Recently in Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy Category

Yes yes it's time for another installment if Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy, Rhapsody's original video series featuring super-awesome bands giving super-awesome tours of their super-awesome hometowns. This week we are proud to bring you Philly's finest with hosts Amanda Blank and Rose Luardo of Sweatheart.

For Episode 5 of Rock-Star Guide to the Galaxy, we hooked up with Bay Area producer and emcee Jason Valerio, aka Trackademicks. As part of the Honor Roll and Fool's Gold Records crew, he's produced cuts for J*Davey, Lyrics Born, Mistah F.A.B.and E-40.

We tracked Track down in Oakland, Calif., where he gave us a tour of his studio. We spent the rest of the day learning the best spots to pick up records, new kicks, ceviche tacos and some of the best Mojitos the East Bay has to offer.

Watch the video, get schooled in Trackademia and check out exclusive premiere of Enjoy What You / Topsidin with remixes from label-mates Flosstradamus and Sammy Bananas.

Additional Installments of Rock-Star Guide to the Galaxy

Here ye, here ye, come one, come all, feast thine eyes upon Rhapsody's super-awesome original inter-video web-net series, Rockstar Guide to the Galaxy! In this episode, San Diego rockers Switchfoot take us around their favorite hometown spots. Surfing lessons included! Be sure to check out the new album Hello Hurricane.

In this episode, the Knux -- brothers Kentrell "Krispy Kream" Lindsey and Alvin "Rah Almillio" Lindsey -- take us on a tour of the Big Easy, Crescent City, the one and only New Orleans. Enjoy!

I took an informal poll recently among a few friends and IM acquaintances and asked what came to mind when I said “Baltimore." John Waters, The Wire and Michael Phelps were the most common answers (that’s what I would have said too), which I suppose means nothing except that we all watch a lot of TV. The point I’m trying to make here is that none of those things were on Aaron Lacrate's list. That’s because he’s from there.

by Lauren Tabak

There was a long time when I was hatin' on L.A. I guess if you're not from here (here being San Francisco), you don't know about this invisible line somewhere just above Santa Barbara that divides Northern and Southern California. It's where people's tans start to fade, their hair gets darker, and as Northern Californians will argue, they stop wasting so many natural resources.

I grew up in San Diego, but I've lived in San Francisco for some 10 years, so I was curious to ask the ladies of Uh Huh Her, both L.A. transplants (Leisha Hailey comes from Nebraska, Camila Grey from Texas), if they could dispel or confirm some myths about Los Angeles. Check out what they had to say about fact and fiction in SoCal, and watch Pt. 2 of their Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy after the jump.

by Lauren Tabak

Arkansas Heat saved my life. My most miserable summer ever happened back in 2002 in a place called Tempe, Arizona. It was hot. We were bored and isolated. Dancing in our underwear in the un-airconditioned apartment we called “it” and “there” but never “home,” screaming along with Beth Ditto belting, “Gotta get yourself out of this hell,” was our only reprieve.

by Lauren Tabak

Here’s the quick recap of how this edition of Rhapsody’s Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy came together: last November, a filmmaker friend of mine Alexa had a film showing at the Mix Brasil Film Festival. The festival happened to be running at the same time that my friend Luiza  was going to be making one of her rare appearances in her hometown of Sao Paulo, recording with her band, the electro-dynamo C.S.S. (Cansei de Ser Sexy). And since I flaked on the invitation to join C.S.S. for a few stops on their European tour with Gwen Stefani, I was determined to make this happen. I’d met Luiza a while back through one of our mutual friends, the amazing artist Olivia Edith, who called me one day from Portland asking if her friend from Brazil could crash at my apartment in San Francisco with her five bandmates. The rest is history.