Jill Riley continues to check-in with musicians on The Current’s Morning Show. She recently caught up with Craig Minowa of Cloud Cult to talk about his use of Patreon to keep the band afloat, living in the moment, and homeschooling your kids. How’s Cloud Cult? How are things going for you guys right now? Well,…

To keep busy during quarantine, Morning Show host Jill Riley has been spending lots of time on the phone with various musician friends. She had a chance to connect with John Munson — of Semisonic and Trip Shakespeare — last Friday to chat about how to cope during this crisis, as well as how to…

As a part of her “Phone a Friend” series, Morning Show host Jill Riley made her first call to Canada to check in with Montreal-based singer-songwriter Sam Roberts. Roberts discussed his response to the global pandemic both as a musician and as a parent, ranging from how one should explain what’s going on to children,…

Morning Show host Jill Riley has being phoning many friends across the music world locally, nationally, and internationally. With the 50th anniversary of First Avenue landing while the venue is closed due to the global health crisis, it seemed essential to check in with longtime First Ave employee Roy Freid, who is one of the…

Spoiler alert: it’s not purple any more. 1235 Sierra Alta Way, a mansion in Los Angeles, looms large in Prince lore as the house he rented from NBA player Carlos Boozer from September 2005 to May 2006. As recounted on TopTenRealEstateDeals.com: When Alaskan-born Boozer signed with the Utah Jazz in 2004 for big money, he…

Like many other brick-and-mortar stores in the time of COVID-19, Fifth Element — the record shop and home-base of the Minneapolis rap label Rhymesayers — was forced to close its doors due to its designation as “non-essential business.” What patrons may not have realized was that this one-stop-shop for all things Twin Cities hip-hop was…

420: what does that number mean to you? If you answered “the number of names with First Avenue stars,” you’re thinking along the same lines we are. To celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary this weekend, we made a playlist featuring most of the musicians immortalized with stars on the club’s wall. Below is a master…

I have a friendly neighbor/ she wanna be my savior/ her daddy always warns her about my family’s behavior/ she wonders ‘bout my flavor/ those chocolate coated layers,” Dua Saleh sings on their 2019 single “Sugar Mama.” Their voice sluices through the verses, and you too will find yourself with that the uneasy feeling in…

Today marks the 50th anniversary of beloved Minneapolis nightclub, First Avenue. Of course, one of the reasons this club has become as iconic as it is, is due to the legacy left by hometown hero, Prince. Throughout the ’80s, Prince made a name for First Avenue while simultaneously, First Avenue made a name for Prince.…

If you have a music video you’d like to be considered for an upcoming feature, send it my way at fridayfive@mpr.org! Solana – “With You” Solana’s latest video is a breezy warm day wrapped up into three and a half blissful minutes. Shot in LA by Adam Foster Jacobs, the video is a dreamy montage…