Upcoming Events in Santa Cruz

Thursday, July 2

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  Deertick

  at Crepe Place; $10; 9pm
  John Joseph McCauley III wants people to know that despite his pretentiously long name and the tendency for fans to bathe him in adoration, he’s not the only member of Deertick. He did found the band, originally a simple bass and drums duo, on the rainy streets of Providence, but since then, the crew has grown by two, and though it remains McCauley’s brainchild, it’s a true collaboration now. What it all adds up to is good, honest, bluegrass-tinged indie rock with clever lyrics, boot-scooting rhythms and rough-and-tumble vocals for a full sound that no single country boy could do on his own.
  

Friday, July 3

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  Mighty Diamonds

  at Moe’s Alley; $20 adv/$25 door; 9:30pm
  All that glitters is not gold but a certain precious stone when it comes to reggae spun by this radiant trio. Though the Mighty Diamonds have retained social and political commentary in their act, for the 30-plus years they’ve performed together they’ve opted out of building their message around Rastafarian beliefs. Jamaica’s gems procured a name for themselves during the ’70s roots era by conjuring the mojo of Motown through euphonious harmonies and a choreographed appearance. Their thumping beats and electronic ditties reverberated through to the United States with the release of album 19, 1986’s Pass the Kutchie—merely the halfway mark of a lustrous career with no end in sight.
  

• 

  Eek-A-Mouse

  at Catalyst; $14 adv/$19 door; 9pm
  A titan of Jamaican reggae known for his ebullient sense of humor, Eek-A-Mouse towers above all comers. This is not only physically—granted, he is almost impossibly tall—but stylistically; his iconoclastic talent as the popularizer of the "singjay" vocal style that has come to define dancehall. The man born Ripton Joseph Hylton has had a storied career, achieving stateside success in a genre that rarely cracks the pop charts, and is on his way to being a veritable elder statesman of the genre—even if he remains its perpetually adolescent class clown.
  

• 

  The Parson Redheads

  at Crepe Place; call for price; 9pm
  Proving that blondes can’t have all the fun, the Parson Redheads made the big migration from Oregon to the City of Angels in the summer of 2005. A White Stripes-like husband-and-wife team of Evan and Brette Marie Way are the bedrock of an indie-psyche six-piece that brings audiences on a trip through the ’60s. The heavily English pop-influenced outfit is hailed for taking the catchy hymns of the Byrds and wooing listeners with a Donovanesque melodiousness. Their premiere vinyl release, Orangufang, will no doubt further already solid alternative radio airplay and could perhaps induce the birth of what may one day be christened the Oregon invasion.
  

Saturday, July 4

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  Reverend Beat-Man

  at Blue Lagoon; $10; 8:30pm
  Santa Cruz’s most beloved downtown dive bar and punk venue is pulling out all the stops to celebrate our nation’s birthday. Five rock bands, two burlesque dancers and one hot rod car show are all slated to turn Independance Day into Indie Punk Dance Day in a way that only the Blue Lagoon can pull off. Headlining the shindig is Swiss rockabilly badass Reverend Beat-Man and his brand of hard-nosed gutter rock. In tow come four more Central Coast punk and psychobilly acts, including Thee Merry Widows, Rifraff, S.C. Beatdown and the End, for a one-night liberty freak out that’s sure to leave bruises.
  

• 

  Danjuma & Onola

  at Moe’s Alley; $9 adv/$12 door; 9pm
  Though Santa Cruzan Danjuma Adamu grew up Lagos, Nigeria, it was the groundbreaking rock & roll of the Beatles that helped kick-start his musical obsession decades ago. The multi-instrumentalist started his first band at age 18, playing mostly American rock music, before joining the Action Funk Ensemble in 1967. The group’s first album, Groove The Funk, found modest success internationally, as did the follow-up, 1972’s Dawn of Awareness. Following the critical recognition of the releases, Danjuma embarked on a music career that spanned Africa and Europe and finally landed him in California, where he helped forge the world-beat sound that gained popularity in the mid-’80s. His current band, Onola, is a further embodiment of the funkified Afro-beat Danjuma has come to embody.
  

Sunday, July 5

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  Firecracker Rag Jug Jamboree

  at Don Quixote's; $10; 6pm
  The string band revival earlier this decade resurrected a number of long-dormant musical genres, but no comeback may have been more unlikely than that of the jug band. Unabashedly hokey and dated, jug bands enjoyed a brief revival in the ’60s, but in the intervening decades seemed to be relics of an age less obsessed with cool-hunting narcissism. Fortunately, jug bands have enjoyed a comeback in recent years, embracing the form in all of its eye-rolling, bad-gag glory. Featuring the Club Zayante Jug Stompers, this juke-joint jamboree is a celebration of jug band music and its many dorky charms.

Monday, July 6

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  Kurt Elling

  at Kuumbwa; $25 adv/$28 door; 7 and 9pm
  It's risky business embarking on a tour that pays tribute to the likes of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, no matter your artistic pedigree. Well loved baritone vocalist Kurt Elling raises the stakes on what is already a seemingly no-win proposition by offering vocal reinterpretations of work composed or popularized by these instrumental jazz giants. It's an audacious move, but Elling makes it work with his iconoclastic vision and prodigious talents, buoyed by a crack band that includes Ernie Watts on tenor sax.
  

Thursday, July 9

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  Calaveras

  at Don Quixote's; $10; 7:30pm
  Taking inspiration from the river of the same name, the three-piece folk outfit Calaveras specializes in rustic acoustic roots music that toys with elements of jazz and blues. The Bay Area band, which includes Greg Beattie and Victoria Blythe on vocals and Dave Decker on lead guitar, has won a grip of prestigious awards from the West Coast Songwriter's International Song Contest. At this show, the trio teams up with local boys the Hot Damn Band, who also supported Calaveras on their latest release, Green Girl.
  

• 

  Howlin’ Rain

  at Crepe Place; $8 adv/$10 door; 9pm
  Down on the mat but far from out cold, San Francisco’s psyche rock powerhouse Howlin’ Rain is storming back onto the scene with a new lineup, a new album and a new benchmark for ass-kicking. The crew borrows pages from the playbooks of ’70s icons like the Doors and Jefferson Airplane, putting the organ front and center among the shredding guitars and bombastic drums. Not to mention they’re managed by the legendary Rick Rubin, who has an empirically proven musical Midas touch (see: Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers). Psychedelic rock like Mother Nature intended, Howlin’ Rain brings down the thunder.
  

Friday, July 10

• 

  Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound

  at Crepe Place; $8 adv/$10 door; 9pm
  With a name sounding like a poorly translated phrase from a Japanese instruction manual, it may come as no surprise that the music of this San Francisco quartet is a shade on the spacey side. Wall-of-sound guitar wailings layered over heavy effects and droning vocals combine for a Bay Area experience a la Santa Cruz favorites Sleepy Sun and Mammatus. On the group’s freshly dropped EP When Sweet Sleep Returned, the fog of space static hisses louder than ever, while vocalist Brett Constantino’s masculine croon booms through the low frequencies. Known also for energetic and improvised live sets, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound is out to fry your brain.
  

• 

  BLVD

  at Catalyst; $10 adv/$12 door; 9pm
  A true electronica band, the four Bay Area audiophiles of BLVD mesh live bass, drums and guitar with glitched-out samples and beats for a techno club experience you can headbang to. Having just added Colorado MC Souleye to the touring lineup, shows lately have been a sweaty circus of hip-hop dominated electro rock. The genre blending doesn’t end there, however, as the group’s recording resume includes collaborations with some of jam and reggae’s finest, like the String Cheese Incident and Michael Franti & Spearhead. So for those who say “heck no” to techno, BLVD offers an easy first step in expanding your horizons.
  

Saturday, July 11

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  It’s A Beautiful Day

  at Brookdale Lodge; call for price and time
  David LaFlamme could have pursued his solo career as an acclaimed violinist and steered clear of the drama and debauchery of heading a ’60s rock band. But staying with the Utah Symphony Orchestra instead of hatching electric folk outfit It’s A Beautiful Day in 1967 would have cheated him out of the chance to frolic with Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin and the rest of San Francisco’s flower children. The band’s mellow rock was propelled by the psychedelic grooves of the 1969 hit “White Bird,” though we might finger LaFlamme’s prickly divorce from wife and IABD keyboardist as the reason why the band’s fame never quite reached Grateful Dead notoriety.
  

• 

  Robin Trower

  at Catalyst; $33 adv/$39 door; 7:30pm
  The stratospheric guitar leads that Robin Trower can conjure from six strings are a wonder to behold. Four decades into his career, Trower hasn't lost any of the spark that in his Procol Harum days garnered positive comparisons to Jimi Hendrix. Recent releases have amounted to a career resurgence for Trower, whose 2005 album Another Days Blues was hailed as a fierce return to form. Anchored by a fearsomely adept three-piece backing band, Trower's playing has matured but remains as dynamic as ever.
  

Sunday, July 12

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  Mumbo Gumbo

  at Moe's Alley; $15 adv/$20 door; 3pm
  Mumbo Gumbo's rave-ups aren't merely dance-inducing amalgamations of rock, funk, afropop, zydeco and countless other musical influences, they're a celebration of life. This seven-piece band outfit dizzyingly whirls from one style to next, never stopping to catch its collective breath. It might sound like a mess, but it's a mess of the best kind--ebullient, joyous and unexpectedly emotionally resonant.
  

Tuesday, July 14

• 

  Abalone Dots

  at Don Quixote’s; $10; 7:30.
  

  Just as Ed Sullivan was able to catapult a group of handsome moptops to mega-fame, the Abalone Dots have been hypnotizing the European TV circuit with their dark folk and dainty mysticism in hopes of becoming the female fab four of softgrass. The girls have been playing together for seven years but didn’t top Swedish charts with their first album, From a Safe Distance, until 2007. Though cordially received into U.S. culture, the clan of bluegrass bombshells is miles from the warbles of America’s favorite country music imposter, Jessica Simpson. Their genuine, bewitching vocals stream sultry breathiness through fine-spun lyrics, hitting an emotional core with a nonchalance that simultaneously captures both the devil’s blues and the musings of angels.