Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the married couple who are both in Arcade Fire, are planning to open a Haitian restaurant in their home town of Montreal. The restaurant, to be called Agrikol, will also feature Haitian music and art. The duo will be collaborating with two restauranteurs who run a Haitian restaurant that Butler and…

Each summer the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board’s calendar of events seems to get more and more robust—this season alone they will host over 200 free concerts and screen hundreds of movies at six different parks across the city. Of all of these events, one of the more high-profile and longest-running series is the Walker Art Center’s beloved Music…

“You would never have seen so few people for the Wombats back home,” breathed my friend from Sarstedt, Germany yesterday. We had just reached the back aisles of the Electric Fetus, home to a “special acoustic performance” and signing hosted by the record store and The Current; the band is too popular for such intimate shows…

Errol Brown, lead singer of the band Hot Chocolate, has died of liver cancer at age 71. Brown wrote and sang the band’s biggest hit, 1976’s “You Sexy Thing.” Brown’s first break in show business came when his debut single, a reggae cover of “Give Peace a Chance,” won approval from John Lennon himself. (Billboard) A computer analysis…

A sold-out crowd at the Turf Club was left hollering for more from Northern London quartet Wolf Alice, who packed the venue on the strength of their shoegaze-meets-post-punk singles “Giant Peach” and “Moaning Lisa Smile.” Though their full-length debut album, My Love is Cool, isn’t even due out until June 23, it’s clear that their…

12 Rods, the Minneapolis band who built a cult following from 1992-2004, recently reunited and are now to be the subject of a documentary film. Filmmaker James Francis Flynn is seeking Kickstarter backing for a proposed 12 Rods movie called Accidents Waiting to Happen. In between their explosive entrance into the cultural milieu with their…

A Toronto-based video game developer is seeking Kickstarter funding for Loud on Planet X, a video game that would have players using music to defend themselves from alien attacks. The game will be soundtracked by a who’s-who of Canadian indie rock artists including Metric, Tegan and Sara, F—ed Up, Austra, and Metz. (Stereogum) Third Man Records retweeted 55 Twitter users who…

On May 20, Icehouse is hosting an XTC tribute: Senses Working Overtime 3. This ode to Brit-pop band XTC will feature performances by Al Church, Faith Boblett, John Eller, Michael Ferrier, and many more Twin Cities all-stars. The event benefits the Pay it Forward Cancer Research Fund at North Memorial Hospital. This coming show will…

Robert Skoro: Destroyers & Makers Robert Skoro’s “Logicians” single from his new Destroyers & Makers EP—dropping today—was the song of the day last Friday. The track is upbeat, mystical, and introspective. Warbling piano and campfire guitar work create the bed that Skoro and Nona Maria’s vocals ride on. Skoro will be celebrating the release of…

There is a Mars-like quality to the Mojave desert of Southern California, where an endless sea of copper earth is broken up by the crooked branches and green, spiky sprouts of blossoming Joshua trees. It’s a setting that’s proven alluring for countless wayward travelers and artists over the years, from Gram Parsons and Keith Richards…