This week, 89.3 The Current has added an excellent and varied array of new tracks to the mix of music on our airwaves, from improbable collaborations to returning vets, rising noise-rockers to local indie-poppers.

How many Dave Matthews Band fans will sit through a set by a trailblazing indie electro-R&B band? And how many Motion City Soundtrack fans will stick around for a set by TOOL? These are the questions that organizers seemed to want answered at last weekend’s inaugural River’s Edge Music Festival, which paired two massive mainstream headliners…

Leave it to the Flaming Lips to provide one of the only legitimately spontaneous moment’s of last weekend’s River’s Edge Music Festival. The majority of their set was an almost note-for-note recreation of last summer’s performance at SoundTown (and, I’d imagine, most of their other festival shows), but halfway through the haziest portion of their…

Minneapolis new wave band will have a full-length out this fall

In 2012, the artist that is reminding us of what made early rock and roll great is JD McPherson. A former school teacher and punk rocker from Oklahoma, McPherson found his voice when he abandoned punk for the sound of 1958, recording "Signs and Signifiers" in glorious analog.

Hip-hop artist Brother Ali has never been one to shy away from social justice causes. But his participation in last night’s Occupy Homes protest and subsequent arrest are by far his boldest political statements to date. I called up Brother Ali this morning to learn more about where he was coming from last night. As…

Local music notes from the week of June 18-22

Ali was one of 13 arrested at an Occupy Homes demonstration

Check out the new music that we've added to our mix here at the Current this week, including with new music from buzzed-about acts like Twin Shadow as well as indie staples like Superchunk.

Emily White's NPR Music piece sparked a nationwide debate on how to consume music