Stephin Merritt, the brilliant and eccentric musician best known as the creative force behind the Magnetic Fields, has announced a rare solo tour that will stop at the Cedar Cultural Center on May 15. The show has an unusual premise (albeit somewhat less unusual for a guy who’s made an entire album of songs starting with…

Today is Mardi Gras, a festival for which the city of New Orleans is nearly synonymous. So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs having to do with Mardi Gras or with New Orleans do you want to hear?

Local musician Maria Isa, who is also an experienced actress, will be starring in a public reading of a new music-themed play by Idris Goodwin on March 2 and 3 at the Playwrights’ Center. The REALNESS: the second break beat play tells the story of Thomas, who leaves his suburban home to experience hip-hop culture in the city. When…

Elvis earned his first Gold album, James Taylor appeared on television, AC/DC released their first album, Franz Ferdinand swept a bunch of awards, and Johnny Cash re-recorded "Girl From The North Country" with Bob Dylan Today in Music History.

The babes are back. After a long hiatus ending in two reunion shows and a European tour announcement, Minneapolis grunge trio Babes in Toyland returned with an intimate show Feb. 10 in Palm Springs, Calif. It was, as Andrea Swensson points out in her review, “their first official show in 14 years and first show as that particular threesome…

In August 2006, Sleater-­Kinney performed their last show, in Portland, before taking a seemingly indefinite hiatus. In August 2006, Barack Obama was not yet a household name. Besides Saturday Night Live, Fred Armisen’s most prominent role was probably that of Tino the nightclub owner from Anchorman, with Portlandia still a half-decade from its premiere. I was…

My mom recently sold the house where I grew up, and in digging through one of my old boxes I came upon an issue of Rock Express from late 1986. It’s an incredible time capsule, with a back-cover advertisement for the story of Max Headroom ($26.99 on VHS) and a Janet Jackson news item headlined “Baby…

Here’s a sentence you don’t get to type very often: if anyone had a wilder weekend than Prince, it was Paul McCartney. Both were in New York City over the holiday weekend—along with more than the usual contingent of A-list celebrities—to celebrate Saturday Night Live, Nike sneakers, and of course themselves. Prince got off to an…

Even when built around familiar pop-song structures, Dan Deacon's music is juxtapositional and wonderful -- a pursuit of the ecstatic that obliterates genre distinctions. Deacon's new album, 'Gliss Riffer', comes out Feb. 24. Get a first listen here.

Lesley Gore has died of cancer at age 68. Discovered by Quincy Jones as a 16-year-old ingenue, Gore performed the indelible 1963 hit “It’s My Party” as well as “You Don’t Own Me,” “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” and “She’s a Fool” – all top five hits, with “It’s My Party” taking Gore to number one just weeks after her…