As a college dropout, the irony of performing on a campus isn’t lost on Cloud Nothings vocalist/guitarist Dylan Baldi.

The 25-year-old musician only spent two months at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, where he majored in music and audio recording technology, before starting Cloud Nothings in his parents’ basement at age 18.

Music soon became his escape — both from college and Cleveland — as the tracks he created at home on Garageband generated buzz via MySpace back in 2009, when it was still capable of breaking bands into the indie-rock blogosphere.

The story behind 20 Monroe Live, Grand Rapids' newest music venue, which opens on Feb. 1 and will host The Flaming Lips in April. “I don’t have to beg people to come to Grand Rapids anymore," said Josh Newman, promoter and talent buyer for Live Nation.

A packed crowd greeted the Spektral Quartet on Sunday as the four musicians took their seats and Grand Rapids Art Museum staff members set up extra chairs for a handful of stragglers. Violist Doyle Armbrust began by introducing his colleagues, including violinist Maeve Feinberg in her first public appearance with the group. Armbrust also took a moment to note that Spektral’s latest album, Serious Business, received a Grammy nomination last month.

Tim Fain’s violin is going to turn 300 next year, but he doesn’t let that hinder his innovative spirit.Whether he’s collaborating with Google on a virtual reality music video or performing in Academy Award-winning films, Fain exhibits a trademark mix of talent, charisma and inventiveness. 

When the members of the Spektral Quartet say they have a broad appetite for different styles of music, they mean it. 

A few years back, musicians Bruce Ling of Hawks and Owls and Mark Stoltz of Benzie Playboys were lamenting the sort of lull that winter typically brings to the music scene. While venues may keep their stages warm with the shows they can, festivals seem to disappear altogether. So Ling and Stoltz reached out to longtime member of the Wheatland Music Organization, Marilyn Hummel, to see what could be done about bringing a little slice of Wheatland to the winter months. So began the Winter Wheat music festival, now in its eighth year.

The revival of the Third Street corridor in Muskegon is well underway with the opening of Third Coast Vinyl in October 2016. Owned by Pete Pretzer, the store brings new and used records, as well as refurbished stereo equipment. 

Pretzer hopes that avid collectors and beginners alike will feel welcome in his new location. One can anticipate a collection of classic rock, soul, funk, newer indie releases and hidden gems galore. 

Pretzer spoke with Revue on Muskegon’s rebranding, opening Third Coast Vinyl and changes in the vinyl industry.  

College is the perfect place for many people to discover new music, expand their horizons and explore new sounds.

But for the more entrepreneurial, like Winspear Records co-founders Ben Wittkugel and Jared Jones, college is the place to be the ones spreading that music to everyone else. 

In 2014, during Wittkugel’s freshman year at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., Winspear started as a way of booking shows at friends’ houses in the area.

“Winspear first existed only to put on shows,” Wittkugel said of the label’s beginnings. “We didn’t start with too many goals. Jared and I were just happy to be doing something.” 

It's near impossible to sit down for a show at the Kalamazoo State Theatre and not marvel at its artistry. The uniqueness of its architecture, as well as its starry-skied ceiling, really bring a new dimension to performances of all types. That's especially true for an act like The Wizards of Winter, a Christmas-themed progressive rock group who last week brought its symphonic holiday rock opera to Kalamazoo's historic stage.

If one new band has been making waves — dreamy, synthy, bassy waves — in Grand Rapids this year, it’s PARTS.