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

For the past four years, we’ve aligned Minnesota Music Day, (where we play nothing but local musicians on The Current) with the Saturday of Art-a-Whirl weekend. So what better way to synch things up than to pick some unseen videos of folks headlining (or just playing) the various stages around town. It’s called synergy, people.…

Jackson Browne taught us about “Lawyers in Love,” Belle and Sebastian know a good “Legal Man,” and George Harrison played the “Sue Me, Sue You Blues,” but now it’s time for some local lawyers to sing their own songs. On Friday, May 16, the Crooked Pint Ale House will play host to the 2014 Attractive…

The Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association’s annual art festival—Art-a-Whirl—is back for its 19th year this May 16-18. While you’re out browsing the famed neighborhood’s galleries, you also have plenty of opportunities to catch your favorite local acts live throughout the day. Plan your weekend with these music schedules from five Northeast venues. 331 club Friday, May…

Maintaining a healthy all-ages scene can be a challenge for any community, but over the past few years the Twin Cities’ ratio of talented high school bands to respectable all-ages performance spaces seems especially skewed. In just the last two years, some of our most celebrated young acts—Bomba de Luz, John Mark Nelson, Observer Drift,…

Haley Bonar: Last War Haley Bonar has always been an expert in blending sweetness and darkness, of finding that delicate balance between hard and soft. On Last War, this relationship is clearer and more developed than ever, as Bonar goes big and bold with production, but keeps her trademark vocals and gorgeously earnest lyrics. The…