Happy Friday! I’m about to run out the door to start making my playlist for the First Avenue 45th anniversary bash tonight, which I’ll be hosting and DJing along with Barb Abney from Go 96 and Zoe Peterson from Radio K. Before I go, though, I just had to share this batch of videos that were…

A couple weeks ago, the city of Rochester announced its plan to buy the Chateau Theatre. The building was used as a Barnes & Noble from 1994 up until Dec. 31, 2014; since then, it has been vacant. Why is the venue’s future important? In part, because of its storied past. To put it briefly,…

Anyone who has seen Venus de Mars perform with her band All the Pretty Horses knows that the veteran punk rock and goth artist isn’t afraid of putting it all out there—at times literally, with only a few strips of electrical tape and a well-placed corset serving as her only stage wear. Her new album, Flesh and Wire,…

Pharrell Williams stopped by The Tonight Show and told Jimmy Fallon about his current projects—including work with Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, and, yes, Missy Elliott. Williams and Fallon also performed as the fictitious 80s R&B duo “Afro & Deziak.” (Billboard) An appropriately strange charity tribute concert to David Lynch in Los Angeles featured performances by Duran Duran (Lynch directed a concert film featuring…

The Minnesota Music Coalition‘s annual Minnesota Music Summit is coming to the Amsterdam Bar & Hall and McNally Smith College of Music next weekend (April 9-11), with a packed lineup of concerts, artist workshops, video screenings, industry panels, mentoring sessions, networking events, and a keynote address by Dar Williams. The Current’s Local Show host, David Campbell, will…

Some shows are so powerful that they feel like they will live on in our minds and hearts forever. For Cloud Cult, a trio of intimate acoustic shows they performed in Minneapolis back in December 2013 were such a smash success that they have been carefully recorded and preserved for posterity in a new film, Unplug. Filmed at the…

David Bowie is writing new music and collaborating with playwright Enda Walsh for a new work of musical theater based on the story of The Man Who Fell to Earth, reports the New York Times. The new work, titled Lazarus, will be presented off-Broadway by the New York Theater Workshop and directed by Ivo van Howe. Bowie,…

Kendrick Lamar says he recorded music with Prince when Lamar was at Paisley Park to participate in the live-streamed concert celebrating the release of Prince’s two new albums last year. Though Lamar says he wasn’t able to include the music on his new album To Pimp a Butterfly because he was “pressed for time,” in an interview with…

Cynthia Lennon has died of cancer at age 75 at her home in Spain. Lennon was the wife of John Lennon from 1962 to 1968; John and Cynthia Lennon were the parents of Julian Lennon, who was at his mother’s side in her final days. A representative for Cynthia Lennon made the following statement: “Cynthia…

Joni Mitchell has been hospitalized in Los Angeles, a statement on the singer-songwriter’s website confirms. “Joni was found unconscious in her home this afternoon,” stated the website as of last night. “She regained consciousness on the ambulance ride to an L.A. area hospital. She is currently in intensive care undergoing tests and is awake and…