“This feels pretty good,” said Daryl Hall as he leaned over his piano, grinning onstage at the Xcel Energy Center. “This is about as good as it gets. Are you feeling good, John?” “Are you kidding?” asked his longtime musical partner, rhetorically. “Thursday night in St. Paul? Yeah!” Yeah! From another band, that might have…

Brother Ali, “Never Learn” Brother Ali, dance duo Al Taw’am, and a whole lot of crew traveled to New Mexican worship and healing center Dar Al Islam to film this, a gorgeous song from Ali’s new album All the Beauty in This Whole Life. Allan Kingdom, “The Fusion (feat. Denzel Curry)” Directed by Yash, rapper Allan Kingdom…

Emel Mathlouthi may not be a household name in the U.S. But to many people across the world, the Tunisian singer symbolizes political protest, having become famous for her song “Kelmti Horra” (“My Word Is Free”) during the Arab Spring revolutions of the early 2010s. Since that song and her identically titled debut album, she has…

This year marks the seventh annual Duluth Dylan Fest. Taking place May 20-28, this year will feature tons of music, trivia, bus tours, and a Bob Dylan display at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. The museum display will run through June 30. Blogger Ed Newman alluded to some of the items on display at the…

May 19-20 marks the 22nd annual Art-A-Whirl, an open studio tour presented by the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association. Art-A-Whirl started as an opportunity to recognize and celebrate all the artistic talent that Northeast Minneapolis has to offer, and in a little over two decades it has grown to become one of the largest open studio tours in…

The Monks, a blistering and unapologetically bizarre punk band made up of a group of former GIs from the American Midwest, spent most of their short mid-1960s career gigging around the same clubs in Germany as the Beatles. They cut a record, spent some more time in the studio recording never-to-be-released material, and then returned home…

Some “making of” stories are more significant than the next. On the less captivating side, there are the songs that take steady work, their authors adjusting minute details at every turn. And then there’s “First Take” by local artist Dua, featuring a beat by Ness Nite compatriot Mike Frey. Dua has been creating art for…

One of the quintessential viral videos, entitled “Chocolate Rain,” has officially turned a decade old. For those in need of a refresher (or who are too young to remember), you can watch the original video below. “Chocolate Rain” was published to YouTube on April 22, 2007. The song was written, produced, and recorded by Tay Zonday.…

As I walked into Treehouse Records on this past, balmy, Saturday afternoon, I immediately noticed that I was the youngest person in the building by a good margin. And it was awesome. A crowd was gathered to watch the Suicide Commandos play an acoustic set of new songs a day after the release of Time…

Earlier this spring, the powerhouse soul singer Sonny Knight announced that he would be canceling all of his scheduled tour dates so that he could undergo chemotherapy treatment for cancer. It was shocking news for a local community who had become accustomed to seeing Sonny command stages at the Fitzgerald Theater, First Avenue, and the…