DAY 1 It was 5:30 in the morning. I was squinting to distinguish my all-black wardrobe from the shadows, attempting to pack in the dark for Austin, soaked in wine. I couldn’t see what was socks and what was underwear. In three evil hours my lawyer, Mr. B, would pick me up in his silver…

It’s been a tumultuous year for the members of Russian protest rock band Pussy Riot, who attracted international attention for being attacked by authorities in Sochi during the Olympic Games and have more recently attacked by a group of angry men while eating in a Russian McDonald’s. Group members Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, however, found…

On the surface, there seems to be little that connects the indomitable swagger of Lizzo, the aggressive enigma of Marijuana Deathsquads, and the digital seduction of Poliça.  Sonically they stretch across the board and reach varied audiences, but all three are dedicated to groundbreaking music that challenges genre and convention, with an ethic and attitude…

“I feel like a new dude,” P.O.S. told his Doomtree crewmate Lazerbeak after recently receiving a long-awaited kidney transplant. As Lazerbeak reports on Doomtree’s website, the MC “seriously looks great.” Also, happily, recovering well is donor Mark Potter, who is already out of the hospital. “We’ve known Mark forever (actually went to high school with the…

On Sunday night’s Local Show, we celebrated Women’s History Month with a two-hour special dedicated exclusively to women in Minnesota music. This year, a large focus of the show was on hip-hop and some of the under-the-radar acts that started bubbling up to the surface in recent years. In addition to a fiery in-studio performance…

Human Kindness: You Are So Loud That I Want To Die cassette On their debut EP You Are So Loud That I Want To Die, self-described Minneapolitan “rock ‘n’ roll friends” Human Kindness sound like microbudget contemporaries to modern punks like No Age and Joyce Manor. The record is melody-focused, occasionally experimental, and perfectly abrasive, with…

Happy Friday! And I mean that, too—the temperature rose above freezing for the first time in what feels like about eight years and the work week is winding down for the 9-to-5ers. We may actually be able to go outside this weekend. To celebrate (and make that weekend come a little bit faster), slip on…

Events that simultaneously take place in First Avenue’s Mainroom and the 7th Street Entry become mini-festivals, all about the ebb and flow of fans placing bets on where the must-see action will be at any given moment. Last night at Vita.mn’s Are You Local? showcase, all streams were flowing towards Black Diet. The showcase featured…

The funny thing about an artist’s mystique is that it only works if everyone around them buys into it.  And Prince seems especially skilled at keeping up appearances and maintaining an aura of implausible oddness and secrecy. There are no “normal” Prince stories out there; even when he asks a friend to do something relatively…

It all started with Batman, in 1989. I was living in Jakarta, Indonesia; my father worked as a diplomat, so we always travelled around a lot. Tim Burton’s movie was huge that year. Toys, posters, music: I bought them all, including the soundtrack by Prince. I remember being seven and enjoying the “Batdance” video immensely. I thought it…