Toki Wright and students from St. Paul’s McNally Smith College of Music have created a hip-hop mixtape called Watch the Stove, featuring contributions from Bobby Raps (thestand4rd) and DJ Tiiiiiiiiiip. As you might guess from the song titles — including “In Love with the Glove,” “Food for Your Soul,” and “Hamburger Helper” — the project was sponsored by…

Growing up in northern Wisconsin, one of Phil Cook's biggest influences was Bruce Hornsby. 'He was somebody who was playing and he could really sing and he had all this talent and was writing songs,' Cook says. 'The dude changed my life.' Cook now lives in North Carolina, and he stopped at The Current to play some songs off his new album, 'Southland Mission.'

Explorers and educators Dave and Amy Freeman are spending a year living in the Boundary Waters to raise awareness about that wilderness. Twin Cities musician Ben Weaver wanted to support the Freemans with a delivery of poetry and music -- and he invited The Current's Bill DeVille and Nate Ryan along for the trip. See photos and video from this musical adventure.

Each week on the Local Show, we’ll meet a new person from the Minnesota music community who has some fresh discoveries to share in a feature called “Ask a Cool Person.” These people will come from all corners of the scene, including record store clerks, recording studio engineers and producers, artists, writers, bookers, photographers, and…

Happy April Fools! For today's Coffee Break, what songs do you want to hear that mention some form of pranks or trickery?

For decades, hundreds of vinyls and tapes sat untouched following the 1979 suicide of Audiotek Systems, Inc. owner Dan Holmes. Now, 260 reel to reel tapes from the Minneapolis record label and studio are on eBay for $19,900. ASI originally operated at 711 W. Broadway Ave. until Holmes moved the business to a studio attached to his…

David Bowie released his first single; the Troggs recorded 'Wild Thing'; John and Yoko pulled an April Fool joke; the Buzzcocks made their live debut; David Lee Roth jumped from Van Halen; and Gil Scott-Heron was born, Today in Music History.

When Kelsey from the Current emailed me and asked me if I wanted to be the Local Current’s DJ in Residence, I had to read it a few times. I initially thought she was asking me to help her find someone to do it (which would have been cool too). But after re-reading and confirming…

Hank Williams’s life and career were tragically short, but unfortunately all you get from Marc Abraham’s new biopic is the “tragically” half of that equation. Sorely lacking in narrative drive, I Saw the Light seems to go on forever as we’re dragged through one sad moment after another in the life of this flawed genius. It’s too bad that I…

Catfish and the Bottlemen traveled from their native Wales to the shores of the States to perform live in The Current studio ahead of their new album's release.