It is good to have locals show you the town... and it's even better if you can live with them for couple of days, that comes as a true experience of certain place. I'm not that much interested in popular, touristy places, but more into some local/somehow unique places, pubs, streets,.. :)

My general taste would include artists/bands like: Fontaines D.C., The National, Pino D'Angio, Frank Zappa :), Tool, Primus, Herbie Hancock, Fela Kuti, Leonard Cohen, Kraftwerk, Laibach, Thee oh sees, David Bowie, Talking Heads, J.J. Cale, Lou Reed, etc. As for movies I'm into auteur films. That would include directors like: Gaspar Noe, Nicolas Winding Refn, Alfonso Cuaron, Lars Von Trier, Aki Kaurismaki, Ruben Ostlund, etc. For the books find me on Goodreads :)