They’d passed all the preliminary rounds, and last night was the finale for five bands as they competed for the opening spot at Spring Jam tonight. Due to unfortunate (snow) circumstances earlier this week and the ground being too soft for the typically outdoor stage setup, it was moved inside to the Great Hall in Coffman this…

Of course Phoebe Bridgers‘s favorite place in Target is the candle aisle. She also likes the office supplies section, she told us at the Turf Club last night. But her music pairs so well with a lit wick: both intimate, warm, and lonely. After opening for Conor Oberst at the Palace last September, Bridgers made…

A recent Washington Post article reports on the unease surrounding “the prospect of turning Paisley Park into Minnesota’s Graceland.” When I read that, my first thought was: is that really a bad thing? Blatantly commercialized as Graceland is, it’s given Elvis Presley’s home the status of an iconic landmark — and it’s solidified the status…

Prince's high school basketball coach, said that "I really believe [basketball] was his first love."

When it comes to techno music, few, if any, names loom as large as that of Carl Craig. Alongside several peers from his native Detroit, Craig is considered one of techno’s pioneers, but one would be hard-pressed to name an electronic musician of any kind who can match the sheer volume and breadth of Craig’s…

Kimbra gets Prince. Since buying Musicology in a New Zealand record store, she’s released three of her own shape-shifting albums, including today’s Primal Heart. But she’s never lost sight of principles she learned from Prince — especially evolution, duality, and joy. You know her from “Somebody That I Used To Know,” the song that sent her and Gotye to…

Tomorrow is Record Store Day and as we prepare to celebrate our local record stores and small businesses, let's spend some time this morning listening to local musicians. So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs from Minnesota artists do you want to hear?

Elvis Presley 'shook up' the singles charts; Deep Purple made their live debut; George Burns was in the Hot 100; numerous artists paid tribute to the late Freddie Mercury; Aerosmith got a grip with their 11th studio album; The Sound of Philadelphia became the first disco song to reach No. 1 in the singles charts; and 'American Idiot' opened on Broadway, Today in Music History.

At the first of four sold-out shows at the Palace Theatre, Bon Iver and TU Dance — two local, nationally renowned performing arts powerhouses — performed something transcendent and deeply felt, a gripping blend of contemporary dance and music called Come Through. This project was commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music. Upon…

On the night that Prince and the Revolution were recording their historic August 3, 1983 concert at First Avenue — where the band would debut “Purple Rain” — the studio technician Susan Rogers was celebrating her 27th birthday and packing up her life in Los Angeles to move to Minneapolis, where she would spend the…