Thursday, January 30 First Avenue’s Best New Bands of 2013 First Avenue, Minneapolis 7 p.m., $7, 18+ This annual tradition rounds up some of the best and brightest to emerge in the previous 12 months for a First Ave-curated showcase. Read Jay Gabler’s rundown of all seven acts playing this year, and see below for…

With only a few weeks of the New Year behind us, Neal Calvin Peterson has already delivered one of the most intriguing concept albums of the year. Performing under the name Infinite Religions, Peterson’s new EP Duality explores contrast in an inventive new way: By composing two separate and completely different songs, each running exactly…

It was exactly nine years ago this morning that the Current first went on air and introduced itself to the Twin Cities with the help of Atmosphere’s Minnesota-centric “Say Shh.” The song, which was tacked on as a hidden track at the end of the Rhymesayers’ duo’s 2003 album, Seven’s Travels, had already become somewhat of…

Thursday, January 23 Low Fitger’s Brewhouse, Duluth 10 p.m., free, 21+ We’ve arrived at week two in Low’s quest to perform every song from their discography over the course of seven weeks in the intimate confines of Duluth’s Fitger’s Brewhouse. Each week the band draws new songs out of a hat and puts together a…

Infinite Religions: Duality The multimedia creation of artist and musician Neal Calvin Peterson, Infinite Religions’ forthcoming Duality is more than just an album. Funded by Kickstarter, Duality is part high-tech shoegaze pop, part conceptual undertaking, part sculptural experimentation, and part space travel. Intrigued? The digital album is available today, and will also be released on 99 limited-edition records…

It was a relatively quiet week for music happenings here in the Twin Cities—we are deep into “hunkering down” season around these parts, after all—but we still managed to get a new Lizzo song out of the deal, plus a handful of fresh music videos. Happy Friday! And hope to see you out at one…

For the past three years the Cedar Cultural Center has been hosting and organizing a series of performances showcasing local Twin Cities musicians who compose new pieces that cross genre boundaries. The 416 Club is a program, funded by the Jerome Foundation, to support the production of new works by emerging artists. “Each year the Cedar has…

Marianne Combs joins Steve Seel and Jill Riley to talk about two arts openings this Friday: visual artist Anne Labovitz's 'Layers' exhibition, and 'Griffelkin', an opera staged by Minnesota Opera's Project Opera youth-training program.

Thursday, January 9 A Tribute to Patti Smith Driftwood Char Bar, Minneapolis 6 p.m., free, 21+ South Minneapolis neighborhood bar the Driftwood has been doing a bang-up job of hosting live music from under-the-radar artists in recent years, and tonight over a dozen singer-songwriters will gather to pay tribute to rock ‘n’ roll underdog-turned-punk icon…

James Norton stopped by The Current's Morning Show to talk to Jill Riley and Steve Seel about his favorite three tastes from 2013.