Things have a way of falling apart for Chris Palko, better known as New York rapper Cage

There’s something special about the Newport Folk Fest. There is the history, the facts—“It’s where Dylan went electric and the Pixies went acoustic,” NFF talent curator Jay Sweet tells me from a couch in the lobby of a downtown hotel—but it’s a bit more complicated than that oft-repeated description. When TPB attended George Wein’s 50th Annual Newport Folk Festival last year, it was the air that was most noticeably electric. The Newport Folk Fest is a music festival like no other.

Here at TeaParty Boston, we’ve made it our mission to showcase only the best local music that Boston has to offer. When we were planning our weekly residency project at the Lizard Lounge this past winter, we had a lot of bands to choose from, but only a handful were selected. Viva Viva definitely made the cut.

Recently, Canada has become known for producing some cornerstones of indie rock—The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers–and if they keep releasing high caliber music, Montreal’s Plants and Animals should be quickly reaching those same heights.

Almost four years ago, Katy Klaw accepted an offer to play a gig and then realized that she didn’t actually have a band. Good friend–and fellow London native–Rosa Rex agreed to join her on stage and the two enjoyed the experience so much that they decided to collaborate on a more permanent basis, under the name Peggy Sue and the Pirates.

Omar Thomas is a young big band composer from Boston, MA. A sentence like that would be more common in the 1930’s than today. In a world where non-commercial music is gearing towards smaller and smaller ensembles, and with more and more electronics, the pioneering sounds of jazz have gone from what’s hip to what’s square.

The Futureheads are not your typical British punk success story. The Sunderland, England quartet has taken the path less travelled to wind up at their fourth E.P., The Chaos, released in the U.S. last Tuesday.

Sea Monsters is chock full of big Boston names, yet you may have never heard of them. They are a local supergroup that convenes every Sunday at Somerville’s Precinct Bar and creates improvisational musical fusion. Spearheaded by Christian McNeill and Jesse Dee, Sea Monsters provides a breath of fresh air for some of Boston’s best musicians who look to kick back, have fun, and build off of each other’s creativity.

Working off the recent sell-out success of his project Neutral Uke Hotel at the Somerville Armory, multi-instrumentalist Shawn Fogel brought his main band, Golden Bloom, out to play a sensational set at the Middle East Upstairs back at the end of May.

For many, the land of television has been flirting with questionable taste since its inception. However, much like current radio, an increasing number of people are throwing up their hands at what they see on the tube and asking themselves, “Wait, people actually get paid to make this?” Trashy television moved Derrick Beckles so much that he actually heard the TV talking to him.