For many, summer festivals are a road trip occasion. You pile in someone's car, have little to no leg room (you don't care, though, because the destination is WORTH IT) and belt out songs at the top of your lungs. As long as you're in good company, the details don't really matter. But it's the details, however, that help make a road trip less than a trip and more of an adventure. Here is what you need for a successful road trip:

Buzz Osborne (aka King Buzzo) is an artist who has certainly earned his royal moniker. For 30 years he's been the frontman and principal songwriter for legendary sludge-rock outfit The Melvins, a band famous for its unpredictability genre-defying sound and heavy riffs. What's more, Osborne has embarked on his first truly solo project, King Buzzo, this year.

• Grand Rapids
• The Pyramid Scheme
• King Buzzo
• Buzz Osborne

So you’re sitting out the music festivals this year because although your heart is telling you yes, your wallet is crying no. Music festivals are expensive, so you’re not the only one staying home.

• Pitchfork Music Festival
• Lollapalooza
• Electric Forest
• Movement Detroit
• Common Grounds Music Festival

Preparing for a music festival is somewhat of an art form. The festival should be looked at as a marathon, not a sprint and you need to employ some key survival tactics if you plan on making it through the weekend without dehydration dry heaves. (Trust me, it happens.) Here are some essential items for festival survival:

Festivals can be overwhelming events. You want to fit in but also stand out. Here are some dos and donts that will help you acclimate and keep your individuality.

In one of the most popular plays of all time, Juliet Capulet asked, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."  Though it is doubtful if Juliet were around today, she would have asked that same question about Nashville punk rock outfit Diarrhea Planet.

• Kalamazoo
• Shakespeare's Pub
• Diarrhea Planet
• Jordan Smith
• Belmont University

Today's hardcore music features a fairly common formula, but one that so many bands miss the mark on. It's all about brutal breakdowns and insane, barking verses that give way to more melodic choruses with some nice clean vocals. Either a band is on the money with their clean vocals and then wusses out on everything else or vice-versa. I'm William Cutting blends both rather seamlessly.

• Royal Laraway
• I'm William Cutting
• Nick Ploof

Animals as Leaders didn’t start out at the head of the prog-metal pack. During its formation in 2007 by guitarist Tosin Abasi, AAL was more of a project than a band.

The Grand Rapids Symphony announced Generation X's piano man, Ben Folds, will perform alongside GRS this fall. Unlike any Ben Folds performance before, this one is unique to Grand Rapids, with Folds and the Symphony performing alongside each other.

Ozenza has been slinging its dark brand of doom/stoner metal since 2004 and they stay busy. With 2014 shaping up to include plenty of writing and touring, we quick grabbed a word with Matt Younker, guitarist and vocalists for the Friction Records-signed band.

• Ozenza
• Friction Records
• Matt Younker
• The Apostles