bend to squares

indie rock on KZSC Santa Cruz 88.1fm · thursday nights, 2006–2008 · programmed by Max Elman

the show

indie rock with a passion

about

Inspired by Death Cab for Cutie's track on Something About Airplanes, bend to squares took the title and applied it to the pressure placed on indie bands to conform to cultural standards and, in effect, get "bent" into the similar-sounding mush signed by big labels.

The goal was to give both big and small indie bands a chance to be heard, and ideally get the public interested in good new independent music. For over two years, Thursday nights 8:30–10:30pm.

cheers,
max elman

listen / time travel

Have a time machine? Head back to 2006–2008 and tune in:

KZSC 88.1 FMSanta Cruz & Monterey counties
kzsc.orglive webstream

Every track below links straight to Spotify — one click to play or add it. Whole shows can be copied or turned into a real Spotify playlist.

by the numbers

two years of thursday nights

Every song logged across the run of the show — the artists that kept coming back, and how the weeks stacked up.

songs played over time

monthly totals · April 2006 → October 2008

songs per month

most played artists

top 12 by number of spins

most played songs

the tracks that earned repeat plays

deepest catalogs

artists by number of different songs played

the archive

every playlist

Search by artist or song, filter by year, and open any track in Spotify. Guest / subbed shows are marked.