In four short years, Dom Kennedy has gone from Rap dabbler to influential figure in the West Coast Hip Hop scene. In 2008, Kennedy and his film student cousin Jason Madison collaborated on Kennedy’s debut mixtape, 25th Hour, which became an underground sensation. Kennedy’s biggest break yet could be his sophomore studio effort, the upcoming Yellow Album, which he’s described as “more mature and forward thinking.” Dom Kennedy’s Westside love is ready for its global close-up.   

 What would you call a rotating collection of Punk superstars who assemble for an annual acoustic front porch hootenanny that crisscrosses the country to the ecstatic response of thousands of their biggest fans? Chuck Ragan calls it The Revival Tour, while the Phoenix New Times dubbed it “Punk Rock’s answer to the Traveling Wilburys.”    

Consider this sound and vision advice. Canadian singer/songwriter Leslie Feist (better known as simply Feist) is coming to the Contemporary Arts Center Monday, but not to sing. Feist will join filmmaker Martin De Thurah to discuss the creative process behind the cinematic and artful “The Bad in Each Other” music video for the single taken from Feist’s Metals album.   

 Rebelution’s infectious blend of Reggae and Pop underscores their socially conscious lyrics, creating a positive vibration that has proven to be engaging and wildly popular.   

 Bluegrass’s sweetheart Alison Krauss and her band of pickin’, strumming and bowing minstrels, Union Station, return this week to the Taft Theater. Krauss has been on the music scene for more than 25 years. She drew a flurry of attention when she was featured on the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and again when she released an album of duets with Robert Plant. Krauss is more than just a pretty face and enchanting voice. She’s also a champion fiddle player.  

 A list of brilliantly influential saxophone players would fill a small city phone book, but one of the most overlooked beyond true Jazz aficionados is Ernie Krivda. Krivda’s latest album, last year’s Blues for Pekar, has been ecstatically received. The album pays tribute to the late underground cartoon icon/respected Jazz critic/contentious David Letterman guest Harvey Pekar, who hailed Krivda as “one of the best Jazz tenor sax men in the world.”   

 Guitar Virtuoso Stephane Wremble composed the them from the score to Woody Allen's comeback film Midnight in Paris, but lately he's branched out and showcased a more diverse sound that touches on everything from Blues to Rock to Flamenco.
  

 Honestly, if you saw the name Borgore typeset in one of those dripping entrails fonts, wouldn’t you expect a downtuned Death Metal corpsefest? Don’t let the name fool you; Borgore is one of the Dubstep scene’s leading lights. There’s no dance floor at a Borgore gig; there’s the front door and the pit. Get in it.  

Hold onto your seats, Cloud Nothings fans, as we're about to exclusively break a new and crucial piece of info about the Cleveland band's second record. While discussing the development of Attack on Memory, Nothings leader Dylan Baldi reveals a curious detail: “Steve Albini bought us kazoos that we used on the second song.” Take a second to visualize a misanthropic musician/producer best known (as an artist) for writing a record called Songs About Fucking exchanging American currency for kazoos.  

The Joy Formidable has plied its loudly melodic Shoegaze Pop trade well beyond its Welsh homeland since forming in 2007, but the trio has simply exploded; the band’s roller coaster has barely slowed down in the past 15 months. Since The Big Roar, the trio has toured with fans Foo Fighters, played the Glastonbury, Leeds and Reading festivals in England and the Fun Fun Fun Fest, Lollapalooza and Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival in the U.S.
  

No one has ever wondered what would happen if a mad scientist isolated the musical DNA of Camper Van Beethoven, New York Dolls and Georgia Satellites and recombined them in a beaker with a shot of Gospel and a splash of Soul. If that thought should cross some inquiring mind, rest assured they need only slip a copy of the eponymous 2010 sophomore release by J. Roddy Walston and the Business into the changer, thereby saving science a lot of time, effort and unnecessary expenditure.   

When Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady assembled Hot Tuna in 1969, it seemed like little more than a busman’s Blues holiday for the respective guitarist and bassist from Jefferson Airplane, a way for the duo to work out their Delta and Piedmont obsession while the Airplane sat on the runway. Amazingly and against all conceivable odds, Hot Tuna is still a vital musical entity 43 years after its formation.  

Sublime fans know: Everything changed in 1996. That was the year the band’s frontman Bradley Nowell died. Since séances all over the states haven’t succeeded in bringing Nowell back, fans can turn to Badfish. Badfish sounds a lot like the real thing, too; they’re just lacking the creepy voice-clone guy at the mic. Badfish’s added bonus: Their tickets are about half the price.  

Troupe Larry and His Flask (there is no actual Larry but it’s a safe bet that there are several real flasks) was assembled nearly a decade ago by the brothers Marshall. LAHF expanded to a sextet in 2008, picked up acoustic instruments and jumped the tracks toward a Twangcore sound, playing every dicey gig that was offered to them in order to spread their new wild gospel.
  

Long before Hank Williams Jr. was banned from Monday Night Football, Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift and the Dixie Chicks ticked off the entire Republican party, one musician has continually spoken out against the unfair, the unquestioned and the un-American. That man is Charlie Daniels.