Sir Van Morrison was knighted by Queen Elizabeth on Friday, in honor of his “services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland.” As a knighted rocker, the 69-year-old singer-songwriter joins the ranks of Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, and Sir Bono. (Rolling Stone) It was an eventful weekend at Bonnaroo. The festival’s annual SuperJam featured…

Happy Friday! If we must be tethered to our computers on such a beautiful summer day, we should at least spend some of our time watching music videos. Here’s a handful of the best and brightest to emerge from the Minnesota music scene this week, which should get you sailing toward the weekend in style… Sonny…

The Great Minnesota Get-Together has just announced its schedule of free music: concerts that are open to anyone with Minnesota State Fair admission. (Grandstand shows require separate tickets in addition to Fair admission.) With more than 900 live shows to choose from, there will certainly be something to please every music-loving Minnesotan. See the State…

A July 6 concert celebrating the late Waylon Jennings will reunite the two surviving Highwaymen: Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. The country supergroup, who released three albums in the 1980s and 1990s, also included Johnny Cash. The Austin, Texas concert will be filmed for later release. (Rolling Stone) Chance the Rapper is curating a free music festival for teens on June 24…

When your best-known number is a cover of an explicit song about oral sex and your dad is a Saturday Night Live star, the odds of a career as a respectable musician wouldn’t seem to be in your favor. Whether or not Elle King ever set out to be “respectable,” when her first full-length album dropped this year to critical…

Short and sweet, clocking in at just two minutes and 40 seconds, Peter Wolf Crier’s single “Don’t Leave” rings out like a clarion call to fans of the band: Come back. They are back. And they have recaptured the sound and spirit that made us fall in love with them in the first place. The song will…

2015 marks the ten-year anniversary of B-Girl Be, a series of events intended to highlight female contributions to hip-hop. The anniversary will be celebrated with an exhibit at Intermedia Arts, opening today and being celebrated with an overnight opening reception on Saturday night. B-Girl Be was founded in 2005 under the auspices of Intermedia Arts, a Minnesota…

The latest person to be recognized with a star on First Avenue‘s iconic wall is Slim Dunlap, a local singer-songwriter who’s well-known as a member of the Replacements. Since 2012, Dunlap has suffered adverse health in the wake of a severe stroke, and local musicians have rallied to raise funds for Dunlap with projects including…

In February, Jack White realized his dream and got coffee with “Weird Al” Yankovic. Now, Yankovic has stopped by White’s Third Man Records in Nashville to record a bizarre chant in the store’s make-your-own-record booth. The chant is a multi-song medley that Yankovic and his band typically perform live as part of the song “Yoda.” Yankovic’s review…

At The Current, we love music and we also love books about music. In partnership with MPR’s The Thread, we’ve started a new series we’re calling The Current’s Rock and Roll Book Club. Each month, we’re picking a book about the music we love, and one of our staff members is sharing his or her take on the…