Stephin Merritt covered the ABCs of his musical past Friday night at the Cedar Cultural Center; a stop on his solo acoustic U.S. tour. The multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and musician-of-all-trades was stripped down to just his voice and his ukulele, accompanied by long-time bandmate Sam Davol on cello. Merritt played a full 26-song set, one song for…

The Edge is fortunately unharmed after falling off (groan) the edge of the stage during U2‘s Vancouver tour opener on Thursday night, and Bono has a sense of humor about the mishap—as well as about the band’s controversial free-album stunt last year. “Somebody said that the Edge had downloaded himself into the audience without asking permission,” cracked Bono…

Bob Dylan will appear on Tuesday night’s episode of The Late Show with David Letterman—Letterman’s second-to-last show before retiring. The May 19 show will mark Dylan’s first Letterman appearance since 1993. As Jim Walsh notes in his comprehensive chronology of Minnesota musicians on Letterman, Dylan performed “Don’t Start Me Talkin'” on Letterman in 1983, followed by “Jokerman”…

The Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association presents its 20th annual Art-A-Whirl this May 15-17. Throughout the decades, Art-A-Whirl has become the largest open studio tour in the country with more than 500 artists operating in over 20 different mediums. Aside from next weekend’s hundreds of gallery tours and interactive exhibits, local musicians will perform at concert…

Where does a music scene begin? How do we trace it all the way back to its beginning? The local rock community that we know and love today is so vast, so active, and so well connected that it’s impossible to contain it in just one of the two Twin Cities, much less in a single venue.…

B.B. King, one of the greatest bluesmen to ever live, has died at age 89. King had been suffering from health issues related to diabetes, and was in hospice care at his home in Las Vegas. King, wielding his signature instrument “Lucille,” was widely regarded as one of the most influential guitarists of all time. The distinctive style…

When Nashville’s Walk of Fame Park, which has been under renovation, re-opens on June 4, Jack White and Loretta Lynn will be honored. The two artists, who have collaborated in the past, will each be honored with a plaque alongside the likes of Elvis Presley and Les Paul. (NME) Blues legend B.B. King has died at age 89. (Local Current)…

When explosive punk duo Birthday Suits played the Turf Club earlier this month, they had a lot of milestones to mark. Not only was it time to release their long-awaited new full-length, Spin the Bottle: Adult Party, but the band’s lead singer and guitarist, Hideo Takahashi, was returning from a year-and-a-half sojourn to Japan just in…

Courtney Barnett plays an anchorwoman in a video for “Shiny Gun,” a song by her fellow Australian Fraser A. Gorman. (Pitchfork) See Barnett IRL this summer at Rock the Garden. The first show of U2‘s world tour will happen as scheduled tonight in Vancouver despite the recent death of drummer Larry Mullen Jr.‘s father. Mullen left…

Before playing a high-profile “Rally 4 Peace” concert in Baltimore on Sunday, Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL warmed up with a “Dance Rally 4 Peace” at Paisley Park on Saturday, May 2. He’s now released 42 minutes of audio from that concert, streaming on Soundcloud. (Listen below.) On Saturday, Prince also used Soundcloud as the platform for…