Keidra Chaney 
If you’ve been wowed by the projections at a Sufjan Stevens or St. Vincent show in the past few years, then you’ve witnessed the work of visual-performance designer Deborah Johnson, the founder of multidisciplinary New York studio CandyStations.
Intronaut: Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones) (Century Media, 3/19/13)
“Milk Leg”
At a time when the definition of “heavy” music seems to get narrower and narrower, LA quartet Intronaut continues to push forward, continually redefining its own sound and challenging genre conventions. One could call it “post-rock” or “prog/fusion metal,” but labels only serve to limit its sound.
Newark, New Jersey-based hip-hop duo Dälek crisscrosses sub-genres with abandon, unafraid to broach controversial topics in its music.
Though it broke up following a serious tour robbery, Ontario-based hardcore band Cursed delivered three albums of ferocious hardcore punk, the last of which contained a particularly pointed message for the music industry.