Record Store Day marks its ninth year on Saturday, April 18 with a brand-new round of exclusive releases. Celebrating independently owned record stores, RSD has grown into an international phenomenon, with 1,400 participating stores in the U.S. alone and thousands more across six continents. No matter which corner of the Twin Cities you find yourself in…

Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron is up for reelection in just a couple of weeks, and his wife Samantha Cameron is making headlines across the Pond for her appreciation of indie rock. In what the Daily Mail describes as her “first full interview,” Cameron says she constantly listens to BBC 6—the British Broadcasting Corporation’s indie…

Jack White announced on Tuesday that “he will be taking a break from performing live for a long period of time.” First, though, he’s going to conclude his Lazaretto world tour with his first-ever acoustic tour (“amplified only with ribbon microphones”): an eccentric five-stop tour with tickets sold exclusively at the door, one per buyer, for $3…

It’s no secret we are living through preoccupied, frenzied times. Our minds are being pulled in a hundred directions at once and stretched thin like saltwater taffy, and we are living under the constant pressure that we should be doing more, producing more, clicking more, and consuming more—all while being more available to the world…

Soul legend Percy Sledge died this morning at age 74, his agent has confirmed. Sledge, who had suffered from liver cancer, was at home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Sledge, a.k.a. “the King of Slow Soul,” is best-known for his hit “When a Man Loves a Woman,” which topped the Billboard singles chart in 1966 and became one…

For his tenth State of the City address, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman is trying something new. “We want people who would never, ever, ever think of coming to a State of the City address to come down and hear great music,” he says. Mayor Coleman joined Jill Riley and Sean McPherson on The Current’s…

David Letterman, who will retire as host of CBS’s The Late Show on May 20, has given a preview of the guests to be featured during his final stretch of shows. Among A-list acting talent like Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and George Clooney, Letterman’s upcoming musical guests will include The Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile, Elvis…

Jack White kicked out a two-hour, career-spanning set on the first night of the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Declaring several times, “Music is sacred!”, White opened his set with “Icky Thump”. He went on to play several songs from his 2014 album, Lazaretto, as well as…

Yesterday Minneapolis’ Electric Fetus welcomed the Third Man Rolling Record Store, an offshoot of Jack White’s Third Man Records store in Tennessee. The Rolling Record Store, like Nashville’s brick and mortar store, features limited vinyl releases and exclusive pressings from the Third Man label. When the Electric Fetus announced the event on Facebook on March…

From the days when his main gig was scraping gum off the undersides of club tables as a roving reporter, David Campbell has been a part of the Minnesota music community because it was something he just plain enjoyed. A decade-long staffer on the radio show Homegrown before starting as a temporary host for The Current’s Local Show in 2007, Campbell now hosts Radio Free…