Photo by Erik Hess

The 2013 Rock the Garden lineup is out there. The Current and the Walker Art Center have unveiled a grouping of bands that hopefully will not raise the ire of too many local op-ed writers, and two of the big names for the spectacle are staples of the station, Metric and Silversun Pickups.

The event takes place at the Walker on Saturday, June 15 for about 10,000 folks gathered on the grassy hill next to the gallery. For anyone who is not a vet, you'll need to pony up for membership to either the Walker or the Current to get a shot at these tickets before they go on sale Friday. They sell mighty fast.

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Rock the Garden Festival 2012 lineup
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The lite-rock stylings of Love 105 are no more. On Monday, April 1, the station became The Ticket, a CBS sports talk station.

This is the latest move for the frequency that once held alt-rock listeners with Rev 105, and has revamped several times since. The switch from Drive 105 to Love 105 occurred back in 2007, and then its parent company filed for bankruptcy two years later.

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Here's a surprise to ease you out of this warm and sunny Friday. The very first Gimme Noise Podcast is live! Recorded in our satellite "studio" in Seward, this represents a collection of recent topics, both locally and at large, that we -- myself and music editor Reed Fischer -- wanted to discuss further.

In this 20-minute installment, we talk about the new Har Mar Superstar song, Alan Sparhawk's artistic rise, the recent SXSW Music Festival in Austin, and City Pages' own 10 Thousand Sounds Festival. Check it out below the break.

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Saturday Night Live still thinks the state of hip hop radio in the Twin Cities is laughable. Over the weekend, we returned to the fictional studios of B-108 in Shakopee, "Minnesota's home for blazing hip hop," for another early morning joke at our scene's expense. This time, guest The Hunger Games starlet Jennifer Lawrence plays Busty Rhymes, another dim-witted intern who replaces Lindsay Lohan's Illiterate Lisa.

In general, much of the schtick still focuses on the original skit's premise. Only at 5 a.m. would there be a hip hop show here ("Even Al Roker's still asleep"). And instead of a Kevin Beacham or Lisa Moy, we get fatuous jocks Richard the Investigator aka Rowdy Doody (Taran Killam) and the Buffalo aka Cedric the Carabiner aka Osama bin Luscious (Bobby Moynihan) on the mic.  

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Lindsay Lohan disses Minnesota hip-hop radio on Saturday Night Live?
B96 switches to 96.3 NOW, a "hit music" station

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It's most opinionated time of the year. Thus, 89.3 the Current's studios opened up for a few gatekeepers from the Twin Cities music media to air out the wares they've been pushing all year long once again before moving onto the 2013 models. This is the Critics Pick edition.

In an episode that aired Sunday evening, Star Tribune's Chris Riemenschneider, Pioneer Press's Ross Raihala, the Current's Andrea Swensson, and myself all got in the booth with the Local Show's David Campbell and discussed what music was great in 2012. And then, as you can see above, things got ugly in a way that only Instagram could capture.

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Twin Cities Year in Music 2012
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96.3 NOW shifts to adult top 40 station K-TWIN

Long-time Twin Cities radio listeners haven't been able to surf the FM dial for the past 20 years without stumbling upon the loquacious pop jock Tony Fly. Now he's looking for a new home on the airwaves.

Fly was laid off from his job as 96.3 FM K-TWIN morning host and Assistant Program Director after 11 years as a Northern Lights Broadcasting employee. Up until late 2009, the station was the urban-formatted B96, and Fly hosted mornings there too.

"I guess I'm doing good," Fly tells Gimme Noise. "It happens. It hadn't happened to me in 20 years, but I guess it happens. I was given the standard 'we're moving in a different direction' thing."

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In a logo battle, we've got to give it to PRI's new owner, WGBH.

The Minneapolis-based Public Radio International (PRI) has been purchased by another titan of public media, WGBH in Boston.

This means that the company now claims popular radio shows "This American Life" -- as well as a wealth of niche music offerings like "Afropop Worldwide," "The Record Shelf," Jon Schaefer's "Soundcheck," "Riverwalk Jazz," "Jazz After Hours," and "Echoes" -- among its holdings. Widely known for putting out PBS shows including "Nova," and "Frontline."

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Photo: Courtesy Pandora Radio.

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Ten years ago, as funding for his three-year-old company began to disappear, Minneapolis-native Tim Westergen had a serious discussion about betting Pandora Radio's last $25,000 on a game of roulette.

"It was actually pretty rational, believe it or not," says Westergen, Pandora co-founder. "Raising money at that time had become so difficult in Silicon Valley, the odds of going into gambling were actually significantly higher than financing through venture capital."

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​Now there's probably no one who's going to get that headline on a novelty T-shirt, but the much-discussed Lana Del Rey was indeed in St. Paul late last week. She taped an in-studio appearance on the Current (and Cities 97 too, we have learned), and was gone!

Unlike many ribald internet users, Gimme Noise is not mad at Lana Del Rey for anything she's done artistically so far. But, it's disappointing that she traveled all the way to the Twin Cities, and didn't get out to one of the many local clubs that would welcome her -- and a drink-purchasing public -- to the stage with a less harsh reception than what you get on the coasts.

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Lindsay Lohan as intern Illiterate Lisa.

​Lindsay Lohan dons a conrnrow wig in a Saturday Night Live skit about a fictional B108 hip-hop radio station based in Shakopee, Minnesota. Alhough it's a concept delivered with plenty of amusing local color -- anyone who remembers waiting expectantly in their youth for school closings to be announced after a big snowfall can relate -- the real joke is on local radio listeners.

Since the 2010 format shift of B96, there isn't a rap format station to be found on the dial throughout our fair "flyover" metro area.

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