In a sprawling oral history, Dylan Jones traces all the roads of '80s pop back to Britain's New Romantic subculture: a movement that retained the energy, but not the nihilism, of punk.
Megan Voss is an integrative nurse at the University of Minnesota's Masonic Children's Hospital. She's also an assistant professor at the university's Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing, where she teaches a course on well-being and resilience for health care professionals.
Phil Spector, the record producer who gained enduring fame with a string of iconic hits in the early 1960s and was dubbed 'the first tycoon of teen' by Tom Wolfe, has died at age 81 while serving a prison sentence for murder.
“This is really easy to do,” sound engineer Ryan Mach remembers his colleague Alex Proctor telling him during training at Icehouse. “Over to your left here, press record on every single show.” Since the Minneapolis venue opened in 2012, Icehouse engineers have captured thousands (“probably in the ten thousands”) of hours of multi-tracked music recordings.…
As extraordinary as Lenny Kravitz's career has been, the quarter-century leading up to his 1989 breakout may have been even more extraordinary. In 'Let Love Rule,' the rock star tells the first part of his life story.
Albums by Minnesota artists including Nur-D, iLLism, Sarah Morris, Mae Simpson, Venus DeMars, MaLLy, the Bad Man, Kiss the Tiger, Desdamona, Humbird, Pert Near Sandstone, the Okee Dokee Brothers, Superior Siren, and Mary Bue are among 93 new titles added last month to Hennepin County Library’s MNspin streaming program, free to library users. A two-night…
Dr. Kerry Burnight is a chief gerontologist for a product called GrandPad. She's a former professor of geriatric medicine and gerontology, and she also founded the nation's first elder forensics center as well as the national nonprofit Ageless Alliance, 'united against elder abuse.'
Dan Wilson, the musician from St. Louis Park who rose to fame with Semisonic and went on to become a hot songwriter-for-hire, has become the latest in a string of stars selling their song catalogs. Primary Wave Music Publishing has acquired Wilson’s entire songbook, which includes songs he’s written for and with artists including Adele…
What would a David Bowie jukebox musical look like? Casual fans might imagine something like the new Cher musical, with flashy set pieces dedicated to the many ch-ch-ch-ch-changes in the late icon's career. Serious fans, though, know that the perfect Bowie musical already exists: 'Lazarus,' one of the artist's last projects.
The prompt might seem morbid, but Mike Ayers got some fascinating responses when he asked famous musicians to pick 'One Last Song' they'd want to hear before they die.
To talk about vaccination, Jill Riley called on an expert: Kris Ehresmann, Minnesota Department of Health director of infectious disease epidemiology.
The 63rd Grammys will be postponed from their scheduled date of Jan. 31 due to safety concerns amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic. After news of the postponement broke in Rolling Stone, the Recording Academy confirmed a new date: March 14. In a joint statement, the Recording Academy’s leaders and the awards ceremony producer said: After…
Every time there’s mural news in Minneapolis, Prince fans panic. “They’re not painting over that mural, are they?” No, they’re not…but your days to pose for a photo with the music-stave mural are now numbered. The Star Tribune reports that the downtown parking lot where Prince stood for that 1977 photo has been sold to a…
When Bob Dylan recently sold his publishing catalog for an estimated $300+ million, or when Stevie Nicks sold hers for a reported $100 million, some fans might have thought it strange that Prince’s entire estate, including all his rights to music compositions and recordings, totaled only $82.3 million in value. So did the I.R.S. The…
British-American rapper MF Doom, one of the most respected and innovative hip-hop stylists of his generation, has died at age 49. In a statement from his wife Jasmine shared on the artist’s social media channels, she wrote that the man born Daniel Dumile in London “transitioned October 31, 2020.” A cause of death has not…
That’s right, sports fans, the Grammys are on this year — and they’re happening in just a month! Here’s what you need to know about “music’s biggest night”…in COVID time. When are the Grammys happening? January 31, “rain or shine” says the official website with a straight face. The main awards ceremony airs at 7 p.m.…
From penetrating biographies to fascinating time capsules to icons' memoirs, 2020 had no shortage of fantastic books about music. Jay Gabler picks the top ten.
Earlier this month, the Minnesota Department of Health put out a report that says drug overdose deaths increased 31% during the first half of 2020, as compared to the first half of 2019. Substance use disorders can affect anyone, but they are preventable and can be treated. It's okay to need help.
A year and a half after the death of Tony Glover, fans of the legendary Minneapolis blues scene have bade farewell to another harpist often seen on West Bank stages. The Star Tribune reports that Tom Burns succumbed to lung and heart disease on Nov. 23 at age 67. “He was a true blues man,”…
There's never a bad time to learn more about legendary singer Darlene Love, but Christmas might be the most apt time. This week, Jay revisits the 1998 memoir by the artist who performed the most critically-acclaimed holiday song of all time - and many, many more hits, both as lead and as a backing vocalist.