S. Carey: Supermoon S. Carey of Bon Iver released his Supermoon EP Tuesday. The six-track EP—consisting of reimagined songs he’s previously released—is an introspective look into S. Carey’s life, family, and spirituality. Carey talks about his time spent in nature and the relationship he has with the Earth in an introduction to the album. You can…

On Saturday, Hamline University is hosting their second annual Winter WonderJam concert, after long preparations. Although for some it may just be a concert, for those involved in the planning, it is a labor of love. Last February marked the first-ever Winter WonderJam, at which both Konstant Movement and Brother Ali performed. What became the biggest campus concert…

Stephin Merritt, the brilliant and eccentric musician best known as the creative force behind the Magnetic Fields, has announced a rare solo tour that will stop at the Cedar Cultural Center on May 15. The show has an unusual premise (albeit somewhat less unusual for a guy who’s made an entire album of songs starting with…

Local musician Maria Isa, who is also an experienced actress, will be starring in a public reading of a new music-themed play by Idris Goodwin on March 2 and 3 at the Playwrights’ Center. The REALNESS: the second break beat play tells the story of Thomas, who leaves his suburban home to experience hip-hop culture in the city. When…

The babes are back. After a long hiatus ending in two reunion shows and a European tour announcement, Minneapolis grunge trio Babes in Toyland returned with an intimate show Feb. 10 in Palm Springs, Calif. It was, as Andrea Swensson points out in her review, “their first official show in 14 years and first show as that particular threesome…

In August 2006, Sleater-­Kinney performed their last show, in Portland, before taking a seemingly indefinite hiatus. In August 2006, Barack Obama was not yet a household name. Besides Saturday Night Live, Fred Armisen’s most prominent role was probably that of Tino the nightclub owner from Anchorman, with Portlandia still a half-decade from its premiere. I was…

My mom recently sold the house where I grew up, and in digging through one of my old boxes I came upon an issue of Rock Express from late 1986. It’s an incredible time capsule, with a back-cover advertisement for the story of Max Headroom ($26.99 on VHS) and a Janet Jackson news item headlined “Baby…

Here’s a sentence you don’t get to type very often: if anyone had a wilder weekend than Prince, it was Paul McCartney. Both were in New York City over the holiday weekend—along with more than the usual contingent of A-list celebrities—to celebrate Saturday Night Live, Nike sneakers, and of course themselves. Prince got off to an…

Lesley Gore has died of cancer at age 68. Discovered by Quincy Jones as a 16-year-old ingenue, Gore performed the indelible 1963 hit “It’s My Party” as well as “You Don’t Own Me,” “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” and “She’s a Fool” – all top five hits, with “It’s My Party” taking Gore to number one just weeks after her…

The lead up to Nina Simone’s State Theater concert in 1991 had been complicated. Reporters for both the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press had been unable to connect with her for an interview. There was no email, and telephone trans-continental telephone connections were hard to make. She lived in France, and her manager was…