Imagine yourself years from now, walking through a Minnesota State Fair that’s back in action and packed once more. You might be talking to your kids, or grandkids, or some other young whippersnapper who doesn’t remember Covid Time. “We drove down Wright Avenue,” you’ll say, “and all the cars stopped to watch the 4H Building,…

This Thanksgiving, Minnesotans’ hearts will be full of grief as well as gratitude. Even so, thoughts next Thursday will turn to the people, places, and principles we cherish and give thanks for. As always in troubled times, music has been and will continue to be a source of reflection, fresh perspectives, and – yes –…

We knew this day was coming, and now, it’s here: today, the former Flyte Tyme Studios in Edina is being torn down. Alan Stricklin, a member of our audience and a past Minnesota Public Radio employee, sent photos of the demolition in progress. It’s the end of an era for a Minnesota music landmark that…

“I feel like the online version of this show captures the spirit of the people in it,” video artist Ingrid Weise said. “Nights for All Time captures something vulnerable, intimate and real.” Nights for All Time began as an in-person concert series curated by musician Jeremy Ylvisaker at Aster Cafe and has since transitioned to…

This weekend, the world was saddened to learn of the death of a television icon: longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. Over the course of 36 years helming the popular quiz show, Trebek asked contestants (and, by extension, viewers) to display their knowledge on a vast range of topics. Among those topics, of course, was Minnesota music…

The local music scene exists with a hint of Halloween all year ’round. There are the creepy clowns in the Turf Club basement, that one drafty stall in the First Ave bathroom where there just has to be a ghost, not to mention running into Tinder matches turned ghosts. While spooky festivities look different this year for…

“We were kind of the last people who were allowed to get away with a lot of that stuff,” Keith Harris told Sean McPherson last night on The Current. “Obviously,” he allowed with a chuckle, “we weren’t totally allowed to get away with it.” Harris, whose career at City Pages spanned over two decades as a contributor…

City Pages, the alt-weekly that launched as Sweet Potato in 1979 and became an essential, unapologetically opinionated source of Minnesota music and arts coverage, is closing permanently after much of the live entertainment scene that supported it has been throttled for months by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Disclosure: In recent years, I have been a regular…

There is this kind of joke in the Duluth music scene that if a musician is in one band, they are actually in five, with many of those bands crossing genres as musicians collaborate with each other. This week on the Duluth Local Show, I map out just some of the ways that Duluth music…

In a recent viral TikTok video, Nathan Apodaca, a.k.a. @420doggface208, skates next to an Idaho highway while sipping cran-raspberry juice. Apodaca has a playful smirk on his face; he seems relaxed. “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac plays in the background. As evening sets in, he glances behind his shoulder before emphatically lip-synching the famous vocal flutters…