KMFDM are seen by most who know of them as industrail provocateurs, having turned the sloganeering of so many punk and post-punk bands into a curious critique of the form while also utilizing its tenets to its own advantage. The brainchild of Sascha Koneitzko and an ever-evolving cast of co-conspirators, this Hamburg collective seem at their most subversive simply by existing, year after year, and decade after decade, to piss off those on all sides of the line who don't get their particular brand of provocation.

Last week I told you about a two-week adventure I’d just embarked on, traveling from Monterrey, Mexico’s Festival NRMAL to McAllen, TX’s Galax Z Fair and then SXSW in Austin. Festival NRMAL wrapped up on Sunday evening, and the whole experience was very surreal.

NRMAL’s main event was an all-day outdoor festival with four stages on Saturday, with over 50 bands from around the world, though they were mostly from Mexico and the United States.

The past couple of years have been kinda rough for New Hampshire music. Bands are leaving town, venues are closing, and college kids won’t listen to anything that doesn’t have a bass drop in it. But 2013 just might be the year things start looking up. Believe it or not, New Hampshire has a vibrant music scene, however decentralized and rural it may be, and bands are finally starting to poke their heads out and show themselves.

Around 15 years ago I started going to local rock shows in and around Boston. At that time, the rock bands I saw play at halls and clubs around Massachusetts were made up of almost all guys. And yet today, all of my favorite rock bands from in and around Boston have at least one female member, if not more. I love seeing women in rock bands.

Last week we got the participating bands in the 2013 ROCK AND ROLL RUMBLE, and last night we got the nightly lineups, randomly drawn out of RICHARD BOUCHARD'S hat live on the air during organizer ANNGELLE WOOD's local rock program, Boston Emissions on WZLX. It's official -- start your amps.

Of course, enough people by now have noted that among the very best elements of the Rumble are pairing up bands that would normally never share a bill together.

Noted by house music fans for being a Chicago club kid whom Danny Tenaglia, no less, encouraged to become a DJ, HONEY DIJON -- real name Honey Redmond -- has more than lived up to whatever it was in her that Tenaglia saw. It was not always so; her early work, though fierce enough, lacked breadth of vision and mastery of colors.

Photos courtesy of Nick Walecka.

You know that phenomenon when you find out that a band you reeaally love is coming through town, but then you're struck with the immediate realization that you reeaally didn't love their last album? (Not that you hated it by any means, but it was just an odd-to-bad sideways-to-regressive step during an otherwise unblemished career trajectory.

Anyone who understands the artistic process knows that guilt and shame are part of the game. In a way, expressing yourself through artistic means is all part of a circle of guilt and shame: you channel your inner guilt and shame, form it into a song, or a picture, or a blog post; you choke down guilt and shame in order to present your art to the world; and the rest of the world is simultaneously forced to confront the guilt and shame at the core of your work, and hit you back with guilt and shame that you dare do something artistic while they have to get up for work in the morning.

Best Coast are at Royale on June 6 with Guards

On Sale Now

Mellow Bravo + Oldjack + Goddamn Draculas + Red Sky Mary | March 30 at Great Scott | $10 | boweryboston.com

Diarrhea Planet + Yale, Massachusetts | April 4 at Great Scott | $10 | boweryboston.com

Shone | April 7 at Great Scott | $11 | boweryboston.

Below is an extended Q&A from our recent spotlight on ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, which plays the House of Blues tonight.

You might not know Josh Dibbs, aka Deakin, but you know Animal Collective, who are going to be dropping some neon tribal screeds ton