This past weekend I got to live the rock and roll dream like I haven’t for nearly a decade, joining local noise pop band BNLX as second guitarist for a weekend of shows at BNLXFest 2 at Cause. The fest featured five local acts per night, from buzzy new kids on the block Gloss and…

Though it was one of the largest and longest-running regional gatherings in the metro area, Stillwater’s Lumberjack Days garnered enough negative feedback from its community and ran into steep enough financial challenges that it was shut down by the city in 2011. But residents in the area knew that the St. Croix riverside community deserved…

Duluth Mayor Don Ness can still remember the marquee lights of the NorShor Theater shining bright on East Superior Street in the 1990s. “It was the birthplace of the Homegrown Music Festival,” Ness said, “and a lot of prominent bands in Duluth all started at the NorShor. It was a really important part of my…

I hope you didn’t have anything important you wanted to get done today. Seriously. If you can pull yourself away from this new interactive Bob Dylan video for his song “Like A Rolling Stone”—a video that was released today, approximately 48 years and four months after the song’s debut—after playing it just once, then I…

Congratulations to the Varsity Theater for winning the award for America’s Best Restroom. Here are a few suggestions as to other local music venues that deserve to have their restrooms recognized. Best Restroom View: First Avenue. On your way to the sinks, take a look outside to see whether the Timberwolves game is out yet.…

Just over six months after Sue McLean’s passing, a tribute show on November 23 at First Avenue will honor the memory and influence of one of Minnesota’s most prominent music promoters. The show, organized by friends and fans of McLean, will feature Eric Hutchinson, Soul Asylum, and the BoDeans, among other local artists. “We could…

Now in its fourth year, Atmosphere’s Welcome to Minnesota continues to grow. This year, the tour is so big that the state of Minnesota can’t even contain it; in addition to taking their usual lap around greater Minnesota, Atmosphere will bring their tour over the border for a night in Fargo, North Dakota. The tour…

Happy Friday! We begin this week’s Friday Five rundown with something a little different: A mini-documentary from our friends at MN Original on one of the most devoted and talented behind-the-scenes staples of our local music scene. Dan Corrigan Minneapolis’s most well-known music photographer, Dan Corrigan—who captured everyone from Soul Asylum to Babes in Toyland…

Thursday, November 14 No Bird Sing Album-Release Show Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis 7 p.m., $10 adv/$12 doors, all ages With their excellent third album, Definition Sickness, out this week on Strange Famous Records (see our preview of the album here), hip-hop trio No Bird Sing will take the stage at the Cedar tonight to perform…

Tonight, the Current will air Mark Wheat’s conversation with the incomparable Yoko Ono. (Update: It’s now posted online here.) It’s gotten a lot of us at the station talking about her fascinating and strenuous relationship with mainstream consciousness, and where the 80-year-old artist fits into our culture today. Yoko has long been a household name,…