This weekend is Art-A-Whirl: the annual art crawl and de facto music festival that brings thousands to Northeast Minneapolis. At the Solar Arts Building, The People’s Museum for Prince is an art exhibit “designed to commemorate the ways Prince shaped and transformed personal lives.” Curator Emma Balázs is an Australia native and lifelong Prince fan who moved…

It’s hard to set expectations much higher than David Byrne did in announcing his American Utopia Tour, promising his most ambitious stage show since Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense performances. Immortalized in the classic 1984 concert film, the Stop Making Sense shows reached the pinnacle of what artfully executed rock concerts can achieve, all the more impressive because…

Nazeem & Spencer Joles – “Rock Lee” Nazeem & Spencer Joles have made a tradition out of setting music videos at Twin Cities hotspots. This time, Cup Foods (on 38th & Chicago) and the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood get the honor. Nate P. is the perfect videographer to accompany them around town, adding wild visual effects to the cartoon-honoring…

For over two decades, Northeast Minneapolis has come alive every spring as local artists open up their studios for the annual Art-A-Whirl festival. Run by the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA), what started as a small festival has now turned into the largest open studio tour in the country and will showcase over 650 artists…

You know, I like musicians who disappear into their performance, motionless except for a few sways behind a mic stand. I even appreciate the David Archuleta, “close your eyes the whole way through” approach. But I love an act with a good stage presence. Last night at the Palace, I was floored when Haim and…

Okay, let’s take this one step at a time. There’s going to be a show at which Prince classics will be performed by a variety of vocalists backed by a symphony orchestra. Yes, it’s approved by the Prince estate. Prince superfan Questlove is involved: he “has helped curate the music and arrangements,” though he’s not…

Whether you’re lost in a foreign country or waiting for test results, being with someone you love can slow your heartbeat. As I saw when P.O.S and his mom visited The Current, this also applies to interviews. I walk into the lobby and find Grace first, sitting with her hands folded. Her shoulders loosen as soon…

Prince and Jay-Z shared so much respect that Prince chose Tidal as the only streaming platform to host his music during his lifetime. After Prince’s death, though, things between his estate and Jay-Z got tense. Very tense. Now, though, things seem to be patched up. In a press release, Tidal announced that in 2019 it…

Although Janelle Monáe is most commonly associated with her birthplace of Kansas City, Kansas, and her current hometown of Atlanta, more information has come to light recently about the short time Janelle  spent living in various locations in the Twin Cities — and specifically in Minneapolis, the same hometown as one of her biggest mentors…

Today, music fans around the world are mourning Scott Hutchison. The singer-songwriter who led Frightened Rabbit has died at age 36, seemingly having taken his own life. Minnesotans were fortunate to have had several opportunities to see Hutchison and Frightened Rabbit perform live. In February 2011, Hutchison played a solo set at First Avenue on…