For melodic punk veterans Taking Back Sunday, second time's the charm. The group’s standards of success have risen dramatically with the release of their latest album, Happiness Is. This time, however, artistic freedom was more accessible than ever.

ArtPrize turns up the volume for musicians with structural changes aimed to increase their exposure. “Half of the time when I would tell people about the piece they would say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know music was a category.’ So then I had to explain that to them instead of talking about the song or what I’m about and what I do,” said Bouwsma-Schultz, who won the $2,000 St. Cecilia Music Center (SCMC) award in rock/blues for her song, "In my Heart (To the Moon)."

Cage the Elephant's 2013 album, Melophobia, was approached a bit differently than previous records. As opposed to a strict collaborative effort from the very beginning, each of the band's members started writing music individually.

 Kalamazoo’s music scene might be battered, but it ain’t beat. Audiotree, the Chicago-based website and music company known for its stellar in-studio sessions, is bringing a well-deserved bump to town with its second-annual music festival.

Suddenly, at the blink of an eye, August is here and summer is fast approaching its end. With autumn drawing closer in, excitement forms as new expectations are made of what the next season will bring. Here to help with the transition is the track of the week, preaching adventure, change and moving forward.

• Grand Rapids
• Vagabonds
• Discontent
• Anywhere (But Here)

Go ahead and holster your witty comparisons to Jack Black and the movie School of Rock when you are around James Hughes — he’s heard them before.

 Les Claypool is certainly best known for his role as lead vocalist and bassist for Primus. But Claypool is just as well known for his number of side projects and artistic endeavors, including the formation of supergroup Oysterhead, theme songs for "South Park" and Robot Chicken, a book, a movie and working alongside musicians from Tom Waits to Metallica.

Four jazz students with a shared love of ‘60s pop united in 2004, making a name for themselves playing dive bars in Boston and Cambridge. Ten years later, the members of Lake Street Dive are National Public Radio darlings and late-night television veterans who released their third studio album, Bad Self Portraits, earlier this year.

A fresh face in the punk scene, local rockers Bike Tuff produce authentic indie/emo/punk music that’s a little more thoughtfully crafted than is usually the case. Their latest effort, Into Shore, displays a songwriting craft and general musical ability that can be elusive for the genre.

• bike tuff
• los plantanos
• into shore

The Red Handed's album combines the lofty aspirations and knotty compositions of prog with the earnestness and accessibility of indie rock: the playing is competent yet not overblown, the vocals are clean and simple (think Between the Buried and Me, not Dream Theater), and the songs are concise and compact, yet packed with enough detours to keep all the music nerds happy.

• The Red Handed
• Shell Shocked
• Muskegon