On a rainy night last week, all five members of Votel squeezed into a cozy booth in the back of Clubhouse Jäger. Despite the fact that they’d just released a buzzworthy debut album, some of them hadn’t seen each other for months. They greeted each other like the old friends they are, and then tried…

1. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth on May 24, 1941. 2. The Zimmerman family lived in Duluth until Dylan was six years old. When Dylan’s father became ill with polio, the family moved to Dylan’s mother’s home town of Hibbing. The Duluth house where the Zimmermans lived still stands, at 519…

Warehouse Eyes: Carvings Warehouse Eyes, an emerging five-piece dream pop group, create their unique sound by referencing elements of synth pop, slowcore, and indie rock, both at its sleepiest and most epic. Their debut EP, Carvings, is set for release this Friday, May 23, and the lead single “Tokyo” makes a great first impression. Vocalist…

In February, Dr. Dog came to Minneapolis for two packed shows at First Avenue. (They also stopped by to play a set in the Current’s studios.) This summer they’ll return to the Twin Cities to perform at a very different venue: the Minnesota State Fair. They’re part of the Fair’s recently released free stage entertainment…

Lizzo, Minneapolis’s rising rap star, just dropped the third single, “Luv It,” from her debut album Lizzobangers. TIME (yes, TIME) premiered the song on Friday. “‘Luv It’ is an open book to my experience as a Houstonian,” the Minnesota transplant told the magazine. “I wrote it to pay homage to my earliest rap memories of free styling in…

The Stone Arch Bridge Festival, a free three-day event on Father’s Day weekend, June 13-15, released their music lineup today. The festival will feature over 40 local bands performing an eclectic mix of genres from folk to hip-hop. These musicians will be dispersed among three stages near the festival’s iconic namesake landmark: under the Central…

French restaurant and Uptown watering hole Barbette will host its 12th annual Bastille Day Block Party on July 13, celebrating French National Day in Minnesota style. The event will feature a lineup of local musicians including Hippo Campus, Black Diet, GRRRL PRTY, Nadine Dubois & Les Folies Risque, the Cloak Ox, Heiruspecs, and the Brass Messengers.…

How do musicians get paid for their work? It’s a simple question, but the answer is very complicated—and very contentious. Some of the hottest debates in music today—from the value of Spotify to the importance of vinyl to the issue of bands “selling out” by placing their songs in TV ads—revolve around the topic of…

R.E.M. were a quintessential Unplugged band: compact, sincere, writerly, they got loud enough for the unplugging to matter but never ventured far enough from the beaten path for it to matter that much. Like their friends 10,000 Maniacs, they double-dipped in MTV’s 90s bonanza, recording sets in 1991 and 2001—but unlike 10,000 Maniacs, they’ve never released an Unplugged album.…

Last night at Myth, Cage the Elephant headlined a show that also featured performances by Foals and J. Roddy Walston and the Business. J. Roddy Walston and the Business The Foals Cage the Elephant