Music In Minnesota

You scan your ticket, head into the club for the show you’ve been waiting months to see, and there it is. I’m not talking about the amps or the roadies. I mean the worn oriental rug on the stage, with amp cords snaking across the fringe. It’s such a familiar sight that most of us never wonder why it’s there. It turns out the stage rug has a real history, a real job to do, and...

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong returned to the First Avenue Mainroom for the first time in three decades. Performing under his little-known side project Pinhead Gunpowder, the evening marked the beginning of the group’s tour and first performance outside of the East Coast.

Formed in 1991, Pinhead Gunpowder features Armstrong on guitar and vocals, Green Day gui...

Geek rock founding fathers They Might Be Giants took over the Twin Cities for a four-night residency at First Avenue and The Fitzgerald Theater. Selling out all four shows, each set dug deep into their extensive discography of over three d...

For artists, Spotify playlist pitching is one of the fastest ways to build traction on your song, but it can also be a massive money pit if you don’t know what you’re paying for. Between varying prices, vague stream projections, and playlist quality, picking the right pitching service can be confusing.

For independent artists, music marketing usually comes down to ...

The last time we spoke to legendary producer/bassist/executive Don Was, He was just about to play his first shows with his talented then-new band The Pan-Detroit Ensemble. At the time, he expressed trem...