“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take you on a journey back in time to Minneapolis, 1985. The sky is purple, and the First Avenue club is sold out but you have tickets to the hottest show on the planet. Where glam meets funk, rock meets fantasy, leather meets lace. What does that look…

Today, the 59th annual Grammys will honor achievements in recorded music across dozens of categories. Excitement is high, and we’ll be covering all the action online. Watch this post for updates throughout the day, starting with the Premiere Ceremony at 2:30. In that three-hour ceremony hosted by Margaret Cho and live-streamed at Grammy.com, the vast majority…

When it comes to compiling a list of Minnesota Grammy winners, the question becomes, what exactly constitutes being a Minnesotan? Is it being born here, living a certain amount of years in the state, being involved in the community, being in tune with the local music scene, loving to eat Nut Goodies? In some ways,…

As was widely expected, Prince’s music is being released today across major streaming services. 19 albums are now available on Spotify, Amazon, and elsewhere; as expected, the release includes much of Prince’s Warner Bros. catalog, but not his releases between 1994’s Come and 2014’s Plectrumelectrum (with 3RDEYEGIRL) and Art Official Age. Prince’s estate has just made a deal for the…

“[The Current] started playing ‘Wandering Star’ by the new local band Poliça five months ago,” Mark Wheat wrote back in February 2012. “Our audience immediately reacted emailing and calling every time I played it, liking it for reasons they often couldn’t describe […] I’ve also always loved two drummers in a band, but it has seldom…

Dead Man Winter, “Destroyer” I had trouble deciding what to screencap from this video. Lydia Liza throwing off her coat? Holly Hansen dancing with her guitar? Lazerbeak doing air banjo? I ended up at Alan Sparhawk doing the most anguished lip syncing of his career. But any of the cameos Dead Man Winter pulled together…

All four members of the indie rock band Early Eyes got their start playing music at young ages. Jake Berglove (guitar and lead vocals) and Henry Patterson (guitar and vocals) met through mutual friends while they were still in high school, and decided they would be roommates in college. Wyatt Fuller, drums, popped up on…

Yesterday, early ticketbuyers for the 2017 Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival started to receive pamphlets that seemed to reveal the lineup for this year’s festival. In an official announcement, the festival has now confirmed that lineup — which includes Paul Simon, Chance the Rapper, Wilco, and more. The delight, though, is in the details.…

This February, The Current is celebrating Black History Month by celebrating four artists chosen by our listeners. We’ll be playing their music on the radio and sharing features online. This week, we’re featuring Jimi Hendrix. The Blues “…while your ears are still ringing, we’d like to go on and do another little tune called ‘I Don’t…

In what’s shaping up to be the biggest weekend in Prince news since his untimely passing, CNN’s HLN network has announced it will air a new documentary, Prince: The End, this Friday night to coincide with a big Prince tribute planned at Sunday night’s Grammys and Prince’s catalog reportedly hitting multiple major streaming services. According…