I distinctly remember the moment I first became acquainted with Twin Cities hip hop. It was 1986 and I was living in North Chicago, Illinois. One day while listening to my favorite station, WNUR 89.3 FM—which was my primary source of hearing new hip hop—and they played an artist that I didn’t recognize. It started…

  The music portion of SXSW kicks off tomorrow, and there are lots of Minnesotans heading down to Austin, Texas to partake in this year’s festivities. But that doesn’t mean that those of us who aren’t going are completely out of luck. In fact, there are still plenty of us who will be in town, and there…

  The organizers of the Girls Got Rhythm fest have just unveiled the lineup for their second annual event, which will once again take place at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall. Mark your calendars: This year’s event is happening Friday, May 10, and Saturday, May 11, and tickets are on sale now. Friday, May 10…

Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland has kept a low profile in recent years. It’s been almost a decade since she’s performed live, and about six years since she last issued any music under her most recent project, Katastrophy Wife. But though she has stayed under the radar here in the Twin Cities, she has…

In honor of Women’s History Month, much of this week’s Local Show was focused squarely on the influential women in Minneapolis’s rock scene. And what an interesting project it’s been, tracing everything back to the very beginning. Many associate Babes and Toyland and the bands they would share bills with—Zuzu’s Petals, Smut, the Menstrual Tramps,…

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Minneapolis-based Nobel Peace Prize Forum, and the second year that the Forum is incorporating hip-hop into its programming. Following on the heels of last year’s successful presentation and Q&A session with Dessa, this year’s summit will include a special evening with Minneapolis’s own Brother Ali and Syrian-American…

  Today is International Women’s Day, and it also happens to be Women’s History Month, so I’ve spent a lot of time these past few weeks sifting through our Minnesota musical past and learning more about the female artists who helped create the more genre-balanced scene we enjoy today. I’ll share many of my findings…

  Molly Maher has consistently found salvation in music. Whether through listening to her dad play guitar in a church band back in the ’70s or during her victorious battle with breast cancer a few years ago, Maher has found solace and drawn inspiration from songs and the endless worlds found within them. The seasoned…

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. Chalet Joey Kantor is ready to become a frontman with his new project, Chalet. You may know him as the…

  Jeremy Messersmith announced this morning that he’s signed a record deal with influential New York label Glassnote Records. Since launching in 2007, Glassnote has established itself as a major force in the indie music industry; in 2009, they released Phoenix’s best-selling album to date, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, and in 2011 they issued Mumford and…