At the end of Prince’s surprisingly endearing post-Super-Bowl guest turn on Zooey Deschanel’s hit sitcom New Girl, he invited Deschanel’s character Jess to join him onstage—with her pals—for a duet performance of a new song that asks the musical question, “Don’t (don’t), don’t you wanna (don’t you wanna), wanna fall in love tonight?” To add…

Happy Friday, friends! I’m keeping this one short and sweet. Between the SXSW live broadcast going on this afternoon and the sunny weather taunting us outside, I’m guessing we’re all itching to get away from our computers right about now. How about a handful of new local music videos to make the last part of…

As the lead singer of the pioneering ’60s garage band the Monks, Gary Burger is often cited as one of the unsung heroes of early punk rock and one of the originators of guitar feedback. And as the mayor of Turtle River, Minn., Burger spent the later part of his life modestly tucking away his…

DAY 1 It was 5:30 in the morning. I was squinting to distinguish my all-black wardrobe from the shadows, attempting to pack in the dark for Austin, soaked in wine. I couldn’t see what was socks and what was underwear. In three evil hours my lawyer, Mr. B, would pick me up in his silver…

It’s been a tumultuous year for the members of Russian protest rock band Pussy Riot, who attracted international attention for being attacked by authorities in Sochi during the Olympic Games and have more recently attacked by a group of angry men while eating in a Russian McDonald’s. Group members Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, however, found…

On the surface, there seems to be little that connects the indomitable swagger of Lizzo, the aggressive enigma of Marijuana Deathsquads, and the digital seduction of Poliça.  Sonically they stretch across the board and reach varied audiences, but all three are dedicated to groundbreaking music that challenges genre and convention, with an ethic and attitude…

“I feel like a new dude,” P.O.S. told his Doomtree crewmate Lazerbeak after recently receiving a long-awaited kidney transplant. As Lazerbeak reports on Doomtree’s website, the MC “seriously looks great.” Also, happily, recovering well is donor Mark Potter, who is already out of the hospital. “We’ve known Mark forever (actually went to high school with the…

On Sunday night’s Local Show, we celebrated Women’s History Month with a two-hour special dedicated exclusively to women in Minnesota music. This year, a large focus of the show was on hip-hop and some of the under-the-radar acts that started bubbling up to the surface in recent years. In addition to a fiery in-studio performance…

Human Kindness: You Are So Loud That I Want To Die cassette On their debut EP You Are So Loud That I Want To Die, self-described Minneapolitan “rock ‘n’ roll friends” Human Kindness sound like microbudget contemporaries to modern punks like No Age and Joyce Manor. The record is melody-focused, occasionally experimental, and perfectly abrasive, with…

Happy Friday! And I mean that, too—the temperature rose above freezing for the first time in what feels like about eight years and the work week is winding down for the 9-to-5ers. We may actually be able to go outside this weekend. To celebrate (and make that weekend come a little bit faster), slip on…