He co-founded, wrote songs for, and drummed in the influential St. Paul trio Hüsker Dü, inspiring legions of bands with his raw and poetic charm. He went on to form the alternative rock band Nova Mob, and would write and record several criminally under-appreciated and beautiful solo albums. And he was held in the softest…

There’s no doubt Prince is best known for his contributions to the music industry, but there’s another side to his career. While Prince released countless music videos, filmed many of his live concerts and composed music for TV shows and movies, he also did some acting of his own, guest-starring in a couple of shows…

Having released 38 studio albums and dozens of other projects (live albums, singles, box sets, etc.), Bob Dylan doesn’t make it easy on the casual listener. Like Prince and Neil Young, he maintains an oeuvre so dense newcomers hardly know where to start. It’s worth trying to scratch the surface, though, especially if you’d like to…

Bob Dylan has just announced a show at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center on Oct. 25, with Mavis Staples. When Dylan last came to town, in 2014, The Current’s staff set out to review every one of Bob Dylan’s studio albums since his 1962 debut. Freshly updated with coverage of Dylan’s newest releases, written by…

I didn’t believe all those music heads who told me to listen closer to The Joshua Tree. I didn’t believe all my friends and mentors, who see U2 live every chance they get and rave about it for weeks after the fact. I didn’t even believe Brian Oake, who I believe about most things, when he…

Given how famously idiosyncratic his songs are, it’s remarkable how well Bob Dylan translates to cover versions. That’s been clear since the ’60s, when performances by Joan Baez, the Mamas & the Papas, the Byrds, Judy Collins, and other artists helped make the mercurial singer-songwriter a household name. The latest artist to put her stamp…

Brian Just, “Alley Bells” Not only does it sound like Brian Just‘s music came from an earlier era, it looks that way in his “Alley Bells” video. Directed and edited by Sam Heyn, “Alley Bells” finds the singer/songwriter beamed into what look like old film clips, many of them black-and-white. Just celebrates the vinyl release of Changing…

If you ever get a chance to spend time with Laura Schultz, do it. She’s the co-frontperson of Local Show Artists to Watch Good Night Gold Dust, an indie pop band based in Mankato, Minn. She’s an intelligent, thoughtful person who pursues growth. This year, she’s making her own space as a solo artist with her…

Chris Strouth knew the drill: rattle off some hipster jargon, make some odd jokes and shine a light on the coolest local bands that nobody else was paying attention to. It was all part of his gig on What., a St. Paul Neighborhood Network (then called Cable Access St. Paul) show from 1993-1995. It was…

Of the images from the original run of Twin Peaks that David Lynch and Mark Frost incorporated into the just-concluded third season, the most telling wasn’t Laura Palmer correctly predicting that she and Agent Cooper would meet again in a quarter-century, or David Bowie’s Agent Jeffries warning about “Judy.” It was a brief shot, seen from…