When it comes to loud bands, it's difficult to out-do STNNNG. For 10 years, this local quintet has released some of the most acclaimed Minnesota albums and consistently challenged the strength of venues' sound systems across town.

For a guy who gets tagged with a lot of limiting descriptors—"freak folk," "hippie" and so forth—Devendra Banhart doesn't like to let his music sit in any spot for long. His catalog, which now includes seven official albums, has taken him through warmly intimate ballads, raw and unselfconsciously strange home recordings, songs in several languages (Banhart spent much of his childhood in Venezuela), a lot of smoothly strummy folk-pop and the occasional low-key anthem about free-spiritedness.

One of the fastest rising local bands right now is Carroll, a quartet that graduated from Macalester College last year and got their name from the street they lived on. A mix of psych-pop and Alec Ounsworth-esque vocals, Carroll just released their debut EP and has subsequently gathered all sorts of press and accolades.

This week on New Hot, read about two new bands from Thurston Moore and Trent Reznor, as well as the next solo record from The Soft Boys' Robyn Hitchcock. These are our three recommended releases for Tuesday, March 5.

The Vaccines swung through the Twin Cities on their North American tour, and they were kind enough to drop by The Current's HQ for an intimate session. Enjoy this video of them performing an acoustic take on their awesomely catchy single "Teenage Icon."

1970's iconic album Bitches Brew is both a standalone masterpiece and the pivot point between two of the most fascinating periods of Miles Davis' career: his late-'60s swerve into jazz fusion and the truly out-there territory explored by his early-'70s output.

Oscar-nominated documentary 'The Gatekeepers' explores the Israeli secret service; a Kids Film Festival at Walker Art Center

  Tonight, three finalists will face off at Mill City Nights for the latest installment of Vita.mn’s Are You Local?, an annual showcase and competition that aims to turn over new talent and send an undiscovered band to SXSW. This year, Vita.mn received 223 submissions for their contest, and ended up selecting two brand new…

Today we're giving you a Reverse Coffee Break. We are going to pick the songs and you will have to listen and guess what the theme is. Good Luck!

Jimmy Cliff is one of reggae's hugest icons, a living legend whose 1972 film The Harder They Come and accompanying soundtrack gave the genre its big break in the American market. Dozens of albums later, he's one of music's most respected figures worldwide.