Prince fans are traveling from far and wide this week to commemorate the anniversary of their loved one’s death. Many will attend Celebration at Paisley Park; more will explore Prince’s hometown, Chanhassen; droves will party at First Avenue. Some travelers will visit a place unknown to many locals, a so-called hidden gem of Minneapolis: the Textile Center, which is currently presenting a Prince-centric…

The tallest building in Minnesota will turn purple this week in honor of Prince, on the one-year anniversary of the music icon’s tragic death. The IDS Center is just one of the Minneapolis landmarks slated to go purple for Prince this Thursday and/or Friday: U.S. Bank Stadium, Target Field, the I-35W Bridge, and the Hennepin County…

“I want to try, I want to risk,” Dessa raps on her blistering takedown of Midwestern modesty, “Fighting Fish.” That line could have just as easily been the tagline for her gargantuan collaboration with the Minnesota Orchestra, which debuted Friday night and will be reprised on Saturday. Dessa herself described the production as her most ambitious gig yet, and that word,…

It was a night I’ll never forget. It was a random weeknight in September 2012, and I was making my way over to the corner of Lake and Lyndale to visit the offices of Secret Stash Records, then an up-and-coming new reissue label in town. I’d gotten to know some of the staff of the…

Today, Netflix released the much-anticipated Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot season, with Jonah Ray stepping in as the unsuspecting Gizmonics Insitute employee who’s captured and forced to watch cheesy movies against his will. Original host and creator Joel Hodgson is executive-producing the crowdfunded revival of the cult-classic show, which premiered on the station then known as KTMA in…

When Cost of Living, the debut album by Big Quarters, was released in 2007, Brandon Allday and Medium Zach created a Twin Cities hip-hop classic. To commemorate the anniversary, Big Quarters will reissue Cost of Living on 180-gram vinyl — complete with newly remastered audio — on Record Store Day, April 22. Brandon Bagaason and…

“Digitally, we’ve tried to mimic the album for years,” Drew Christopherson told me in an interview leading up to Poliça’s fifth anniversary. We’d been discussing music discovery, saying that we rarely dove into full LPs anymore because it was so easy to stream the next single. “I think people have now [decided], ‘Why? What’s the…

Molly Kate Kestner, “Prom Queen” Since she moved to L.A. from Minnesota, 21-year-old Molly Kate Kestner has been writing music with the likes of Kelly Clarkson. It shows in “Prom Queen,” a mighty, brooding pop song. For a triple dose of teen girl glamour politics, watch “Prom Queen” next to HALEY’s “Kismet Kill” and Marina and the Diamonds’ “Teen Idle.” Christopher…

Earlier this month, singer-songwriter jeremy messersmith released some new music — but with a twist. Instead of releasing recordings, messersmith created a songbook, titled 11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs For Ukulele: A Micro-Folk Record For the 21st Century and Beyond. As the title suggests, the songs are more reminiscent of sing-along nursery rhymes, and are a departure…

When Prince lovers from around the world descend on Chanhassen next week to attend the four-day Celebration 2017, it will be at least the fourth time that such an event has been held at Paisley Park. Which may come as a surprise for those who were only passively following Prince’s career in his post-Warner Bros.…