Guided By Voices have broken up…again. The first breakup came in 2004, then the band reunited in 2010 for a flurry of activity that included several releases and extensive touring that included (to the crowd’s delight) a stop at this summer’s Rock the Garden. The band—which canceled all fall tour dates in the wake of the breakup—didn’t…

• Rhythm Nation 1814 was Janet Jackson’s fourth solo album, although she was just 23 years old when it came out. • One of the most commercially successful albums ever to come out of Minnesota, Rhythm Nation 1814 was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and all of the tracks were recorded at their Flyte Tyme studio in Minneapolis.…

Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast has one of indie rock’s most famous cats: Snacks, who appeared on the cover of the first Best Coast album and has more Twitter followers than you. (Snacks is such a meme, he’s inspired a sub-meme in the form of Hipster Runoff’s Snacks the Cat Girl.) Snacks has now opened up about being adopted, via a PETA video…

In a feature just published today, Rolling Stone declares 2014 the 30th anniversary of “pop’s greatest year.” 1984 was “the year that pop stood tallest,” according to several collaborators on a feature listing the 100 best songs of that year. And who stood tallest in 1984? Well, Madonna was pretty good—her “Borderline” comes in at #2. Michael Jackson?…

This spring the Rembrandts, a Minneapolis group who became ubiquitous in the 90s when they contributed the hit theme song “I’ll Be There For You” to Friends, announced that they’d be a part of the show’s 20th anniversary celebrations. The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived—no, not Ross and Rachel hooking up, the Rembrandts…

Representative Michele Bachmann appeared on Pivot TV’s talk show TakePart Live on Monday night to clear up some misunderstandings about the Tea Party, to comment on the ISIS situation, and to address the issue of marriage equality. Also at the table with her? Rocker and legendary party animal Andrew WK, who’s serving as a co-host of…

There’s a folder on my computer, buried deep in my iTunes library, that contains about a dozen of my all-time-favorite songs that I can barely stand to listen to. Opening that folder is like falling through the Sea of Holes in Yellow Submarine. Every track has the power to transport me out of this reality and…

Now that the media buzz from U2‘s surprise free album drop has died down, users who weren’t necessarily excited about the album—but found it in their music libraries anyway—are making their voices heard. Exactly how many copies of Songs of Innocence were actually downloaded is unknown, but it may be as few as 200,000. (Death and…

Bob Crewe, a writer and producer who was a force behind many hit songs—notably for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons—died on Thursday, of a brain injury, at the age of 83. Crewe wrote or co-wrote songs including “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Rag Doll,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” and the Labelle…

“Are you a Replacements fan?” As I participated in the excited run-up to the Replacements homecoming show at Midway Stadium last night, friends and colleagues would occasionally ask that question—acknowledging that the event was of such historic importance in Minnesota music history that I’d pretty much have to be there even if I didn’t like…