Now in its fourth year, Winona’s Mid West Music Fest continues to expand into new venues and pull in acts from the surrounding region to create a city-wide sampling of new music. It was only my second year attending the festival, but already the year-to-year improvements were noticeable: More of the shows were presented…

  Local Radar highlights bands that the local team at The Current is spinning heavily at their desks. You’ll be able to preview a track from each as well as hear them on The Local Show and Local Current. VANDAAM I wrote about VANDAAM last September when two songs of their were circulating on Bandcamp.…

  It’s nearing bar close on a Saturday night at the 331 Club, and somehow, over the last half hour, amid a flurry of flashing laser lights and flutters of metallic confetti, Elliott Kozel has removed his skin-tight black pants and is running through the crowd completely naked. On second thought, he’s not completely naked,…

Monday, April 22 Reina del Cid Amsterdam Bar and Hall, St. Paul 9 p.m., free, 21+ Fresh off a well-received appearance at Winona’s Mid West Music Fest, Reina del Cid and the Cidizens bring their guitar-driven folk back to the Amsterdam for their weekly residency. Singer-songwriter Martin Devaney will open the show. Tuesday, April 23…

  When I first moved to Minneapolis one of my frequent hang out spots was the Dinkytowner. The Fifth Element had been hosting a monthly night called Essential Elements at the venue and I was being groomed to take it over so that’s how I originally found myself down there, but there was something special…

  After a short hiatus, Tapes ‘n Tapes frontman Josh Grier is getting ready to push his new solo project into the spotlight. With only one show under his belt so far, Grier stopped by the Local Show last night to debut a pair of new tracks from Gingko, a new songwriting vehicle that features…

Record Store Day is coming up fast and will take over Minnesota’s many independent stores on Saturday, April 20. For the uninitiated, Record Store Day is a call to action and a way to raise awareness of the many fine physical record and CD stores we still have in our midst, and the tradition seems…

  “This will be our response to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, and more devotedly than ever before.” That’s a quote from Leonard Bernstein, and it’s about the only thing that I’ve read that’s made any sense to me this week. With that in mind, here are a handful of young Minnesotan artists…

Local Radar highlights bands that the local team at The Current is spinning heavily at their desks. You’ll be able to preview a track from each as well as hear them on The Local Show and Local Current. Greg Grease At the end of 2012, Greg Grease released Cornbread, Pearl and G which made just…

  In my blog last week I did a call for MN hip hop from the ’80s and ’90s, particularly releases that are scarcely available. This week I wanted to tackle a different challenge, the greater MN hip hop scene. To be honest, the way I experienced my childhood as an Army Brat—moving around fairly…