Diego Garcia's music could be called easy listening if not for the infusion of flavors his heritage and experiences have brought to his writing. The songwriter's latest album, Paradise, encompasses themes of love, reconciliation and self-discovery to the beat of Garcia's acoustic guitar. But Garcia's influences are wide ranging, including punk pioneer Iggy Pop.
If you don't know the Grand Rapids-based folk rock band Bennett yet, you should learn their name. This trio of fresh-faced college kids carry an incredibly mature and polished sound that bring a variety of instruments into the mix. This is all an addition to rich vocal harmonies.
Kamilla bassist Mike Smith had been living cancer-free after being diagnosed with stage-two melanoma in April 2012. That was until a devastating phone call came from his doctor a year later. The doctors at the Lacks Cancer Center in Grand Rapids removed a tumor and two lymph nodes from underneath Smith's right arm, thinking that the cancer was gone. But it returned.
It can take bands years or months to write a full record, but one week is all it took for Grand Rapids-based Carielle to write all the songs on Sonder.
Last week, we brought you some major tuneage from Jake Simmons. We're going to keep it rolling with music by another Jake. Jake Pauwels, who hits the stage by the name of Jake Down, released a five-song EP a couple months ago with his band Jake Down and the Midwest Mess.
Many have enjoyed watching the musical metamorphisis of Jake Simmons. A product of South Haven , Simmons went from more pop sensible stylings as apart of now-defunct Dead Scene Radio and has adopted an unapologetic brand of rock 'n' roll.
Last summer, Grand Rapids resident John Hanson and a crew of DIY-minded organizers came to the realization they had all the right pieces for putting together a righteous music festival.
Here at REVUE, we've decided to slow it down a little bit with the dizzying, whimsical sounds of Thirty Steps To Forward.
Ask any musician: Passing down rich music traditions ensures that eager new generations of players will continue to be inspired to greatness – or, at the very least, find joy in jams and making musical noise.
Shad's music contains a secret weapon as unlikely as his upbringing: heart. The rapper, who was born in Kenya and raised in Ontario, might never have had the chance to turn his hobby into a career if not for a talent competition held by a local radio station. Winning the competition allowed Shad to record a debut album in 2005 and since then, he has recorded three more full-length albums and won Rap Recording of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards, beating out Drake.
If you're not familiar with the 1988 album Vivid by Living Colour, you're either a hermit living in the wilds of Appalachia, or simply too young to remember. Vivid not only hit No. 6 on the Billboard 200 that year, it also went double platinum.
Since 1999, Killswitch Engage has been widely recognized as one of the bands that helped propel metalcore into the mainstream with its 2002 album, Alive or Just Breathing. That very same year, however, lead vocalist Jesse Leach decided to part ways with the group rather unexpectedly, leaving the rest of the band scratching their heads.
If you want to break out, you have to hustle, at least according to hip-hop artist Grieves. Before signing with independent hip-hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment in 2010, Grieves (real name Benjamin Laub) was simultaneously writing new music, playing gigs and trying to get his material heard by as many people as possible.
We haven't heard much from Cymbals Eat Guitars, the NYC-based indie rock outfit responsible for 2009's Why There Are Mountains and the 2011 follow-up Lenses Alien. What's a young band to do after getting stamped with a "Best New Music" label by the hype machines? For CEG, personnel changes and relocating back to Brooklyn have kept the group busy and given them something of a new look.
