Spring Jam, the University of Minnesota’s annual festival that takes place every April, featured a variety of activities, with a special emphasis on the event’s live music. The festival had multiple food trucks, fair rides and carnival games, along with several live performers ranging from national music acts to new student bands. Battle of the Bands The night kicked off with the five Battle of the Bands finalists who made it past the preliminary rounds held in February: Emily and the Space Butterflies, My Buddy Eric, The Gentlebrass, Honey Tree and Call Me Fritz. The headliners started at 7:1 ..read more

Record Store Day took place on Saturday, causing music fans and supporters of local businesses to come together and celebrate the physical medium of sound.  Record stores around Minneapolis offered limited edition vinyls and free concerts in order to commemorate the day. This yearly event honors the diverse range of sounds contained on vinyl records and acts as a focal point for community support of independent record shops and artists. “The day has become this national holiday for the music business. I didn’t realize how big Record Store Day was as far as the impact it has. It gets peopl ..read more

Taylor Swift’s new double album “The Tortured Poets Department” shows Swift singing eloquent, illustrative lyrics all about a break-up over compelling instrumentals, yet the album is slightly long-winded with a tracklist of 31 songs. Swift gave her fans two album re-recordings last year. Now, with a new double album released Thursday night, Swift is truly keeping her fans fed — especially those who are into breakup ballads. Swift’s newest album seems to be a victory lap after breaking Ticketmaster, selling out stadiums around the world, sweeping at this year’s Grammys and going on the mega-suc ..read more

Hot off the release of a new album, and a positive review from Pitchfork to boot, the growing hype around Minneapolis band Vial is seemingly unending. The indie-punk trio, composed of Katie Fischer (drums), Taylor Kraemer (bass) and KT Branscom (guitar), have been making music together since 2019 and have since gained a national following. Their sophomore album “burnout,” released on March 29, is a short but sweet punk record with a runtime of 19 minutes spread over 10 tracks. After kicking off the tour with an album release show at the Whole Music Club April 6, Vial is touring the U.S. in sup ..read more

Fall Out Boy closed out the So Much For (2our) Dust Tour with a fiery sold-out performance that captured my emo heart at Target Center on Saturday.  The performances were solid from beginning to end and the crowd maintained high energy the whole show. Fall Out Boy may have been the main event, but the bands before them and their audience could not go unnoticed.  The concert opened with Carr, whose lead singer Carly McClellan is set to be the next pop punk princess. She recently signed with DCD2 Records, founded by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. Carr was in a tutu and platform boots with ..read more

For her sixth solo studio album, Plymouth, Minnesota-raised indie folk artist Adrianne Lenker did what she does best: create an intimate musical space that makes room for haunting heartache, warm tenderness and all of the messy things in between — and recorded all of it in the forest. “Bright Future,” which came out on March 22, is a nearly 45-minute tribute to the beauty and love that comes from spontaneous creativity. In an Instagram post the day the album came out, Lenker explained how it grew out of sessions between her and her friend Philip Weinrobe in Oct. 2022. The pair were later joine ..read more

With their eleventh studio album “Little Rope” fresh in the minds of fans, Sleater-Kinney returned to St. Paul’s Palace Theatre Saturday with an enthusiastic crowd for a blistering 90-minute set. On a cold day with a dreadful amount of snow looming, an hour before doors were set to open there were roughly just a dozen people in line. Half an hour later, the line became huge, presumably because of fans wanting to beat the cold. Tim Riebel, age 42, got in line early and made it to the barricade.  “I’ve seen them on every tour starting with ‘Dig Me Out’ to ‘The Woods,’” Riebel said. “This is ..read more

“Cozy,” the new EP by up-and-coming indie-pop musician Colin Bracewell released last Thursday and featured in a packed music release show at Fine Line, is some of the band’s best work yet. Clocking in at just over 10 minutes, the four-track EP covers a lot of ground, with an equal mix of slow and fast songs that tackle relatable topics like love and growing up. The EP kicks off with the title track, “Cozy,” an upbeat, more rock-influenced track that is just plain fun. While simple in its approach, the main chorus, “You got me feeling m-m-m, m-m-m, cozy, cozy” is an earworm and was stuck in my ..read more

Electronic musician Four Tet released a new album “Three” on Friday, which sticks to Four Tet’s style of ambient synths over rhythmic drums.  Four Tet is the solo project of English producer Kieran Hebden, who has been making music under the name since 1995. Recently, Hebden has frequently collaborated with the likes of Skrillex and Fred Again, along with playing a set at Coachella with them last year.  “Four Tet’s newest album offers a soft, floaty, dreamy experience that can be hypnotizing at times until interrupted by moments of organic drums, guitar and modern house music,” said ..read more

Nearly a year after releasing her sophomore LP “My Soft Machine,” rising singer-songwriter Arlo Parks headlined an all-ages show at First Avenue’s Mainroom for the first time on Friday. After opening for Clairo and Billie Eilish in 2022 and collaborating with Phoebe Bridgers on a track for Parks’ last album, Parks continues to prove that she is a force to be reckoned with as an artist. With a backdrop of a studio-sized tape recorder and three vibrant backing musicians, Parks’ live set-up aimed to create the feeling of listening to a great band live in the studio. On the studio recordings, many ..read more