Minneapolis rock club the 400 Bar—which shuttered in early 2013 after decades of hosting live music on the West Bank—announced today that it will be reborn as a new music venue on the fourth floor of the Mall of America. In addition to providing a 1,000-capacity space for concerts (which puts it in the same…

Jeremy Messersmith, Heart Murmurs As the delicate strings and palm-muted riff in the first bars of “It’s Only Dancing” give way to an orchestral explosion, it becomes clear that this Jeremy Messersmith is not the whimsical folkie we have come to know. Heart Murmurs, out today, represents a shift toward ambitious pop production underneath sweet, personal…

Many Current listeners have probably heard my song “Lady, You Shot Me.” It’s the first song I wrote for my 2013 album Bye Bye 17 and it was born out of my obsession with Sam Cooke. A few years ago I was on tour with GAYNGS, and a bunch of us had gone on a…

How’s it going out there? This is kind of a trying time of year, isn’t it? I hope you are staying warm and sane as this winter puts us through one endurance test after another. To fight off the winter brainfreeze, I rounded up a handful of the best and brightest videos (sometimes literally—that sunshine…

For one cold night every January in Minneapolis, the big black stage in First Avenue’s Mainroom becomes a testing ground for some of the area’s buzziest new acts. As fledgling bands from around the Twin Cities (and one from Duluth!) took turns crossing the “Play First Ave” item off their bucket list, more than a…

“I spent 229 days at sea in 2013,” Tom Franek told me. “I know—I just did my taxes.” When we spoke last week, I was sitting at the Current’s snow-crusted St. Paul studios, and Franek was in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. We’d arranged a conversation via satellite phone so that Franek could tell…

Thursday, January 30 First Avenue’s Best New Bands of 2013 First Avenue, Minneapolis 7 p.m., $7, 18+ This annual tradition rounds up some of the best and brightest to emerge in the previous 12 months for a First Ave-curated showcase. Read Jay Gabler’s rundown of all seven acts playing this year, and see below for…

This week, former Soul Coughing lead singer and longtime solo artist Mike Doughty released three previously unheard Elliott Smith tracks, remixed into EDM songs. “In 1998, Elliott recorded some a-cappella vocals for me, specifically to sample and slice-and-dice over beats,” Doughty explained on his SoundCloud page. “They sat on a cassette for 16 years. I…

In the grand scheme of things, seven years isn’t all that long: it’s about as long as it takes to grow a Christmas tree. In the turbulent world of Minneapolis dance nights, though, the seven-year-old Too Much Love amounts to a towering sequoia. Since 2006, DJ Sovietpanda—known to his friends, family, and Glam Doll Donuts…

Celebration calls for beer and music—or at least Harriet Brewing thinks so. To commemorate the brewery’s third year in business, the company is hosting the Harriet Brewing 3rd Anniversary Extravaganza on January 31. The celebration serendipitously coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Cedar Cultural Center, where the event will take place. “The Cedar’s 25th…