This week on the Local Show, we’ll be hearing from the Mount Olivet Celestial Choir’s album “Sing.” Without listening to it, the vinyl might look like any other obscure record you might stumble upon at a garage sale. But if that were the case, it wouldn’t be selling for $60-150 dollars online. Released in 1971, this album from St.…

The Jayhawks have announced a new album: Paging Mr. Proust will be released on April 29. “Quiet Corners and Empty Spaces” will appear on that album, which was produced by frontman Gary Louris with Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Tucker Martine. “I just got drawn back into realizing how much I love being in the band,” Louris…

Third Man Records has announced that Jack White will appear on next Tuesday’s season finale of The Muppets. According to a promotional poster, White will help Kermit the Frog work out some romantic difficulties with Miss Piggy. (Pitchfork) #FreeKesha Sony Music has clarified its position regarding Kesha‘s recording contract: the company, it says, is “legally unable to terminate the contract”…

33 years after its founding, the food and music festival A Taste of Minnesota has come to an end. The announcement came via a statement sent to media on Thursday afternoon by the festival’s former general manager Linda Maddox. She writes: With a mixture of sadness and excitement, I’m announcing today my retirement and the closure…

On Wednesday, Kanye West went on an anti-Grammys rant on Twitter. He accused the awards of neglecting important and popular black artists like Young Thug and Future. (West also said that he has a new album “coming this summer.”) National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences president Neil Portnow replied that the Academy’s “doors are always open” to West.…

Eric Peltoniemi, who has helped lead St. Paul label Red House Records to international cachet as a premier purveyor of roots and Americana, has announced that he’s retiring after 50 years in the music business. Peltoniemi has been with Red House for three decades, the last ten years as president. “I am extremely proud of…

This year’s Record Store Day ambassadors will be Metallica. The band have released a video in which all four members describe their love of vinyl, and they plan to take the occasion — April 16 — to release a new live album. Recorded at Le Bataclan in Paris on 2003, the album will benefit the Give For France…

Sleep Signals, Transitions A rising band on the Minneapolis metal and hard rock scene, Sleep Signals (not to be confused with Sleep Study) take a turn towards accessibility on their new EP Transitions — a follow-up to last year’s album Open Your Eyes. The band’s anthemic new material is perfect to play in your car real loud, or, of course, to…

David Bowie‘s album Blackstar is the inspiration and soundtrack for an upcoming “InstaMiniSeries” of 16 episodes that will begin Thursday on Instagram. The series, which will star Tavi Gevinson and Patricia Clarkson, was approved by Bowie in concept, though it’s unclear whether he saw the finished product before his Jan. 10 death. (Rolling Stone) "UNBOUND: A ★ InstaMiniSeries”…

Damon Albarn has been named a “local king” in Mali, where he’s frequently visited to perform and collaborate with Malian musicians. When Albarn performed at the Festival Acoustik Bamako, he was given the honorary status of “local king” and an elementary classroom was named after him. “I’m not used to this sort of thing,” said the Blur…