Jhameel (www.jhameel.com) once said to me, "I only have one life to do this." As cliché as it might seem, it feels like the Oakland-based classical pop virtuoso is living his dream. Near the end of last year he began releasing a new song a week on his site in a series dubbed Waves (available now on Spotify). In the next couple of months, he'll release another wave, this time of collaborations, and there is a super-secret major release coming in the spring.Read more »

Seventeen Evergreen (www.seventeenevergreen.com) occasionally sounds like evil video game music to me. The San Francisco band consists of Caleb Pate and Nephi Evans, both writers-producers who sing and play drums, synths, and Asiatic stringed instruments among other contraptions. Read more »

Why is Oakland's Main Attrakionz (www.mainattrakionz.com) on the rise? It's because everybody's talking about it, and with good reason. Last year's massive 808s & Dark Grapes II mixtape wowed the underground hip-hop world, and with every passing month the act — rapper-producer Squadda B and rapper Mondre M.A.N. — catches the attention of yet another publication, and yet another rising producer — there have been collaborations with A$AP Rocky, Clams Casino, Kool A.D. of Das Racist and Danny Brown, among others.Read more »

Like some sort of neon, acid-drenched wood nymph, Metal Mother's (metalmother.bandcamp.com) Tara Tati wanders through the leafy, NSFW video for the haunting art-pop "Shake" off last year's Bonfire Diaries and into the mind's eye. In 2012, there will be a first trip to SXSW, more videos (yay!), a few remixes, and, fingers crossed, another full length out toward the end of this year. And as the shimmering Tati says, she'll "Continue dismantling the mundane and mediocre thought systems that are ruling the planet."Read more »

Tropical sounds are once again moving crowds. Moombahton — the curious new dance music genre that started when DJs slowed hyperactive Dutch house music down to a reggaeton-like groove — is definitely having a moment, and steel drums are skittering high atop whomp-whomp beats. DJ Theory (www.facebook.com/deejaytheory) is one of the Bay's main proponents of this tropical bass movement, but his unflagging energy and genre versatility placed him firmly on our 2012 breakthrough list. Read more »

After her other bands naturally fizzled, Allyson Baker was done. "I was burnt," says the hard-rocking guitarist, clad in her signature black leather jacket, with a rocker's fringe of black bangs framing her face. Luckily for us, she got the rock'n'roll bug again around 2006, and picked up the pieces for a new project — Dirty Ghosts (www.dirtyghosts.com). Since then the act has gone through a dozen formations, with even more drummers, but one thing remains consistent: Baker herself, a Joan Jett-esque force on stage and off.Read more »

MUSIC "I don't know if you've ever been in a geodesic dome," says drummer-guitarist Andy Duvall, formerly of Zen Guerilla, and currently one third of the improvisational space rock outfit Carlton Melton. "But if you stand right in the middle, there's a sweet spot."Read more »

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC One day in November 2004, my then-girlfriend returned to our Oakland apartment all excited. "I just heard this on KMEL," she said. She handed me a CD, Baby Jaymes, Ghetto Retro (Underground Soul), while she unwrapped the included Ghetto Retro EP and cued up "Nice Girl." "He sounds like Prince," she enthused—we were Prince geeks—"but he's from East Oakland!"Read more »

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC Musical genius, human rights activist, cultural legend, African icon — late Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti encompassed multitudes, but to his 1980s-era guitarist Soji Odukogbe, he provided not only inspiration but a way into his music.Read more »

MUSIC It was written in an email exchange more than two months before 90.3 FM, better known as KUSF, was abruptly taken off the air. "We expect there will be a vocal minority that will be unhappy with the sale." That cold-corporate speak delivered plainly from one of the involved entities was an ominous and understated prediction.Read more »