Hot Chip move to #1 the week of their album's release and ahead of a big First Avenue gig; Father John Misty is back on the Chart; Tame Impala take the biggest leap after a sold out Twin Cities show; Built to Spill make their Chart debut.

Trampled by Turtles frontman Dave Simonett is teaming up with Mark Gehring, a Twin Cities-based artist manager and the force behind the Minnesota Beatle Project series, to launch a new record label, GNDWIRE (pronounced “Ground Wire”) Records. Simonett and Gehring have tapped into a powerful network to help with their launch, combining their resources to get distribution…

Minneapolis saxophonist Curt Oren is making national headlines with an increasingly absurd series of attempts to raise awareness about…his new hat. First, Oren and his friends thought it would be funny to get a hat reading CURT’S NEW HAT. Then, Oren got a t-shirt saying, DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY NEW HAT? One thing led to another,…

As David Letterman prepares his final Late Show on CBS after a remarkable 33-year career in late-night television, we're reflecting on how many local artists Letterman has welcomed to his stage over the years. For today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs do you want to hear by Minnesota acts who have appeared on David Letterman's show? Send your requests.

Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by The Current's Morning Show to conduct a tasting of locally made root beers. "We're absolutely having a new boom in root beer and all artisanal sodas," Dara says.

Each day during Minnesota Public Radio's Spring Member Drive, The Current will highlight a different artist who has made a significant contribution to the music world and a lasting impression on the music we listen to today. We call them Musicheads Essential Artists, and today we're highlighting the Velvet Undergroud.

Bill Haley and the Comets released a seminal song; Paul McCartney notched is sixth solo U.S. No. 1 single; Frank Sinatra was commemorated in a couple of ways, 10 years apart; Finland won its first Eurovision Song Contest; and Foo Fighters released one of modern rock's defining albums, Today in Music History.

Is the song “Happy Birthday” a copyrighted musical composition, or is it in the public domain? The answer to that question makes a big difference to music publisher Warner/Chappell, which would like to collect royalties every time the song appears in a movie or TV show. A U.S. District Judge is currently hearing a civil…

The rangy, prolific jazz trio teams up with the tenor-sax great for a journey into the murky, terrifying, thrilling unknown.

Strange Names: Use Your Time Wisely Though Strange Names are now based in New York, many of these songs will be familiar to Minnesota listeners who followed Strange Names here until they moved east last year. Taking new wave to what they call “next wave” is what the band are doing on Use Your Time…