Inconspicuously tucked away in a second-floor shop in downtown Anoka is Chase Bliss Audio, a guitar effects pedal business selling its own brand of musical mojo. The relatively young company is designing and selling pedals that provide guitar heroes with a unique combination of digital and analog manipulation. For most of his life, founder Joel Korte has had a love for music…

The singer-songwriter's music has long been characterized as melancholy. For her album, 'Mental Illness,' Aimee Mann leaned into that stereotype, writing songs that empathize with other people's struggles.

Today in 1994, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain died at 27 and in 2002, Alice in Chains' Layne Staley died. So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what grunge songs do you want to hear?

John Oates tells his side of the Daryl Hall and John Oates story in an amiable new memoir.

This week, Mary Lucia gets in touch with Eric Isaacson, a record store and record label owner from Portland, Ore. Eric talks about what it was like to build a business from the ground up with no real plan -- and how and why Peter Buck released a solo record on Eric's label.

On this day in 2008, Jay Z and Beyonce tied the knot. Despite divorce rumors, breakup albums and millions of gossipy headlines, they're still going strong. Let's celebrate with a 9:30 Coffee Break today featuring musical romances - artists that have dated other artists.

Minnesota music legend Prince died on April 21, 2016. There are many events taking place across the Twin Cities to honor the Purple One surrounding April 21, 2017 — as people here and around the world will be thinking of Prince and celebrating his legacy. Listen for special programming on The Current (both on-air and online),…

Everyone loves stories of the secluded musician. When Owl City’s “Fireflies” blew up in 2010, fans and journalists seized on the narrative of Adam Young recording alone in an Owatonna bedroom. Justin Vernon’s “For Emma, Forever Ago” cabin stay is one of the most mythologized affairs of Midwest music. But even the most independent solo…

The Twins and Royals will go head to head this afternoon (as long as it doesn't rain) for Opening Day. So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what bands with twins do you want to hear?

The title of Kate Tempest’s new album and book, Let Them Eat Chaos, alludes to the infamous kiss-off that legend has French queen Marie Antoinette saying when she learned the peasants in her kingdom had no bread. Tempest’s furious poetry evokes a similarly simmering world divided between haves and have-nots, but she’s not specifically targeting political…