This year's Music Issue profiles of some of our favorite bands on the come up in West Michigan, from lesbian indie rockers to an ever-shifting urban collective of skilled rappers, singers and instrumentalists. Also: Our guide to scores of festivals to check out this summer.
If you’ve been behind on hitting up live music venues, there’s no better way to catch up with the local music scene than the Jammies awards. The concert/ceremony, now in its 17th year, is WYCE’s local and regional music awards showcase. Note: Attendees are encouraged to come in their favorite pajamas.
While the complete lineup will not be announced until mid-April, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park revealed four dates of its Fifth Third Bank Summer Concerts. Here’s the first taste of what’s to come this summer.
This special Cheap Issue-themed playlist is a collaboration between WYCE, AMI Jukeboxes and Revue West Michigan. You can hear this mix as a playlist on AMI Jukeboxes and stream it on wyce.org — from Grand Rapids to the world!
Two great awards ceremonies happen every February, the Grammys, and WYCE’s 17-year-old ceremony for Michigan, the Jammies. Here are some of WYCE’s favorite Grammy winners and nominees, with a few of our local winners that stack up quite nicely.
On the weekend, he’s Paul Bauer, animalistic drummer for Kalamazoo-based funk/soul outfit The Mainstays. To a whole different throng of fans, he goes by the name Mr. Paul. Mr. Paul is the brains behind Small Sounds, a program that encourages musical exploration amongst young children but also an entity that has expanded into a one-man band of sorts to record and perform kid-friendly tunes.
“Grand Rapids is the only place in America that celebrates VD,” blares Monoxide Child, one half of Detroit-based rap duo Twiztid. The rap/rock ensemble is playing the Intersection on Valentine’s Day and he’s using the occasion to play with words, which is his stock-in-trade.
Seconds into talking with Marc-Andre Chagnon, aka Marx Menace, of the Montreal electro trio Black Tiger Sex Machine, it becomes obvious: 2015 was the most insane year of his life.
For some, Valentine’s Day is a time when lovers bask in each other’s undying devotion and blissful happiness. For others, like bassist Mike Ayley of emo-pop outfit Marianas Trench, it’s just another strange and confusing holiday. “Over the years I’ve become the most hopelessly romantic pessimist you’ll ever meet,” Ayley told Revue. “I’m a sucker for love, but have been jaded so many times.”
To say that Lamb of God helped usher in the new wave of American heavy metal in the early 2000s might understate the band’s significance in that movement. The Richmond, Va.-based band’s second album, New American Gospel, actually made Revolver Magazine’s list of the “69 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time,” and its follow-up records have done nothing short of establish the group as one of metal’s most important and influential players.
