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.
