1991: The Year Punk Broke, the year Nirvana released Nevermind, the year N.W.A. reached the top of the album charts and imploded, the year Jane’s Addiction called it quits and gave us Lollapalooza as a consolation. Are you too young to have experienced 1991 firsthand? Are you old enough but understandably worried that life and…

“This is our first gig, so hold on—we’re just learning how to do this.” Last night at Bob Mould’s Bowery Ballroom show in New York, Ryan Adams came onstage to join Mould for an encore filled with Hüsker Dü songs. According to jambands.com, the songs included “I Apologize,” “Celebrated Summer,” “Something I Learned Today,” and “New…

In honor of the upcoming Replacements show at Midway Stadium, artist Kevin Cannon and writer Pat Ganley have created a remarkable hand-drawn map of ‘Mats landmarks in Minneapolis—from the CC Club to First Ave to the Bob Stinson Memorial Bench—based on Jim Walsh’s book All Over But the Shouting. Here’s a preview; see the full-size map,…

The shortlist for this year’s Mercury Prize—a prestigious annual award for best album by a UK or Irish artist—includes Damon Albarn‘s Everyday Robots (read Mark Wheat’s review), Jungle‘s self-titled album (read David Safar’s review, and hear Jungle perform live in our studios), and FKA twigs‘s LP1. The winning album will be announced on Oct. 30. Vampire Weekend‘s Rostam Batmanglij…

Martin Devaney was making a list. Sitting in his St. Paul dining room last Friday, the singer-songwriter sighed and took a sip from his can of Hamm’s, secure in its SuperAmerica coozy. “If anyone reads about this, they’re going to give me a hard time. ‘Why did you play that for her? Why didn’t you…

Venerable retailer Hymie’s Records is launching its very own in-house record label with vinyl releases by Ben Weaver and Brian Laidlaw & the Family Trade. It will celebrate taking the plunge with an Oct. 10 show at the Cedar Cultural Center featuring both artists. The vintage vinyl lover’s refuge opened more than a quarter-century ago. Since its…

The epic music news of the past 24 hours was the surprise release—for free—of U2‘s new album Songs of Innocence, announced at the Apple event announcing the Apple Watch and iPhone 6. Here’s more on that story, and here’s a huge story that was buried by the U2 news: Apple has discontinued the iPod Classic, the…

It’s been a banner year for Minnesota musicians on late-night television, with both Trampled by Turtles and Jeremy Messersmith performing on The Late Show with David Letterman in recent months and the Replacements making their triumphant return to NBC Studios to perform on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Tuesday night’s appearance on the show…

Music fans who thought they could snooze through today’s überhyped “Apple Event” were caught by surprise when U2 pulled a Beyoncé and dropped an entire new studio album, with no warning, after performing at the Cupertino press frenzy that also saw Apple announce the Apple Watch and iPhone 6. Oh…and it’s free. The new U2 album, Songs…

The ascending teen garage punk group Stereo Confession will play an all-ages show on Sunday, Oct. 12 at the 7th St. Entry. The show comes in anticipation of its new album, No Coast, to be released Oct. 14. The band signed this month with Susstones Records and recorded the full-length debut at producer Ed Ackerson’s…