The excitement of a new album for fans also shakes with a dose of nerves. With the music industry continually changing and many musicians conforming, the worst fear for fans is the album will drop with a sound of unrecognizable content.

• Kalamazoo
• Dominic Lalli
• Jeremy Salken
• Big Gigantic
• State Theater

Fans of The Chariot will have one last chance to see the band live on its upcoming farewell tour, celebrating the end of 10 years as a band. The Atlanta-based act will play its final Michigan show in Grand Rapids late this October at The Pyramid Scheme.

These days, Mustache-themed merchandise, events and everything else that pays homage to the upper-lip surprise is considered a tad cliche.

However, among this throng of mustache pop culture is one man that could be considered an original mustache connoisseur and he tailored a local music showcase around a mustache theme five years ago.

• Kalamazoo
• MustacheAPalooza
• Louie's Trophy House
• Devon Bynon

Through a smoky haze, endless microbrews and foot-long hair, so rises the sludge metal trio Mountain Goat.

• Grand Rapids
• Pyramid Scheme
• Mountain Goat

Seattle-based outfit Minus the Bear is a band that revels in musical experimentation and employing a diverse set of techniques to acquire its signature catchy indie mathrock sound. Vocalist Jake Snider attributes the band's openness to new sounds to a rather laid-back approach to songwriting.

• The Intersection
• Minus the Bear
• Jake Snider

Country music is kicking up its heels in West Michigan. "Within the last three years, the country music scene here has just exploded," said Kari Lynch, a fast-rising Grand Rapids country singer.

• Grand Rapids
• Kari Lynch
• Kalamazoo
• Shelagh Brown
• The BOB
• Matt Dowdy
• Crush
• Back Forty Saloon
• Twisted Bull
• Crazy Horse Saloon
• Shakespeare's Pub
• Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill
• One Trick Pony
• Founders Brewing Co

This is what progressive rock sounds like in the second decade of the New Millennium: A mélange of ear-electrifying, genre-spanning styles, funky backbeats, ever-changing time signatures, and dizzyingly stunning instrumental jams.

To say that Grand Rapids' Ultraviolet Hippopotamus has reinvented prog-rock on its latest, much buzzed-about new studio album, Translate, may actually sell the project short.

• Ultraviolet Hippopotamus
• River City Studios
• Redwall North Studios
• Russell James
• Brian Samuels
• Jon Phillion
• Dave Sanders
• Casey Butts

Justin Furstenfeld has turned a corner. The lead singer and songwriter of Blue October described the band's latest album as a personal and professional rebirth. After overcoming alcoholism and anxiety issues within the past couple of years, Furstenfeld is in a more stable place than in 2006.

• Justin Furstenfeld
• Blue October
• Sway
• The Intersection

Forty years ago, Frank Zappa and the Mothers recorded what was to become one of the band's most iconic albums, Roxy & Elsewhere. In honor of that anniversary, Gibson released the Frank Zappa "Roxy" SG, an exact replica of the guitar Frank used in those recordings.

• Frank Zappa and the Mothers
• Dweezil Zappa
• Zappa Plays Zappa

Growing up, Patrick Cleland was a lanky kid from Grand Rapids who loved nothing more than playing basketball. On bus rides to and from games and around the house, he toyed with on-the-spot rhymes for the hell of it. To him, it was fun and it made his friends laugh.

On Saturday, Sept. 21, Cleland (better known today as hip-hop artist Rick Chyme) will take what was once an offhand habit to the streets of ArtPrize in a big way, by tackling the world record for the longest freestyle with a target time of 17 hours.

• artprize
• The Pyramid Scheme
• Rick Chyme
• John Hartman Photography