Spooky Black, Leaving EP One of the most interesting local music stories of the year, Spooky Black is a teenager from St. Paul who became an Internet sensation on the strength of his atmospheric song “Without You” and its eccentric accompanying video. Playing his cards close to the vest, Spooky Black has kept quiet about his future plans;…

Leonard Cohen will celebrate his 80th birthday next month by releasing his 13th studio album, it was announced at a Cohen fan convention in Ireland. Cohen’s birthday is September 21, and the following day will see the release of Popular Problems, an album of entirely new songs. Some of the new material was previewed on Cohen’s Old…

Two years ago, the local team here at the Current stumbled across so many impressive high-school bands that we decided to air the first ever high-schoolers-only edition of The Local Show. And it’s turned into quite the fun tradition—there are only so many young up-and-coming bands that we can stumble on by chance, so it’s become our annual “call…

On Friday night, August 8, Andrew Bird, the New Pornographers, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, S. Carey, and Dosh played Target Field for a beautiful evening at the Skyline Music Festival. Our photographer Nate Ryan caught photos of the three last acts to take the stage. The New Pornographers also stopped by our studio—listen…

45 years after the Beatles‘ Abbey Road album, Paul McCartney has returned to the iconic London studio—to record a theme song for a video game. Accompanied by a 120-piece orchestra conducted by Giles Martin—son of the Beatles producer George Martin—McCartney recorded a theme song for the forthcoming first-person alien-shooting game Destiny. McCartney also collaborated on the score for the…

An unexpected turn of events has put the keys for Cause Spirits and Soundbar back into the hands of the management of the Lyn-Lake music venue and restaurant. The beloved neighborhood spot closed abruptly last month with little explanation, turning its five-year anniversary shows into a weekend-long farewell party. But now, just a month later, Cause’s owner Mike Riehle and general…

Happy Friday! There was no shortage of videos to choose from for this week’s Friday Five, with Twin Cities artists Van Stee and Jenny Dalton releasing new music, Minneapolis expat Célosia returning home from Paris to record her new album, BBGun showing off a local recording space, and new electro-industrial group Patch making their debut. It’s shaping up to be an…

Lorde is only 17, but we’re already plumbing her “early years”: an album by And They Were Masked, a high-school band featuring the New Zealand songstress born Ella Yelich O’Connor, is now available on Bandcamp. According to their Facebook page (“the edge of the universe sent us time travelers here”), their influences included Fugazi, Massive Attack,…

It wasn’t until Black Diet were featured as one of First Avenue’s Best New Bands of 2013, this past January, that its members even started taking their merchandise seriously. Now they’re designing all of their band’s merch on their own. “Merch was definitely not on a burner at all,” said backup singer Mugsy. “Not on the back…

What is Jason Feathers? It is the new project that brings together Justin Vernon, Astronautalis, S. Carey, and produced  by Ryan Olson. A teaser of the group went up online yesterday, check it out and let us know what you think. (The Current) George Harrison explained why everyone should play the ukulele, his hand written…