Santa Cruz easily makes up for the relative lack of touring brand-name acts with an independent scene that is as diverse as it is fiercely loyal. Perhaps no other band better personifies this ethos than Acid Tapestries. An indie rock amalgam, the four-piece ties together strands of the past five decades of rock and alternative music into a driving, melodic ruckus landing somewhere between Pavement and a psyched-out Vampire Weekend. Naturally, it’s been very well-received in town. “The Santa Cruz music scene has been great to us,” explains Lee Bedrouni, the bespectacled bassist. “We’ve received a hell of a lot of support from organizations like TINARL and from other local bands like San Narciso, Green Flash and No Jet Left.” In return, Bedrouni has nurtured the scene by regularly featuring new local music on KZSC, where he currently hosts a Friday night local music showcase entitled “The Rising Tide.”
Indeed, the scene owes a great deal of its vibrancy to UC Santa Cruz’s presence on the hill. Many of the houses and apartments where shows occur on a nightly basis are inhabited by students, who often first meet on campus. “Almost the entirety of Acid Tapestries’ existence is owed to attending UCSC,” says Bedrouni. “I met Michael (Estioko, drummer) about two years ago in an Intro to Psych class, of all things, and kept up a correspondence over time; I then met and forgot about Tony (Albert, singer/guitarist) at some point while at school, but was then thankfully reintroduced to him about a year ago at a mutual acquaintance’s birthday show. Brett (Hydeman, guitarist) is one of Tony’s co-workers and is also up here because he was a student at UCSC, so yeah, I credit it immensely.” So what is it about Santa Cruz that strikes a nerve, like Olympia and 924 Gilman have in the past? Perhaps the truth is revealed in the sounds the town produces. When Acid Tapestries rock with fellow Cruz-icians Mountain Animal Hospital this Saturday, Feb. 13, listen closely to Tony Albert’s subtle suggestion on “Song for Anon
