Pho, iLLism, Radiochurch, and Purple Funk Metropolis will all be representing Minnesota at a Paisley Park battle of the bands being held Aug. 31 – Sept. 3. Nine finalists were chosen in total, the rest coming from around the country. The finalists will compete for studio time at Paisley Park, a mentorship from members of…

Taylor Swift has just announced her new album: Reputation, out Nov. 10. The album cover has Swift’s name printed in various fonts inspired by newspaper mastheads, presumably as a comment on how much she’s been in the news for various reasons. I immediately started thinking of other album covers that drew on newspapers for design inspiration…

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, or maybe it’s because living in modern-day America feels like trying to meditate in the middle of a tornado full of barbed wire, bleating cattle and six lanes of rush hour traffic, but lately I find that I only really want to listen to two kinds of music: the…

You may know Sherman Alexie wrote The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. You may know he’s the most renowned Native American author of our time (but he’s not your model minority). However, you may not be familiar with this trait of Alexie’s: an abiding…

In 2007, Prince played a record-setting 21-night residency at the O2 arena in London. It was such an epic success that it inspired Michael Jackson to go for 50 nights with This Is It, the run of shows scheduled to begin shortly after his 2009 death. Now, the O2 will be the site of what’s…

In yet another complex, tortured episode of the Twin Peaks revival, David Lynch took time for a couple of tender moments. One was sad, the other was happy — for the moment. The episode was dedicated to Margaret Lanterman, the proper name of the character better known as “the Log Lady” due to her preferred companion.…

Walking onto the light rail around 7 p.m., I noticed several people obviously headed to the same place as me. Five teens in crop tops chatted about rappers YG and D.R.A.M. On the other side of the train, one girl faced her friend. “I have to get a T-shirt,” she told him. “At Kendrick? I have…

If you’ve listened to Blood Orange’s Freetown Sound, seen Solange live, or caught certain shows by Carly Rae Jepsen, you’ve likely heard Ava Raiin before. You might not know it — she’s rarely on center stage. But Raiin has put years into her background singing career, and she’s so good that some of music’s most influential names…

On Saturday, Aug. 26, storied ska band the Siren Six! will be returning to Minneapolis for two homecoming concerts at the 7th St Entry. The shows will be the first time the band has played together since they disbanded in the early 2000s, and marks the 20th anniversary of the period when they were most…

Last night at the Walker Art Center, Marijuana Deathsquads and People entranced hundreds with their newest project, a commission that features new scores for nine silent Dada films. With their backs turned to the audience and their eyes facing the screen, the 11 musicians — squad members Ryan Olson, Isaac Gale, Mark McGee, Ben Ivascu, Mark…