The Staves: If I Was The Staves are an ocean and half a country away from being local, and but their newest release If I Was was recorded right in our backyard: in Eau Claire, at Justin Vernon’s April Base studio. “I think this is my favorite place to be to make music,” said one…

Greg Grease: Born to Lurk Forced to Work Oh, it’s so smooth! Born to Lurk Forced to Work is here, and Greg Grease’s lyrical prowess is stronger than ever. The album has more variety on the production side than his debut Cornbread, Pearl, & G , and the voice you love Grease for carries even…

The Duluth Homegrown Festival is branching out to Virginia—as in Virginia, Minnesota—on March 27 for a one-night mini-festival called the “Iron Range Invasion.” The Invasion is free to the public, featuring eight bands at three different venues and “a mix from acoustic folk to punk rock.” The event will serve as a (relatively) modest precursor to…

On one of the last cold nights of January, three members of the Weathered Heads unwound on a blue leather couch in their rehearsal space in Winona. Lead vocalist Craig Weatherhead explained that the band were recovering from a weekend of traveling between Minneapolis for a show at the Cabooze and Duluth for a show…

My mom recently sold the house where I grew up, and in digging through one of my old boxes I came upon an issue of Rock Express from late 1986. It’s an incredible time capsule, with a back-cover advertisement for the story of Max Headroom ($26.99 on VHS) and a Janet Jackson news item headlined “Baby…

In honor of the man they call “Duluth’s hardest working musician” and his new signing with St. Paul’s Red House Records, Fitger’s Brewhouse has created a special beer for Charlie Parr. “Parr’s Porter has hop and dark malt notes, a bit of fruit in the aroma and a dry finish,” writes the brewhouse on Facebook.…

We’re excited to premiere “Over the Red Cedar,” a new song by Charlie Parr—and to share the news that the Duluth singer-songwriter has signed with St. Paul’s Red House Records, which will release Parr’s new studio album on April 28. The album, Stumpjumper, marks the first time Parr has recorded a solo record with the support…

“My goal as a human being is to live my life as an authentic person,” Molly Dean says, leaning back in her chair and contemplating her role in the electro-pop band Moon and Pollution. Dean has just spent the previous 45 minutes discussing her musical history, her approach to songwriting, and her appreciation of her…

Doomtree: All Hands The hometown hip-hop collective known as Doomtree are dropping their fourth studio album. To celebrate the release of All Hands, Doomtree will be appearing at various businesses around town, pausing for a 2 p.m. “ask-me-anything” Reddit chat. They will be ending the day at the new Surely taproom to share some beers with their…

It’s no secret that the Current plays a lot of local music (fun fact: there are 6,430 songs by Minnesota artists in the station’s digital library, which amounts to about 15% of the total catalog), and it’s a practice that dates all the way back to the first day the station launched in January 2005.…