This is a lengthy interview. I’m telling you this up front because the conversation I had with spoken word artist, rapper, writer, and teacher Guante, known off stage as Kyle Tran Myhre, spanned so many different topics and delved into each new subject with such depth that I felt it would do him a disservice…

Local music notes from the week of November 5-9

Local bands that deserve must-hear status this week

For those who saw Bob Dylan perform in Rochester this past August, there were few surprises last night at the Xcel Energy Center as he played to a similarly sized crowd. But for the Dylanophiles of the Twin Cities, the show served as his first metro date since he performed on election night four years…

Earlier this year, when Zoo Animal performed their score for the 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc at two back-to-back screenings in Duluth, bandleader Holly Newsom wasn’t sure quite what kind of reaction to expect. “They all kind of left in a daze,” Newsom remembers, speaking recently at a press event where she…

It’s not unusual for hip-hop and indie artists to share stages in the Twin Cities and even appear on the same compilations, but this week DJ Dimitry Killstorm and DJ Name are taking that cross-pollination a step further: They’ve smashed together eight hip-hop bangers with eight newer Minnesota indie jams for a free mixtape called…

“We’re really happy you did whatever mysterious thing you had to do to be here this evening,” said singer Torquil Campbell, addressing the crowd for the first of many times at last night’s Stars show.  The event was unconventional in a few respects–the venue was smaller than the spaces the band typically plays, the set…

Each week, we do our best to stay on top of all the latest CD-release shows and can’t-miss events happening here in the Twin Cities with updates on this blog, on our weekly Local Show, and on our 24-hour Local Current stream. It can be a lot to keep track of, so we’ve compiled many…

A few weeks ago, Jim Walsh penned an article for MinnPost that asked a bold question: “Is Northfield truly becoming Music City, Minnesota?” In his piece, he profiled several people who are instrumental in Northfield’s bustling scene–most of whom have their hands in at least two or three different aspects of the community–and found that…

Of all of the people who could write a book about the history of the Minneapolis Sound, bassist and singer André Cymone’s stories could blow everyone else’s out of the water. Not only was he one of the musicians who helped to create that seminal era of music, but he was so fundamental to Prince’s…