Coffee BreakCoffee Break: Signature songsAnna Reed • Jan 25, 2018Today in 1975, a year and a half after its initial release, Lynyrd Skynyrd peaked at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with "Free Bird", which became the band's anthem.
Local Current BlogFriday Five: Dessa, Hippo Campus, iLLism, and more new Minnesota music videosStaff • Jan 25, 2018Dessa – “Good Grief” The Beach Boys loaded up their woody with surfboards, but Dessa’s station wagon has a more fraught cargo in a new video for her single “Good Grief.” She and Zach Coulter (Solid Gold) take to the country; after fueling up at the Harris 61 Stop, they open up a farmhouse, have…
Local Current BlogSo you’re a music fan visiting Minnesota: Five venues to visitJay Gabler • Jan 25, 2018About 125,000 people are expected to come to Minnesota for Super Bowl LII — and many of them are music fans. If you’re in the Twin Cities and want to get a taste of our thriving live music scene, here are five venues to put on your shortlist. First Avenue and 7th St Entry 791…
Coffee BreakCoffee Break: Teenage kicksAnna Reed • Jan 24, 2018The Current officially turns 13 today -- making us a TEENAGER. Look out, mom and dad! We've got feelings. What songs do you want to hear for today's Coffee Break that mention teens?
Rock and Roll Book ClubRock and Roll Book Club: 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin'Jay Gabler • Jan 24, 2018The Wu-Tang Clan have released one of the decade's most talked-about albums...despite the fact that virtually no one has heard it. Cyrus Bozorgmehr's book tells the inside story of 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.'
Listen to LoochListen to Looch: the case for Greta Van FleetMary Lucia • Jan 23, 2018Mary Lucia shares her thoughts about a young band out of Michigan who, yeah, sound like Led Zeppelin ... but what's wrong with that?
Coffee BreakCoffee Break: Snow dayAnna Reed • Jan 23, 2018We battled the elements this morning to make it into the studio and are daydreaming about what it would be like to have a snow day. So let's extend that dream right into today's Coffee Break. What songs do you want to hear that represent the things you would do on a snow day?
DuluthEcho Helstrom, Bob Dylan’s ‘Girl from the North Country,’ dies at 75Jay Gabler • Jan 23, 2018Echo Helstrom, the Duluth native known to Bob Dylan fans as likely the prime inspiration for the 1963 song “Girl from the North Country,” has died at age 75, reports the Star Tribune. Helstrom grew up with Dylan — then known as Bobby Zimmerman — in Hibbing, where the two had a high school romance…
Local Current BlogOscar nominations include Sufjan Stevens, Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, Mary J. twoferJay Gabler • Jan 23, 2018Minnesotans who checked out the recent Guillermo del Toro exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art were well-primed to embrace the Mexican director’s triumph in this year’s Academy Award nominations: his strangely sexy merman story The Shape of Water leads nominees with 13 nods. Not much connection to The Current’s playlist there, unless you count the…
Coffee BreakCoffee Break: Heartaches & PainAnna Reed • Jan 22, 2018Although the Vikings weren't what Charles Bradley meant when he sang "gotta stand tall / because life is full of sorrow / heartaches and pain", it feels appropriate for the way Minnesota football fans feel this morning. How are you doing, everyone? What sorrowful songs do you need to hear today?