Public’s debut four-song EP, Red, released last summer through the local Counter Rhythm Group, offers the yelping howl, martial cadence and galloping verve of Modest Mouse without the thick icing of ironic hipster cool.  

Last year was a busy one for The Natives — the Hip Hop aggregation released two new albums as free downloads, maintained a high profile in the local club scene, produced a handful of videos and nabbed a Cincinnati Entertainment Awards nomination for New Artist of the Year.  

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Jason Snell approaches music and art with an open, collaborative spirit. Sometimes, it’s to his own creative detriment.   

Frontdude Grayson Sanders is a classically trained musician and composer with a soft spot for “Stravinsky, Ravel, Bartok, Ligeti and Autechre,” influences that clearly color the band’s 2011 full-length debut, Laminate Pet Animal.   

Sometimes it only takes a well-placed reference to bump an artist up to the next level. French-born guitarist Stephane Wrembel was already enjoying an acclaimed career when director Woody Allen tapped him to score the theme of his 2011 Academy Award-winning film Midnight in Paris, which he performed live to the millions who tuned into the ceremony’s telecast.   

Robert Earl Keen has always straddled the line between Americana and Country Blues music. But, more than anything else, he is a singer/songwriter who has the ability to weave sonic tales that are vivid, interesting and fun.  

The Punknecks’ bio doesn’t mince words. Calling themselves “Punky Tonkers,” Jason Punkneck is from Nashville while Polly Punkneck is from Kansas. The duo, along with their drummer Nick Punkneck, are apparently known for “a rowdy show of drinking, drugging, Jesus, smokin’ pot and living between heaven and hell.”   

At age 14, Sean Scolnick started writing his first songs, penning Nirvana-inspired missives about authority, school and “stuff that a lot of 14-year-old kids probably write about.” Now in his early 30s, Scolnick doesn't employ those subjects as inspiration anymore. Listening to his story-heavy goulash of Folk and AltCountry reveals nary any traces of Cobain and Co. at all.   

Apparently, Chris Denney has only been writing songs for the past four years, but he’s clearly channeling a lifetime of pent up creative energy in the tunes he’s unleashing with his Nashville quintet, Denney & the Jets.  

Fever Fever is a Columbus four-piece (not to be confused with the U.K. Art Punk band with the same moniker) whose “Beautiful Dream” crystallizes the joy and confusion of fresh love in a tight, understated package.