There is an unsung hero at the root of much of modern rock, blues, and jazz. Blues great B.B. King called him the most influential guitarist of the twentieth century. His music laid the foundation for rock guitar heroes like Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix. Yet few people recognize his name. This is exactly the…

On July 15, Target Field will host Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. The next month, on August 2, the Minnesota Twins’ outdoor field will host a performer who would be on anyone’s list of rock ‘n’ roll all-stars: Sir Paul McCartney. The gig is a long-awaited coup for the venue, certain to excite rock and pop…

While I sit here and try to figure out how I’m going to split myself in two and somehow get myself to all six of the equally compelling shows happening in the Twin Cities tonight, why don’t you take a gander at some of the latest and greatest videos to emerge from the scene? Fort…

Among the many awkwardnesses of my strange little generation—I was born in 1975, as Generation X was plowing into the deep demographic ditch from which the Millennials would rise—is that it’s been hard for some of us to know how to feel about the vinyl resurgence. People ten years younger than me have no living…

Label-related ups and downs are part of many major artists’ careers, but Prince is an outlier when it comes to record company drama. Two decades ago, he split with Warner Bros. in highly acrimonious fashion, quickly releasing a series of artistically uneven albums to fulfill his contractual obligations. After a series of experiments that have…

Thursday, April 17 Mike Munson 331 Club, Minneapolis 9:30 p.m., free, 21+ Charlie Parr fans would do well to check out Winona songwriter Mike Munson, who relies on fairly simple elements—his booming, soulful voice is only accompanied by a little emotive slide guitar playing—to create an old-school blues sound. He’ll be joined at the 331…

Minneapolis-based Learning Curve Records (LCR) rocks harder than most labels you’ve heard of, let alone the ones you haven’t. They’ve been steadily putting out noisy local records since 2001, they were part of the ascent of Twin Cities staples like the Hold Steady and the Soviettes, and they’re currently waist-deep in the local rock scene, pushing…

Every day we talk about great musicians who have come out of Minnesota—especially those who are still here—but the Twin Cities have produced some great music journalists too. In fact, one of today’s busiest and most interesting music journalists, Jessica Hopper, got her start in the Twin Cities as a teenager in the early 1990s.…

On Friday, several of our college contributors and I went to the 7th Street Entry to see Dan Croll. Rather than ask any one of the contributors to write a review, I divided a standard short concert review into five parts (intro, background, the scene, the music, conclusion) and asked a different contributor to write…

Alpha Consumer: Meat On their first release with fearless local powerhouse Totally Gross National Product—home to Lizzo, Poliça, and Marijuana Deathsquads—three-piece rock outfit Alpha Consumer present Meat, a dark, retro-futuristic full-length, out today. The record sounds a bit like 80s art rock for a new generation, with lyrical themes relating to mental health and overmedication. Imagine if…