San Jose Rocks Podcasts
San Jose Rocks — Celebrating the Soul of Silicon Valley San Jose Rocks is the nonprofit dedicated to collecting, curating, and celebrating Silicon Valley's rich and often overlooked musical legacy — connecting fans, innovators, and educators across generations and genres, and inspiring the future of sound. Most people know Silicon Valley as the birthplace of Apple, Google, Adobe, NVIDIA, Netflix, HP, and Atari. But here's what they don't know: the same region that rewired the world with technology also shaped the sound of modern music. The world's first commercial radio broadcast happened in downtown San José in 1909. Ray Dolby — whose noise reduction technology transformed recording studios worldwide — studied at San José State. IBM invented the hard disk drive in San José in 1956, forever changing how music is stored. Apple's iPod and iTunes rewrote the economics of the entire music industry. NVIDIA is now pioneering AI-generated audio. Adobe made music visual. The technologies that capture, share, and play music all started here. And the artists? Grateful Dead performed for the first time under that name at a Ken Kesey Acid Test on December 4, 1965, in San Jose. The Doobie Brothers, Los Tigres del Norte, and Smash Mouth call San Jose home. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Pentatonix, Rancid, and the Kingston Trio all have strong ties to Silicon Valley. Through original profiles, oral histories, multimedia narratives, and a GPS-triggered Heritage Trail launching via the San Jose Rocks mobile app, we're building a living archive — dynamic and searchable by artist, genre, innovation, location, and era — spanning 1909 to the present.
Episodes
John Densmore sat behind the drum kit for The Doors. He saw many things. Mostly, he saw frontman Jim Morrison hypnotize audiences while Densmore and his bandmates created iconic rock music on stages from coast to coast -- including at The Doors' two gigs in Santa Clara County, which took place at vastly different venues.
The first Doors show in the South Bay was a 1967 appearance at the Continental Ballroom, a converted roller rin...
What's old and what's new at San Jose's Guitar Showcase. A fun interview with Jack Van Breen and DZ who, between them, have been at Guitar Showcase for over 80 years.
John covered everything from:
- The early days in San Jose, opening up for The Doors, and hanging out with Janis Joplin in Santa Clara
- The formation of performance art and outrageous cover band 'Daddy-o' and their appearance on the Gong Show in 1978
- Playing in the band People! then, and now, with a new album coming out soon.
- The early days in Campbell and Boswell's
- And several nice words about Campbell's own Robert Berry and Soun...
An informative and entertaining conversation, with SJR co-founder Dan Orloff and Grammy-nominated recording artist, and Campbell resident, Robert Berry, about San Jose/Silicon Valley's role in shaping the music industry and plans for a San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. While San Jose Rocks' plans have changed, the stories are fun to share.
Some good storytelling with Greg Kihn and Chris Jackson of 98.5 KFOX. Stevie Knicks, San Jose State, El Burro and The Pruneyard in Campbell.
Hear the behind the scenes story, told by Connie LoBue, of how San Jose concert promoter Paul Catalana raised the money, just to have the conversation with the U.S. Tour's advance team, to bring the Beatles to the Cow Palace in Daly City, CA on their first stop on 1964 U.S. Tour.
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