This afternoon, a Minneapolis City Council panel approved the hiring of Sink Combs Dethlefs to renovate Target Center: a $97 million project to be co-funded by the City of Minneapolis ($48.5 million), the Timberwolves and the Lynx ($43 million), and AEG ($5.5 million). It will be a welcome facelift for a venue famously described by Martin…

Wisconsin’s dance-oriented music festival Summer Set has announced the complete lineup for its 2014 event. The annual festival, presented by the Current, will take place August 15-17. Headliners include the revolutionary hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan; Canadian electrofunk duo Chromeo with fresh new album White Women; Grammy-nominated DJ Kaskade; livetronica instrumentalists Big Gigantic; Pennsylvania jam band…

Still as full of surprises as his fellow Minnesotans Prince and Paul Westerberg, Bob Dylan has just released a new track, “Full Moon & Empty Arms,” streaming on his website. The song isn’t an original: it’s a 1945 song written by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman, best-known in the version performed that year by Frank…

If you went back in time and told the 15-year-old version of me that I would attend a sold-out Nickel Creek show in Minneapolis and sit nine rows from the stage, I would have thought you were lying. Firstly because I hadn’t quite experienced the joys of live (non-classical) music yet, and secondly because Nickel…

Update 6/25/14: Due to flooding on Harriet Island, A Taste of Minnesota is moving to the Carver County Fairgrounds in Waconia. After a four-year hiatus, A Taste of Minnesota—St. Paul’s popular 4th of July family festival—is back. The event, which brought good food and music to thousands every year for over 26 years, abruptly ended in 2010…

Whether he’s playing a sold-out rap show or setting up his beloved red Nord keyboard in the back of a supper club to perform a set of improvised music, there is something distinctive and incomparable about the ubiquitous pianist deVon Gray. Chances are you’ve seen Gray (who also goes by dVRG) on stage with Heiruspecs,…

From the Ink Spots’ “Java Jive” to Otis Redding’s “Cigarettes and Coffee” to Bob Marley’s “One Cup of Coffee” to Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee,” coffee has probably inspired more songs than any other non-alcoholic beverage. Now St. Vincent, riding high on the success of her new eponymous album, is getting even higher with…

The Replacements returned to the stage this past weekend to perform at Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Festival, a three-day gathering that also included performances by Minnesota’s Trampled by Turtles and Mason Jennings and headlining sets by the Alabama Shakes, the National, and Modest Mouse. As with their recent Coachella appearance, the band was joined for the…

Ten years ago, Apple’s famous silhouette iPod ads defined what was cool in the popular music scene. Now, Beats by Dre‘s animated “pill” speakers follow 2014’s most charismatic superstar, Pharrell Williams, around in an ad soundtracked by his smash hit “Happy.” According to a news report in the Financial Times, Apple is in negotiations to purchase Dr. Dre’s über-hip speaker…

Happy Friday! Give yourself a break, slip on the ol’ headphones, and catch up on the latest music videos to emerge from the Minnesota scene: Votel The electro-pop band Votel (which features Maggie Morrison on lead vocals with support from Adam Marx, Ben Clark, Drew Christopherson, and Mark McGee) very casually released their new album…