For two years the Rothbury Festival located just north of Muskegon rode about as high as any music festival in America. Between 2008 and 2009 it attracted headliners such as The Dead, Bob Dylan and Snoop Dogg. Sadly, this was not enough.

This summer there's a newcomer to the local city festival scene. Downtown bar and venue, The Pyramid Scheme, will host T Rex Fest, a one-day festival on June 16. T Rex Fest will happen in the streets outside The Pyramid Scheme.

Cops. If you think they only show up at anti-authoritarian punk rock shows in Putin's Russia, think again. They also showed up at blues-rock band JuxTApose's CD release party ... twice.

Summer is the time of year when your listening library may become less introspective and moody, and perhaps it is the time for something better suited to a high-volume car stereo and open windows.

Midwest Skies is here to oblige. The band's previous EP, Glory Days, was the quintessential summer album — littered with power chords tucked into major key pop-punk songs.

William Beckett lost his band and his label last year, but that hasn't slowed him down. He leapt into a new solo project that will release three EPs and tour across the country this year — all as an independent artist.

Beckett was the frontman of the pop-rock group The Academy Is... until the band disbanded last October. Beckett started the group back in 2003, and over the next seven years The Academy Is... produced three studio albums and four EPs.

Since 2004, Grand Rapids band La Dispute has been inching toward success one fan at a time. The members kept at it for four years, playing small shows here and there, until one e-mail changed everything.

Heavier Than Air Flying Machines might always be a question mark of a band. Nothing about the gritty, high-gain debut album, Siam (released last September), is typical, nor anything about the band's spastic live performance. But then again, that's just the point of the band.

If you've ever tipped back a beer at one of Grand Rapid's assorted open mic nights, chances are you've heard of Karisa Wilson. As one of the cities most revered artists, her name has gained prestige — only heightened when her debut album, Little Girl, won Album of the Year at the Jammies in 2008.

Sometimes it only takes a single opportunity to open the door to success. Just ask singer-songwriter Christina Perri, whose song "Jar of Hearts" made its way on to the June 30, 2010 episode of the television show, "So You Think You Can Dance." Now, less than two years later, Perri has been seemingly thrust in to the spotlight.

"It's been bananas!" Perri said of the journey so far. "It was one great day that hasn't stopped for two years."

Trying to follow up the platinum Sound of Madness record, which features the double-platinum single "Second Chance," was no easy task for Shinedown, a band that has dominated rock radio since the album's release in 2008.