​It's been a trying few years for the old theater space on Nicollet Ave. and 14th St., which wrapped up its run as the Music Box Theater and converted back to its original name, the Loring Theater, under new management last year. More >>

Photo by Erik Hess

​Shuga Records has had somewhat of a tenuous run in Minnesota. With a heavy emphasis on developing their online store, they seemed to struggle to connect with the community on the same grassroots level as longtime local staples like Treehouse Records or Roadrunner. More >>

Photo by Erik Hess

Flattus Maximus performing his final show at First Ave

​It's been over a month since Gwar fans learned of the death of guitarist Flattus Maximus, a.k.a. Cory Smoot, which happened sometime in the hours following when Smoot and the rest of the band played a show at First Avenue and loaded onto their tour van to travel north to Canada. When Smoot's bandmates went to wake him the next morning to gather his passport near the North Dakota-Manitoba border, they found that he had died with seemingly no warning signs, devastating the entire Gwar crew.More >>

​News broke overnight that Mr. Dibbs, a one-time Atmosphere tourmate and friend of the Twin Cities' Rhymesayers label, has been undergoing a series of surgeries after being diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. Though he typically uses his Twitter account to promote fellow hip-hop artists' mixtapes, Mr. Dibbs, a.k.a. Cincinnatti-born Brad Forste, has been using his handle to send out updates from his hospital visits, the most recent of which was on October 17.More >>

Photo by Tony Nelson

​Guante, the Minneapolis spoken word and hip-hop artist, writer, and activist, will be appearing at his second OccupyMN event tonight (he already performed on Sunday at a labor rally that also featured Mayda and Grant Hart) to help raise awareness of the movement and kick off a student-led march on the downtown Minneapolis banks.More >>

​Sad news to hit the local arts world today: The long-running Stone Arch Festival of the Arts, which annually showcased over 200 artists and four free stages of music along St. Anthony Main, will be no more. The festival's founder, longtime local music advocate Ira Heilicher (son of legendary Soma Records head Amos Heilicher) passed away last month, and the festival's remaining staff members have disbanded to pursue other projects.

One of those staff members, Stacy Schwartz (whose byline you may recognize from many of our concert slideshows), spent the last five years at the helm of the musical portion of the Stone Arch Festival and booked dozens of Minnesota musicians on the stages each summer. Today, Schwartz sent out an open letter eulogizing the festival and thanking the musicians who participated; you can read her words below.

More >>

Author's rendering of Dave Grohl. Is this what we want music journalism to look like?

​If you've seen our Foo Fighters review today, you'll notice that the only photos we ran were teeny-tiny cell phone shots taken from our reviewer's seats. This wasn't for lack of of a photographer on our part, or a lack of effort: we refused to shoot the show because of an oppressive set of terms laid out by the band's management. More >>

Apparently, he's kind of serious? Maybe?  Well, serious enough to respond to a tweet from Minneapolitan Tyler Page, who originally threw the idea onto the table. 
More >>

Photos by Erik Hess

​The term "soft opening" hardly seems like an accurate way to describe last night's bustling first night of business for St. Paul's newest venue, Amsterdam Bar & Hall. Even the mayor of St. Paul, Chris Coleman, showed up to celebrate his 50th birthday in the new space, along with plenty of familiar faces from the music community who were there to show their support for the promising concert hall.

More >>

Photo by Stacy Schwartz

​It's been nearly a year since Gayngs were forced to cancel their Austin City Limits performance after their bus driver took off across state lines with their gear in tow, and the band have finally wrapped up a long and winding lawsuit against the company. Back in May, the band received word that they had won their lawsuit and would be awarded over $100,000 -- but this week, when the final judgment of the case was signed, sealed, and delivered, they learned that the actual monetary award would be $270,700 plus interest.

More >>