With the first month of 2012 dead and gone, it's time to take a survey of up-and-coming South Florida music and maybe try to predict what the rest of the year has in store.

This is not a best-of list. Nor is it a complete appraisal of South Florida's expansive nightlife sphere and its million microscenes. There's an emphasis on acts and promoters who operate along the Biscayne Corridor because that's our back yard. We look at cutting-edge, contemporary-minded bands and bookings from folks fresh on the scene as well as a few local music veterans finally on the cusp of blowing up.

And we emphasize newness because children are the future.