When you're 21 years old, as Mikaiah Lei of the Bots is, a guitar built in 1993 qualifies as vintage. Mikaiah loves guitars; he's got a shedload of them, many of which are in for maintenance right now. But he shares their stories and also talks about his road-ready effects board.

Together, Daniel Paul Davis and Christopher Nelson, collectively known as Judah, are working to help put Minnesota on the dance-music map. “We don’t want it to be a flyover state,” said Davis. They’ve won thumbs-up from the likes of London Grammar for their remixes—but as they’ve learned, the life of a remix artist is complicated. Davis…

Sherwin Linton made his first guitar out of a yardstick and a cigar box. In 1965, he graduated to building his own double neck guitar out of a Fender Jazzmaster. After 59 years of performing, the precision remains: Linton has never missed a show.  He holds a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not World Record for…

What songs make you feel cozy in the Autumn season? We'll play some of your suggestions for today's 9:30 Coffee Break.

“All you need is love,” reads the Beatles lyric painted on the exterior wall of the Midwest Music Museum, but it looks like more will be required: an eviction summons is currently posted to the exterior door of what was planned to be the new 400 Bar at the Mall of America. According to the Star Tribune,…

It’s been a big year for Canadian music, with lauded albums by artists including Arcade Fire, Mac DeMarco, and Drake. This year’s Polaris Prize for best Canadian album, though, has gone to Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat singer known not only for her innovative music but also for promoting the seal products the Inuk economy relies on. She’s…

Bob Dylan has been named 2015 MusicCares Person of the Year by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The Minnesota-born music legend was chosen for the honor because his “body of creative work has contributed to America’s culture, as well as that of the entire world, in genuinely deep and lasting ways,” said MusiCares CEO…

Toki Wright and Big Cats: Pangaea Toki Wright is back and this time he brings company: Minnesota producer Big Cats. Wright and Spencer Wirth-Davis, a.k.a. Big Cats, drop Pangaea today after two years of hard work in the studio. Wright and Big Cats joined David Campbell last week for an in-studio performance of the new…

What David Bowie songs do you want to hear for today's 9:30 Coffee Break?

It’s funny how many routines from our childhood stick with us into adulthood. For me, I don’t know if I’ll ever shake the feeling that fall means it’s time to start a new school year. As soon as Labor Day slides by and the temperatures start to dip under 60 degrees, I start examining my…