After two straight columns featuring Q&As with industry types, we’re going to keep the focus this week squarely on some awesome talent. Thanks for feeding my inbox (muzikmgmt@me.com); the level of artistry so far this year has been amazing.

SPOTLIGHT
Imagine Dragons (www.myspace.com/imaginedragons): The Vegas-based quintet embodies the restless energy of the city that never sleeps. Their brief but impressive resume includes sharing the stage with indie notables Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Nico Vega and The Envy Corps, as well as opening for mainstream acts such as Blue October and Kelly Clarkson. The band’s material is both anthemic and infectious, and the weasels are seriously sniffing around this one. The band’s achievements include winning the 94.1 FM Band Battle for Bite 2009, Utah Valley's Got Talent Competition 2009, BYU Battle of the Bands, Velour Battle of the Bands and Microsoft Windows & Reverb Nation's Playlist 7. They’ve also been featured on Windows Media Player, headlined the Vegas Music Summit 2009 and hit the CMJ Top 200, while being picked for the BMI.com Indie Spotlight and the SXSW 2010 BMI showcase. Contact Mac Reynolds for more info: Reynolds.mac@gmail.com

ON DECK
J-Best (www.myspace.com/jbest): There’s an exciting new sound on the rap scene, and it’s coming from this up and coming MC. J-Best is breathing new life into hip-hop, as demonstrated by his wide stage performance, which is gaining in popularity. Using his music to share stories about his own life, he continuously reaches a wider audience. For the past five years, his sounds and music have been heard at the L.A. Trade Tech College, Cheree’s Records, Music Box, Key Club, Tempest, Viper Room and Monroe. In addition, J-Best has completed a video for the track “Lockdown.” He’s been featured on MP3.com, with his song “Super Superb LP” reaching over 750 listeners. “Five years from now, I plan on being very influential in hip-hop music, being recognized as an established artist and prominent music maker,” he says. “I'm talking about being successful in every sense of the word, through my talent, hard work and prayer—and not by selling my soul.” J-Best adopted his name while in the eighth grade, when he was voted best overall. The “Best” moniker stayed with him, and he says that he plans one day on giving it back in a very significant way. Check out music at CD Baby.

BAND UPDATE
Kicking Daisies: The band just finished appearing on Fearless Music on Fox-TV and syndicated nationally. They won the subsequent online contest for most popular performance and outpolled all the other bands combined which earned them a second week on the show. You can watch their performance right here. Additionally, they recently completed filming a live concert film project and are currently in the studio recording their first album with multi-Grammy-winning producer Mike Mangini (Jonas Brothers, Joss Stone). They’ve written 36 songs over the past nine months and will winnow the batch down to around 15 for the album. The recently released video of the self-titled song "Kicking Daisies" premiered on HD Net's Discovery program, and has also been picked up by the cable channels including Music Mix USA, Hits Records Nightlife, California Music Channel, Fox Tracks, R7R TV, A3TV and the MYX Channel. On top of that, retail chain Journeys put the song in heavy rotation for the month of January. They’ll be doing an East Coast showcase at SIR on March 3; sets start at 5:30 and 7:30. RSVP with Brian@fearless-entertainment.com or Kristen@croshalgroup.com.