If you keep your ear to the local music scene, you are probably already aware of Grand Rapids hip-hop artist Rick Chyme.
If you are not, this is him in a nutshell: A crazy talented artist; long beard; says "5iveit" a lot. So, what does "5iveit" even mean? Chyme's got your answer
Days and nights filled with art and music. What more could a child want? Oh, some early holiday festivities with good old Santa. It's never too soon to start sucking up...
Indie rock band Born Ruffians will play in Grand Rapids for the first time during its upcoming fall tour.
For his latest album, Holding My Breath, singer-songwriter and pianist Jon McLaughlin signed a campaign with PledgeMusic. A crowdfunding source similar to Kickstarter or Indiegogo, PledgeMusic is strictly for musicians with notable users such as The Lumineers, Luke Bryan and Gang of Four.
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.
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.
Through a smoky haze, endless microbrews and foot-long hair, so rises the sludge metal trio 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
