With her 20th studio album, Allergic to Water, coming out November 4, the revered feminist songwriter Ani DiFranco came through town this past Saturday to play a show at First Avenue. While in town, DiFranco set aside a few minutes of her busy schedule—which has become even busier in recent years with the addition of…

They say that the truth will set you free. So if you must know, the hand-on-my-heart truth is that I spent the first few years of my fledgling music journalism career positively terrified of the musicians I was forced to interact with in order to do my job. I have always loved music to an…

Is the Strokes‘ Julian Casablancas anti-brunch? A firestorm now being referred to as “Brunchgate” erupted over a GQ profile in which Casablancas said he’d moved out of New York City because “I don’t know how many, like, white people having brunch I can deal with on a Saturday afternoon.” After the quote spread across the Internet as evidence that Casablancas…

Jeremy Messersmith, John Munson, and members of Rogue Valley appear in a new video dramatizing what the musicians and the video’s producers see as the absurdity of a law requiring food revenue at some Minneapolis restaurants to greatly exceed revenue from sales of alcoholic beverages. As Election Day approaches, many Minneapolis restaurateurs have been campaigning for voters…

Tragedy struck, and was then compounded, over the weekend when a ventilation grate collapsed at a South Korea concert by K-pop stars 4Minute. On Friday night, 16 fans fell to their deaths down a 65-foot shaft leading to an underground garage, and 11 more were seriously injured. “There was a sudden, loud screaming,” said one…

Happy Friday! With new albums popping up all around, this week’s Friday Five is almost entirely culled from artists who are celebrating new releases this month. But first we’ll sample a song from a highly anticipated new solo release that’s due out early next year… Adam Levy You never know where MN Original is going to show…

When Ryan Adams came to town this past weekend to play Northrop, Barb Abney was able to visit with him for a few minutes backstage before the show. Though unfortunately a technical glitch caused the audio recorder to stop during portions of their conversation, Barb and Ryan Adams were able to share a freewheeling 15-minute…

The world’s most infamous twerker, Miley Cyrus, is done with that allegedly appropriated dance move. Her new jam? The Atlanta-born “Nae Nae,” which involves putting a hand in the air, dropping the rest of your body low, and more or less freestyling from there. (Billboard) Here’s the move as performed by its inventors, We Are Toonz. 2015…

Just two days before the 2014 general state election, Congressman Keith Ellison will host a Minnesota hip-hop-star-studded event billed as #GetOuttheVoteMN in the Mainroom of First Avenue. The November 2 show will feature a pair of hip-hop acts that have new albums out this fall—Sims, who released Field Notes just last month; and Toki Wright and Big…

After weeks of criticism over U2‘s decision to drop their new album into the music libraries of 500 million unsuspecting iTunes users, Bono has finally made it official: he’s sorry. “I’m sorry about that,” he said in a video posted to the band’s Facebook page. “I had this beautiful idea but we got carried away with ourselves. Artists…