You guys, today’s Friday Five is so good. I seriously didn’t think this much awesomeness could fit in five little videos. This is why May is typically one of my favorite months out of the whole musical year: Everyone’s playing shows like crazy, releasing new work, and getting ready to tear through a full summer…

On Sunday night at Bedlam Lowertown, several artists will play a benefit concert and release show for Voice: Words & Songs for Those Who Are Silenced. The album, which features unique nearly-a–capella performances by artists including Dessa, Haley Bonar, and Chris Koza, is meant to raise awareness and funds to fight sex trafficking. Last weekend on The…

To record the Waterboys' latest album, 'Modern Blues', Mike Scott decamped to Nashville. 'I wanted to do it with an American swagger,' Scott explains, 'so I brought in the players from Nashville and from Muscle Shoals, and I think I pulled it off.' Scott stopped at The Current to talk to Jim McGuinn ahead of his show at First Avenue . . . where a 'Purple Rain' cover may just be in the offing.

Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the married couple who are both in Arcade Fire, are planning to open a Haitian restaurant in their home town of Montreal. The restaurant, to be called Agrikol, will also feature Haitian music and art. The duo will be collaborating with two restauranteurs who run a Haitian restaurant that Butler and…

Each summer the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board’s calendar of events seems to get more and more robust—this season alone they will host over 200 free concerts and screen hundreds of movies at six different parks across the city. Of all of these events, one of the more high-profile and longest-running series is the Walker Art Center’s beloved Music…

“You would never have seen so few people for the Wombats back home,” breathed my friend from Sarstedt, Germany yesterday. We had just reached the back aisles of the Electric Fetus, home to a “special acoustic performance” and signing hosted by the record store and The Current; the band is too popular for such intimate shows…

Sometimes lyrics sound like they mean one thing -- but could mean another. With that in mind, what songs with double-meaning lyrics do you want to hear? Send us your requests.

Dave Wakeling of the English Beat dropped by The Current's studio for a live chat with Bill DeVille. Wakeling described how he first discovered ska in the soccer stadiums of England, and he likens the changes in his band's lineup to putting together a good soccer team as he grows the sound of the English Beat as a global franchise. Wakeling also plays an impromptu acoustic version of 'Save it for Later'.

Errol Brown, lead singer of the band Hot Chocolate, has died of liver cancer at age 71. Brown wrote and sang the band’s biggest hit, 1976’s “You Sexy Thing.” Brown’s first break in show business came when his debut single, a reggae cover of “Give Peace a Chance,” won approval from John Lennon himself. (Billboard) A computer analysis…

A sold-out crowd at the Turf Club was left hollering for more from Northern London quartet Wolf Alice, who packed the venue on the strength of their shoegaze-meets-post-punk singles “Giant Peach” and “Moaning Lisa Smile.” Though their full-length debut album, My Love is Cool, isn’t even due out until June 23, it’s clear that their…