Jon Schober – Go East Young Man!   For the past three years, the Current has been fortunate to have Jon Schober be part of the team. Jon is a native Texan, who arrived in Minnesota in 2008 to go to the U and work at Radio K, and joined the Current in 2010 as an…

Thursday, January 23 Low Fitger’s Brewhouse, Duluth 10 p.m., free, 21+ We’ve arrived at week two in Low’s quest to perform every song from their discography over the course of seven weeks in the intimate confines of Duluth’s Fitger’s Brewhouse. Each week the band draws new songs out of a hat and puts together a…

There’s no doubt about it: ska has an image problem. Nationally, its popularity has declined so much since the third-wave explosion of the late 90s that for many, it seems goofy stereotypes are all that’s left. For anyone attending a ska show at the 331 Club in early January, though, it would have been hard…

After taking some time away from the band to record a moodier, more roots-oriented solo album, Craig Finn has reunited with his Hold Steady bandmates and released a punchy new single today, “I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You,” as a lead-up to their forthcoming Teeth Dreams. “We were looking to make a big rock…

There’s just something about Dave Simonett’s voice, isn’t there? Whether he’s leading the charge in his breakneck string band, Trampled by Turtles, rocking the night away in his side project Dead Man Winter, or staking out some space to perform solo, Simonett has the ability to turn simple syllables into soliloquies and breathe so much…

Tragedy struck the West Bank in Minneapolis on New Year’s Day as one of Cedar-Riverside’s historic buildings burst into flames. The fire took the lives of three apartment residents, and also destroyed a grocery store. This Friday, January 24, Augsburg College, the Cedar Cultural Center, and KFAI Radio will host a benefit concert that will…

“I have been singing professionally since I was five,” PaviElle French says, laughing and sighing nonchalantly. And after hearing some of the tracks off her forthcoming solo debut, Fear Not, it should come as no surprise—with skills honed over the years in church choirs, slam poetry groups and spoken-word collectives, the 29-year-old soul singer is stepping into the spotlight with a…

Infinite Religions: Duality The multimedia creation of artist and musician Neal Calvin Peterson, Infinite Religions’ forthcoming Duality is more than just an album. Funded by Kickstarter, Duality is part high-tech shoegaze pop, part conceptual undertaking, part sculptural experimentation, and part space travel. Intrigued? The digital album is available today, and will also be released on 99 limited-edition records…

My favorite Fancy Ray McCloney story is from last month’s Replacements tribute at First Avenue. Fancy Ray was on hand for an onstage cameo singing “Buck Hill” (the title also contains the song’s complete lyrics), and someone, spotting the comedian, asked, “Hey, Fancy Ray! How you doing?” Without missing a beat, Fancy Ray replied, “Sexy, sexy,…

It was a relatively quiet week for music happenings here in the Twin Cities—we are deep into “hunkering down” season around these parts, after all—but we still managed to get a new Lizzo song out of the deal, plus a handful of fresh music videos. Happy Friday! And hope to see you out at one…