwork, band member illustrations, signatures in black marker, and handwritten labels on the corners.

Hear The Zombies interviewed on KZSC

On September 7th, KZSC spoke with 1960s pop legends, The Zombies. It was hours before their show at The Catalyst that they visited our studios. Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone shared the story of the founding and dissolution of the Zombies and traced some of the impact that British jazz and choral music had on their songwriting and performing. Listen to hear that and a lot more!

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A colorful, psychedelic artwork of a smiling skeleton wearing a crown of red roses, surrounded by more roses and petals. Another smaller skeleton stands on a stone pedestal. The background features a blue sky and tie-dye patterns.

Programmer of the Month: Art O’Sullivan

The Golden Road's Art O'Sullivan moved to Santa Cruz to attend UCSC as an alternative academic experience, but the ocean, redwoods and counterculture kept him here. Upon first listening to KZSC, Art was drawn to the alternative music, talk and special format programming. He started programing The Golden Road on June 18, 1997 as a 30th anniversary celebration of the Monterey International Pop Festival.

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A grid of four album covers: a person with tape over their mouth, two mirrored hands with a dark shape above them, three people posing outside a house, and a woman with long dark hair in front of dry branches.

KZSC Show Reviews: Nicole Dollanganger, Teen Suicide, Elvis Depressedly

If you have the opportunity to see Nicole Dollanganger, Teen Suicide (or whatever name they change to), Elvis Depressedly, or Aeon Fux, go spend that money. They’re gems, all of them. Many thanks to the good folks at the Vera Project for showing me live music isn’t a huge chore. Festivals are a whole different story, but this will be the year I go out to see some more shows more often.

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An older man with white hair and glasses plays an electric guitar on stage, sitting on a chair under bright stage lights with a starry backdrop and musical equipment around him.

Hear Larry Coryell on KZSC’s Test of Time

On August 26, Carol from KZSC's Test of Time spoke with prolific guitarist Larry Coryell who pioneered the progressive jazz fusion movement, integrating free form jazz with elements of rock, rhythm and blues. Larry reflects on the vibrant music scene during the sixties and the first time he heard Jimi Hendrix. Other highlights include Larry's diverse interest in music, the reunion of The Free Spirits and the first new studio album for The Eleventh House since 1976.

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A close-up of a hand pressing the rewind button on a car stereo cassette player, with an LED display showing radio frequency 88.1.

2016.6: Mid-year Favorites From KZSC to You!

When you think of the year 2016, do you think you'll remember what you were listening to constantly on the way to work, on the way to class, or even on your way home? Yes? No? We've seen grand releases by artists ranging from Kanye West to Blood Orange, Kendrick Lamar to G.L.O.S.S., Beyoncé to The Julie Ruin, and plenty more that would be impossible to mention in a singular blog post. There'll always be something to praise, so here are some of KZSC's very own disc jockeys letting you know what you might've missed so far in 2016!

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Blurred image of a band performing on stage with blue and teal light trails, creating a sense of motion. Musicians and instruments are indistinct, with streaks of color giving an energetic, abstract effect.

Explosions in the Sky and Preoccupations: KZSC Show Reviews

Ah, the Mountain Winery: a venue always been defined by its excellence. On the night of August 29th, there was a fantastic show featuring the impeccable post-rock band, Explosion in the Sky, and Calgary post-punk outfit, Preoccupations (formerly Viet Cong). Both bands had just played FYF Fest in Los Angeles and this show was a very stark contrast to the festival setting they played the weekend before. Although the Mountain Winery is an amphitheater, the very little amount of space between the seating and the stage allowed a more intimate performance from both bands throughout the night.

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Three men stand on a rocky riverbank with trees in the background. One holds a violin, another holds a guitar, and the third holds a red accordion. All are casually dressed and smiling.

De Temps Antan, Sun Aug 21st

De Temps Antan, an engagingly joyful and energetic trio playing traditional style French-Canadian (Quebecois) folk music, will be in concert at Don Quixote's International Music Hall in Felton, CA on Sunday evening, August 21, 2016. Together since 2003, all the members…

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A crowd stands in front of a large outdoor stage with “SLUMBERJACK” displayed on the screen. Stage equipment and lights hang above, with blue sky visible in the background. A straw hat is visible in the foreground.

Electric Adventures at HARD Summer ’16

Summer's in LA thrive with everything from evening concerts on the beach to the weekend festivals. For nine years now, HARD Summer has been putting on one of the most well known and loved EDM, and hip-hop, raves of the summer…

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Yellow circular sign with colorful swirl patterns, a black radio tower illustration in the center, and the letters "WMBR" printed on the left side.

The 88 point ones…

Recently, it was my great pleasure to visit MIT's, 88.1, WMBR. It has three studios, AND contains, what has to be, one of the largest music libraries in all of college radio, with more than 100,000 LPs and a similar number of CDs in their library! WMBR's show, Pipeline! is celebrating 25 years of live & local rock music programming with a series of 13 shows, featuring 80 acts, Sept. 12th through Oct. 12th, 2016.

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