In what has now become an annual tradition, the First Avenue Mainroom filled to the brim last night with giddy listeners and members of the Current for the first of two back-to-back birthday parties. Adding to the festivities this year was the fact that the first night of birthday parties took place on the station’s…

It’s been an especially busy week for Lizzo, who celebrated the end to a successful 2013 and popped the cork on the New Year by having a song placed on the popular HBO show Girls, flying to London to perform at BBC 1’s Future Fest, and reconnecting with producer Ryan Olson and beatmaker Lazerbeak to…

It was exactly nine years ago this morning that the Current first went on air and introduced itself to the Twin Cities with the help of Atmosphere’s Minnesota-centric “Say Shh.” The song, which was tacked on as a hidden track at the end of the Rhymesayers’ duo’s 2003 album, Seven’s Travels, had already become somewhat of…

Jon Schober – Go East Young Man!   For the past three years, the Current has been fortunate to have Jon Schober be part of the team. Jon is a native Texan, who arrived in Minnesota in 2008 to go to the U and work at Radio K, and joined the Current in 2010 as an…

Thursday, January 23 Low Fitger’s Brewhouse, Duluth 10 p.m., free, 21+ We’ve arrived at week two in Low’s quest to perform every song from their discography over the course of seven weeks in the intimate confines of Duluth’s Fitger’s Brewhouse. Each week the band draws new songs out of a hat and puts together a…

There’s no doubt about it: ska has an image problem. Nationally, its popularity has declined so much since the third-wave explosion of the late 90s that for many, it seems goofy stereotypes are all that’s left. For anyone attending a ska show at the 331 Club in early January, though, it would have been hard…

After taking some time away from the band to record a moodier, more roots-oriented solo album, Craig Finn has reunited with his Hold Steady bandmates and released a punchy new single today, “I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You,” as a lead-up to their forthcoming Teeth Dreams. “We were looking to make a big rock…

There’s just something about Dave Simonett’s voice, isn’t there? Whether he’s leading the charge in his breakneck string band, Trampled by Turtles, rocking the night away in his side project Dead Man Winter, or staking out some space to perform solo, Simonett has the ability to turn simple syllables into soliloquies and breathe so much…

Tragedy struck the West Bank in Minneapolis on New Year’s Day as one of Cedar-Riverside’s historic buildings burst into flames. The fire took the lives of three apartment residents, and also destroyed a grocery store. This Friday, January 24, Augsburg College, the Cedar Cultural Center, and KFAI Radio will host a benefit concert that will…

“I have been singing professionally since I was five,” PaviElle French says, laughing and sighing nonchalantly. And after hearing some of the tracks off her forthcoming solo debut, Fear Not, it should come as no surprise—with skills honed over the years in church choirs, slam poetry groups and spoken-word collectives, the 29-year-old soul singer is stepping into the spotlight with a…