On Sunday night, just over a year after their most recent performance at First Avenue, Local Natives took to the stage as usual: eternally hip, relatively somber, and genuinely pleased to be there. Had the show been three days earlier—with Minnesota in the grip of an April snowstorm—the mood might not have been quite as…

Use your creativity and let us know what songs to play for the Twins home opener Coffee Break.

With her new, self-titled record, St. Vincent erects new barriers of aloofness while also managing to make her most accessible and exciting record yet.

Matt Berninger, the frontman of the National, is riding high on his band’s acclaimed new album Trouble Will Find Me. His younger brother Tom is also riding high—on the basis of a documentary that paints himself in a less-than-flattering light with respect to his rock-star brother. Strange but true, that’s the story of Mistaken for Strangers,…

Keeping things short and sweet today. Here’s a handful of the freshest Minnesota-made videos to catch my attention this week: Spooky Black Who is Spooky Black, you ask? Right now, all I know is that he is a teenager from St. Paul, he has the voice of someone at least 15 years his age, and…

Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, may not be of this world. She took the stage at the State Theatre in Minneapolis last night with her startling new look—curly white-purple hair; striking green eyeshadow; tall heels; and bouncing shoulder-pads. Her wide eyes felt too knowing to be human; her rigid, cryptic motions appeared to…

When you say the name Andy Summers, most people think of The Police, but this iconic guitarist continues to be creative. Steve Seel talks to Summers and his bandmate Rob Giles about their new project, Circa Zero.

For today's 9:30 Coffee Break we're looking for bands who got their names from the title of a song by another artist (or the lyrics in the song).

What songs that feature the word "suck" in either the title or lyrics should we play for the 9:30 Coffee Break?

Last Friday, Minneapolis’s hometown heroine Dessa dazzled in front of a 275-person capacity crowd. Her combination of poetic intensity and rhythmic persuasion added a spark of electricity to the intimate theater. Audience members were also treated to a Q-and-A segment with the rapper, in which Dessa exposed her Mount Rushmore of inspirational figures—her dad, the…