When we talk about music being local, should that even matter? Is it possible to be a band from nowhere? Is the guy that plays a bucket poorly with one drumstick a local band? It’s all quite absurd, this labeling of music. Music does not label itself. Music can only be music. Is it better…

Vaski is one of the biggest dance music artists to ever come out of Minnesota; he’ll be playing a hometown “holiday blowout” on Saturday night at First Avenue. We asked Vaski to share ten must-hear tracks from across the recent history of dance music — including some of his own. “I skipped over a lot…

Eagles of Death Metal have announced a “Play it Forward” campaign to raise funds for charity in the wake of last month’s horrific terrorist attacks in Paris — which included an attack on the venue Le Bataclan during a performance by Eagles of Death Metal. Recently, the band announced that their publishing royalties from covers of…

Along with Classical MPR's Tesfa Wondemagegnehu, The Current's Production Manager Derrick Stevens lent his skills and stories to a rehearsal of the vocal-music students at the FAIR School in Minneapolis. The students will soon be performing 'Glory,' the Oscar-winning song by John Legend and Common.

Jake Rudh has previously celebrated the genius of John Hughes at First Avenue, but would people show up for a few hours of sci-fi action? It turns out they did. Jake provides a recap of a 'Star Wars' party at First Avenue that drew nearly 1,200 people and raised money for a good cause.

Tickets for Adele‘s two Xcel Energy Center shows went on sale to the public Thursday morning, and sold out as quickly as fans could scoop them up. Arena staff told the Star Tribune that they’d never seen such demand for any shows, ever. The melee now moves to ticket reselling (a practice that’s legal in Minnesota), where ticket…

For today's 9:30 Coffee Break, we're looking for songs that reference Star Wars. You know why.

Newer acts like The Smiths and Nine Inch Nails were overlooked. The prog rock band Yes got a no. And for Chic, the record of futility continues.

Michael Jackson‘s epochal album Thriller has become the first album ever to sell 30 million copies in the United States. The landmark inspired Epic Records CEO L.A. Reid to declare Jackson the “biggest artist of all time.” (Rolling Stone) The album is claimed to have sold 100 million copies worldwide, twice the amount of its nearest competitor, AC/DC‘s Back in Black. Another…

Today's 9:30 Coffee Break is in celebration of everyone's favorite zeitgeist tradition - ugly holiday sweaters. Give us your best suggestions for sweater songs.