There was a time when the Crunchy Bunch — Christopher LeBlanc, Dan Branovan and Alexis LeBlanc — presided over 60-70 shows a year. “Sometimes we’d split up and play two gigs simultaneously,” they report on Instagram. “We never said no to any gig.” Crowds loved their house, club, disco, pop and hip-hop mixes. The “Shut Up and Dance” air freshener swag was just a bonus. These days the schedule is more relaxed, but the raccoons can still make a mess — like taking over the Jade Fountain for a holiday show or rocking a set at Havana’s New Year’s Eve EDM Party.

Don’t be fooled by the familiar sounds of past versions of the Greg Cougar Conley experience; this here Greg Cougar Conley has been a member of the Minnesota Association of Country Music Recording Artists and has exemplified the sound of upper-Midwest country music for decades. Loud, electric and surprisingly didactic, Conley and his outsized band filled with Hog Damage all-stars have been slaying stages and showing banjoists and dirty jug-band hobos alike what it means to play outlaw country with meaning. The supporting cast of musicians features Brett Molitor, Bryon Gaynor, Jake Larson, Mat Milinkovich, Dan Anderson and Jesse Luoma.

Punk trio Chippy formed between the peppers, tomatoes and cheese at the Duluth Pizza Lucé in 2024. The group tosses together huge amounts of guitar laced with bass and drum, bakes it for three minutes in a roaring hot oven and pulls out songs called “Whoops,” “Barf” and “Earshot.” Their music tastes like the stuff served up on the Fat Wreck Chords label back in the 1990s. “We like to think we would have made it on a Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtrack,” bassist Mitchell Hancock said. The group is fronted by guitar player Chip Dziedzic and features William Guy Shoemaker on drums.

Making love in a mosh pit, the sun in vantablack and your own mortal coil swimming in a river of fire. These are images that define the music of instrumental hard rock quartet Chasm. The group works to unite two opposing feelings through sound: the warmth and safety of clutching a teddy bear while being mauled by a grizzly. Last summer, band members Conor Glenn, Justin Baumgartner, Daniel Krause and Jacob Alvar used the usually quiet Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum to record their thunderous guitar-based compositions. The resulting four singles have been released on Bandcamp.