The Twin Cities are well-known for their summer events calendar. In addition to music festivals like Rock the Garden, the summer is stockpiled with fairs and free (or nearly free) outdoor concerts nearly every weekend in the season. Local block parties combine all these elements to fill the streets with food trucks, art galleries, entertainment and most…

Not long after graduating high school, Sean Tillmann and Jeremy Allen hit the road in a Honda and began touring as an early version of Sean Na Na. Soon enough, the pair recruited Ben Webster from Austin, Texas, forming the band’s core lineup. From about 1997 to 2006, the trio toured almost continuously, adding musicians from the cities…

Each week on the Local Show, we’ll meet a new person from the Minnesota music community who has some music to share in a feature called “Ask a Cool Person.” These people will come from all corners of the scene, including record store clerks, recording studio engineers and producers, artists, writers, bookers, photographers, and fans.…

14,000 people converged at Rock the Garden on Saturday, prepared for a line-up that bridged genres and age brackets. Some had bought the ticket for veteran party rockers the Flaming Lips; some went for young indie-rock sensations Hippo Campus; many jumped on the opportunity to see the boundary-breaking Chance the Rapper. All day long, fans…

Haley Bonar, “Kismet Kill” Haley Bonar‘s new video, directed by Nicole Brending, tells the story of a prom queen grown old. Pale pink, black, and metallic shades suit this song perfectly, teasing Bonar’s new album Impossible Dream, due August 5. The Counterfactuals, “Every Turn You Take Is Right” “I didn’t set out to write a song…

Art in tribute to Prince is planned for Glastonbury — and, reportedly, Chanhassen. The Glastonbury grounds next week will feature a 13-foot sculpture of “a giant glittery hand carrying a purple crown with a white dove flying from the top”; Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) will also play a DJ set in honor of Prince. Sculptural tributes to David…

In the wake of Christina Grimmie’s death — which happened when the singer was shot this past weekend during a meet-and-greet — musicians are opening up about their fears of potentially dangerous fans. As the New York Times notes, “Music history is dotted with stories of stalkers and dangerous fanatics, like those that killed John…

As much as I’d enjoyed their music to date, I couldn’t have predicted how happy I’d be at GRRRL PRTY’s First Avenue concert last summer. I danced; I watched from the front row; I caught (and still have) one of the Jeremy Nutzman masks-on-a-popsicle-stick that GRRRL PRTY wore. Andrea Swensson described the show like this: “To call the evening…

I’ve always enjoyed the Lumineers’ music, but I wondered whether their pleasant songs could captivate thousands of people in a live setting. I am happy to report, after Tuesday night’s show at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, that indeed they can. As a black curtain dropped to reveal a kaleidoscope of colored lights and silver organ pipes, the…

Prince was inducted to the Apollo Theater Walk of Fame on Monday in Harlem. The New Power Generation and Maceo Parker were among the music luminaries on hand for the induction, which preceded the historic theater’s annual fundraising gala. During the induction, theater president Jonelle Procope said, “Prince was one of a kind. Bold. Prolific. A musical genius, rule breaker,…