Traditions aside, I won't wear my jammies to The Jammies. Despite the punny practice embraced by fun-loving volunteer programmers at community radio station WYCE-FM (88.1), the world truly is better off not seeing me in my sleepwear at the annual awards show celebrating West Michigan's vibrant music scene.

You can't have a discussion about thrash metal without bringing up Testament. The band helped define the genre in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early 1980s, a scene widely recognized as one of the birthplaces of this faster, more aggressive take on heavy metal.

Less than two weeks before embarking to Europe, Chicago's Maps and Atlases will navigate around the lakeshore toward Grand Rapids to begin a modest four-day stint in the Midwest – all terrible puns barred.

There are as many endings as beginnings on West Michigan's music scene, sparked by the ups and downs of venues and clubs or the germinations and gyrations of local bands. Such is the case with Muskegon's popular Four Finger Five, an uber-talented trio.

The infamous 'crew' is something of a time-honored tradition in the hip-hop world. Rappers take their friends with them upon getting big. This past year has seen the rise of the Black Hippy crew from Los Angeles and the A$AP Mob from New York. Closest to home is Danny Brown's Bruiser Brigade from Detroit.

People call it Celtic punk, but what Flogging Molly brings to the stage really defies the idea of any sort of conventional label. And while there was a time when this Los Angeles-based seven-piece was being written off by many as "just a bar band," its commitment to the music has proven the naysayers wrong.

The Kent District Library is changing the way we interact with homegrown artistic talent. For years, area libraries considered local, independently produced media for inclusion in their catalogues, but the accepted materials too often stayed buried in the shelves and hidden from patrons' sight.

For a medium-sized city, Grand Rapids continues to make a name for itself by consistently bringing world-class artists to the city. St. Cecilia Music Center continues this tradition with the NYC2GR series, which commences Thursday, Nov. 29.

NYC2GR highlights prominent artists and programs from The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, part of the world's largest performing arts complex.

Joe Bockheim had a major musical epiphany in the ninth grade as he rode the bus to school. Naturally, when it came time to form his own project, Bockheim decided he was going to play rock 'n' roll in its purest form.

The Midwest is no foreign place for the wildly successful alternative pop-rock titans of Minnesota, Motion City Soundtrack. The band played at the Intersection long before its location on Grandville Street during a 15-year career of manic touring and five albums, two of which were produced by Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus.