I miss the Rocket, but mostly for nostalgic reasons. It was almost impossible to read (because of the tight layouts), and blogs are easier for me to keep up with than weekly newspapers. I read a lot of music blogs these days. I know of two local ones - Three Imaginary Girls, which Ben London mentioned, and Sound on the Sound.

The online Stranger and Seattle Weekly are what i use when i need help.

As far as finding new music, I go out to hear bands I already know, then get introduced to the other bands on the bill. It's my favorite way to "discover" new music.

I'm not sure what "leading edge music" is, but I constantly find artists with fresh creative approaches to using the same 12 musical notes and 26 letters of the alphabet.

I really like Raven Sings the Blues - http://ravensingstheblues.blogspot.com/

I also spend a lot of time on websites of record labels I like and / or distributors that carry bands I like. There are still labels that you can pretty consistently count on to release good records.

Florida's Dying is a really great distro. Almost everything on there is super good - http://www.floridasdying.com/

Also, lots of really great record stores have weekly mailing lists outlining good stuff coming out that week / being reissued / etc. Apart from the local stores, I really like the updates I get from Other Music in NYC and San Francisco's Aquarius.

When I'm stumped, I just ask Ruben what I should buy.

Awww, I totally miss The Rocket.
These days I comb through the friends lists on MySpace band pages to hear what the bands I like are listening too. Also I use Amazons suggestions feature to explore things "I might also like". Also lots of blogs.
There is so much music out there and I don't listen to just one genre, it's like trying to find a news source that you can get actual news from, kinda hard. So it takes more digging and exploring but pays off in the end, for me anyways.