Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are best-known as megahit producers, but they also have a record label imprint that’s been responsible for releases by many notable artists, including some of their Minnesota peers. Perspective Records has been the avenue for albums by Sounds of Blackness, Mint Condition, Lo-Key?, Drama, 4.o, Rufus Blaq, Bobby Ross Avila, Solo,…

Today Rock the Cause Records released a new single from Minnesota artists Paul Metsa, Wee Willie Walker and Sounds of Blackness, titled “Ain’t Gonna Whistle Dixie Anymore.” The new release comes around the same time in August as the anniversary of last year’s march in Charlottesville, Va. and the four-year anniversary of the uprising in Ferguson,…

It’s been a busy summer for underground dance music in the Twin Cities: An increasing number of club nights devoted to house and techno, a handful of memorable weekend parties (most memorably, the recent warehouse do featuring masked German techno headliner Headless Horseman), and lots of creative DJ sets. The two best I’ve heard this…

Beyoncé had a very good Feb. 8, 2004. She won five out of the six Grammy awards for which she’d been nominated, including Best R&B Song with “Crazy In Love” — and she spent five spirited minutes performing with Prince. During their performance, which launched the televised portion of the 46th Grammy Awards, Prince and Beyoncé ran…

This past Saturday was the best day of the year…the best day for me as a person in recovery and a music lover. HazelFest! I used to seek comfort from the bottle (I think that’s a song lyric), and never did I find it. Now there are places I can go to feel that comfort: they…

Buffalo Fuzz, a Minneapolis heavy blues band, had just finished recording their second album and filming the music video for the first single when their drummer, Jake Allan, tragically died. Jared Zachary, the other half of Buffalo Fuzz, has planned a tribute show at the 7th St. Entry on Aug. 10, and Buffalo Fuzz’s music…

Some music venues advertise thousands of seats and state-of-the-art light shows. Others double as sports arenas. And then there are those that offer pottery classes or operate out of someone’s living room. While the Twin Cities house some of the state’s most iconic music venues, Minnesota’s small towns are the perfect places for discovering vibrant…

Justin Courtney Pierre – “In The Drink” Motion City Soundtrack’s Justin Courtney Pierre looks to have gone full zombie apocalypse — or blood-soaked video game — in his first solo release since the band broke up. It all teases an album called In the Drink, produced by MCS’s Joshua Cain, which comes out Oct. 12 via Epitaph Records.…

When thinking back to last year’s inaugural FEMN Fest, co-producer Abigail Mlinar remembers there being “love in the room every night.” The Duluth festival returns Sept. 21-22 for its second year and includes a lineup of female-identifying musicians, educators, and vendors. It is an unconventional music festival that acts, in the words of Mlinar, as “an opportunity…

Most of Dessa‘s 2018 album Chime concerns romantic relationships (“Boy Crazy,” “Half Of You”) or gumption (“5 Out Of 6,” “Shrimp”). But its final track, “I Hope I’m Wrong,” mourns a woman named Jeanette. This woman, Dessa’s grandmother, forfeited some dreams and suffered her losses — but according to Dessa, she “stayed worldly and curious” until…