In the Rap game today, Danny Brown is a man among boys. Not only is his musical style unmatched in the underground Hip Hop scene but, at 31 years young, Brown was spitting rhymes long before Drake took his first spin in that wheelchair on Degrassi.  

Joey Cape might be among Punk’s busiest purveyors, but his longest standing and best-known band is obviously Lagwagon, one of the original Punk/Pop groups that emerged from the early ’90s California scene.   

Rising from the ashes of Minneapolis’ Gayngs collective, Polica is a chilly, beat-driven Electro outfit that mixes the shimmering vocals of Channy Leaneagh with the sleek production work of Ryan Olson.   

Over the course of three excellent albums, including their new eponymous double-disc set, Black Owls have incorporated vintage influences into their singular sound.  

Laetitia Sadier can at first seem an imposing pop figure. She’s a French intellectual with strong leftist opinions about how greedy, selfish capitalism and the excessive power of the financial sector are thwarting true democracy.
  

JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound’s sophomore album, Want More, might sound like some lost artifact from Otis Redding’s archive, but the Chicago quartet is young enough to be Redding’s grandchildren and have only been working their Indie Rock corner of Chicago Soul since 2007. 
  

Imperial Teen is still kicking, still churning out singularly crafted Indie Pop so ear-pleasingly addictive that it’s kind of remarkable they’re not more of a household name. But, then again, that’s never been the band’s reason for being.   

Are you a fan of Ramones-indebted Pop Punk that worships Top Gun and Evil Dead, cracks wise-ass observations about Metal show mosh pits and likes to creep out the womenfolk when out in an automobile? If so, congratulations — Teenage Bottlerocket's Freak Out is now your favorite record ever.
  

Needtobreathe loves Ohio. In the last two years, the band has played in our state more than half a dozen times. It’s OK, though. There’s no such thing as too much Needtobreathe.  

Glen Hansard's elevation from Rock musician to Academy Award winner in 2008 following the success of the film Once also put his blossoming personal relationship with musical collaborator Marketa Irglova square in the public eye. Released earlier this year, Hansard's solo album, Rhythm and Repose, could be the coda to that story.   

You know who there aren’t enough of in America? Guys like Paul Thorn. Thorn plays a loud version of Americana, a bluesy, Southern Rock. His lyrics often illustrate stories about rough lives, hard times and rowdy women, making him a sort of funkier Johnny Cash.  

One of Rock & Roll’s prime directives is to raise the shock tolerance of the general population. Remember Elvis Presley’s hip ban on The Ed Sullivan Show? Jim Morrison showing the Lizard Prince to a Miami audience? GWAR makes all of them combined seem like a kindergarten macaroni art project.  

If we were to define Punk Rock acts in terms of food, Bad Religion would be a complex salad, Black Flag a slab of lean steak, Ramones a rich all-toppings-in sundae and The Casualties a box of Twinkies with a side of barbecue-flavored Ruffles chips.   

In 1998, Brooklynite Martin Perna assembled a group of musicians to play at a Harlem poetry gathering, christening the band Antibalas, the Spanish word for bulletproof.  

 When Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel began playing San Francisco street corners and house parties a decade ago under the banner of Two Gallants they were just 21 years old, but by then, the Folk rockers were childhood friends that had already been playing together for nearly 10 years.