The Current Music Blog

3 Songs for someone new to The Twin Cities!

2009-11-10T19:15:57Z

Jason Henderson, who recently moved to Plymouth, MN picked today's My 3 Songs set because... "I am new to the area and love The Current! I picked these songs cause they're great and I know you've got them! Mason Jennings is so awesome and his new album is amazing! When it comes to the Beatles its so hard to find just one good song, they are all good! Regina Spektor is goofy and wonderful all at once and I like her a lot!! " Mason Jennings - "Sunlight" Regina Spektor - (in-studio recording) "Blue Lips" The Beatles - "Don't Let Me Down" Make your "My 3 Songs" requests here.

Get Little Lovin' for free!

2009-11-10T17:52:24Z

Today on our Song Of The Day podcast we're featuring the Rock Island, Illinois native Lissie. You can grab the tune "Little Lovin'" for free! It's from her debut EP, Why You Runnin' which hit shelves today. Lissie will be opening for Ray LaMontagne Friday night at State Theater. If you're a new subscriber to the Song Of The Day podcast you will also receive new music from The XX, Total Babe, Mission of Burma and Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons.. Later this week we'll be featuring new music from The Heavy, The Hidden Camera and new local music from We Are The Willows.

Tuesday Coffee Break: Hats Off To Sesame Street!

2009-11-10T14:39:58Z

Sesame Street is 40 years old today, an anniversary you're probably aware of if you've been over to the Google lately. So in honor of this fine program that taught us, among other things, to count, we're doing counting songs for today's 9:30 Coffee Break. Specifically, songs that have counting in them (as opposed to just "count-offs" at the beginning). One, two, three ... go! Suggest 'em below, or here.

Today In Music History: Remember When Elton Rocked?

2009-11-10T12:40:13Z

Birthdays: Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake and Palmer is 62. Today in: 1976 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers began their first major tour, opening for Kiss. 1984 - Singer Chaka Khan was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'I Feel For You.' Written by Prince, the song featured Stevie Wonder on harmonica and the Rap was by Grandmaster Melle Mel. The repetition of Khan's name by rapper Melle Mel at the beginning of the song was originally a mistake made by producer Arif Mardin, who then decided to keep it. 1992 - A judge found Axl Rose guilty of assault and property damage in connection with a riot at a 1991 Guns N' Roses concert near St. Louis. Rose's sentence was suspended and he was put on probation. Rose also was ordered to pay $10,000 each to five charities. History highlight: Today in 1973, Elton John started a eight week run at No.1 on the Billboard album chart with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, his third No.1 album. A double LP that was John's most ambitious and sprawling work to date, it contained such hits as "Bennie and the Jets," "Candle In The Wind" and the soft-rock smash title track, as well as what was likely John's one and only true rocker: "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting." It's a testament to the power of the original version that even though others have covered the song (such as The Who on the Elton John tribute record Two Rooms), the Elton original still rocks the hardest.

Fresh Eye on the Radio: Tombstone Texting

2009-11-09T23:23:37Z

The Soviet Union's "father of the hydrogen bomb" has died, which naturally led to the obvious question on today's news discussion with Mary Lucia and Bob Collins: What if headstones were written like text messages? Listen to the segment and submit your entry here.

3 Songs that make Charles happy!

2009-11-09T18:58:20Z

Carles Helgesen from Excelsior picked today's My 3 Songs set because... "I think they are awesome songs. They make me happy, even though two are kind of sad. It would be cool to hear them on the radio back to back to back." Radiohead - "Reckoner" MGMT - "Kids" Modest Mouse - "Fire It Up" Make your "My 3 Songs" requests here.

Get free XX content here!

2009-11-09T17:55:28Z

The XX are a quartet from South London who passed out free t-shirts at their Reading/Leeds festival appearance because they were so appreciative of the audience. Today on our Song Of The Day podcast you can grab a tune "Basic Space" for free! It's from their debut record, XX. Perhaps The XX will perform this one live when they play Triple Rock Social Club along with Friendly Fires on the 30th of this month. If you're a new subscriber to the Song Of The Day podcast you will also receive new music from Total Babe, Mission of Burma, Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons and GIRLS. Later this week we'll be featuring new music from Lissie, The Heavy, The Hidden Camera and new local music from We Are The Willows.

Monday Coffee Break: Break It Down, Mr. Gorbachev

2009-11-09T13:59:05Z

And guess what? He did. It was 20 years ago today that the Berlin Wall fell. Today for the 9:30 Coffee Break, there's only one topic that seems appropriate: freedom. Obviously, that's a broad topic and there are a lot of directions we can go with this. But as always, we're leaving the creativity to you. Suggest songs about freedom in general, or tunes that feel relevant to this specific historical event in particular. Leave your suggestions below, or here.

Today In Music History: See Ya, Dave

2009-11-09T12:08:43Z

Birthdays: Rapper Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa is 40. Lots of Beatles stuff today: 1953 - Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. He soon became the band's manager. 1966 - Paul McCartney supposedly was killed in a car crash, according to the "Paul is Dead" hoax that circulated in 1969. 1967 - Rolling Stone magazine began publication, with John Lennon on the first cover. And a non-Beatles item: Today in 1967, Roger McGuinn expelled David Crosby from The Byrds. McGuinn and Chris Hillman had become aggrivated by what they saw as Crosby's growing egotism and his attempts to control the band, not to mention his drug use and lengthy tirades onstage at such gigs as the Monterey Pop Festival (where he droned on about everything from the JFK assassination to the benefits of giving LSD to "every man, woman and child" in the country). Finally, his insistence that his song "Triad" (about the joys of a menage a trois) be included on an album proved too much for the others. "Eight Miles High" felt like an appropriate choice today given the widespread suspicion that it was a drug song ( it's not - McGuinn wrote it about a plane ride).

Fresh Eye on the Radio: Clues

2009-11-07T00:02:45Z

Clues always look obvious after the fact. Declining personal debt: Good or bad? The case of the stolen VW van. And babies who cry like their mothers. Those are among the week-end components of the daily discussion with Bob Collins and Mary Lucia.

Flyin' the Flannel

2009-11-06T18:07:36Z

It's been 20 years since the release of Nirvana's debut Bleach. Seriously. 20 Years. Anyway, we decided to celebrate this weekend with your chance to win a copy of the remastered/reissued version. Just listen and be the tenth caller all weekend. There's other reasons to listen as well: You'll hear music from bands like Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Babes in Toyland, Firehose, and more - as we're Flyin' the Flannel. So what do you think about the last 20 years?

Random Vinyl 11/2-11/6

2009-11-06T17:57:31Z

Monday: Emerson, Lake & Palmer, "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" (1971-US release) Keith Emerson plays the best Moog Synthesizer solo ever at the end of the Greg Lake penned tune, "Lucky Man." We even played it on Emerson's birthday. Tuesday: Rolling Stones, "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (1967) In response to The Beatles, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," The Rolling Stones went psychedelic with this record. The album cover even resembles "Sgt. Pepper's." We played "2000 Light Years From Home." If you have this LP, make sure to check out the crazy hidden track ("Cosmic Christmas") after "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)." It's a trip. All in all, The Stones do some really cool work on this record, but it's really the only time they would dive into the world of psychedelic rock. Wednesday: Roxy Music, "Flesh And Blood" (1980) By the time Roxy Music arrived at their penultimate record, they were already quite a distance from the pulsating urgency of "Do The Strand" and "Love Is The Drug" and sinking ever deeper into the late-night candelabra-vibe that would make their final album, "Avalon," one of the staples of early '80s New Romantic suave'. We played the single "Oh Yeah," and also a few seconds of the album's cover of "Eight Miles High," which is just bizarre. Thursday: Tammy Wynette, "Greatest Hits" (1969) The song "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" is almost a testament to what Tammy Wynette's soap opera life was. She experienced her share of heartache from her mother abandoning her, all her failed marriages (including her most famous marriage and divorce from George Jones), painkiller addiction and other health problems. She was known as the First Lady of Country Music, a title she wore well. Friday: Janis Joplin, "Pearl" (1971) Janis Joplin's untimely death due to a heroin overdose meant she would never see the release of this album. It was released a few months after she died. At the time of this record, she had the Full Tilt Boogie Band backing her up. An instrumental was included on the album and it's only an instrumental because Joplin died before she could record the vocals. It was called "Buried Alive in the Blues." Ironic?

Friday Coffee Break: Hidden Tracks

2009-11-06T14:44:49Z

(updated below) Step right up and lend us your requests for today's topic: hidden tracks is the subject of today's 9:30 Coffee Break. Examples can include CD or vinyl, or even tracks that became so popular that they became "un-hidden" on subsequent pressings of the album. Leave your suggestings below, or here. Update: Thanks for your suggestions, which covered a wide variey of hidden track types: 1) The Clash, "Train In Vain" 2) The Beatles, "Her Majesty" 3) R.E.M., "Superman" 4) The Rolling Stones, "Untitled (from Her Majesty's Satanic Request) 5) Green Day, "All By Myself" 6) Atmosphere, "Say Shhh..."

Today In Music History: What Would You Say If I Sang Out Of Tune?

2009-11-06T12:08:18Z

Birthdays: Glenn Frey of The Eagles is 61. Corey Glover of Living Colour is 45. Today in: 1967 - During a three hour session Bob Dylan recorded "All Along The Watchtower" and "John Wesley Harding" at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. 1970 - Aerosmith performed their first ever gig when they played at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts. 1973 - Singer Gram Parsons' manager, Phil Kaufman, was fined $300 for stealing Parsons' body from the Los Angeles International Airport. The body was cremated instead of being taken to Parsons' funeral. Kaufman claimed that it was Parsons' wish to be cremated. 1975 - The Sex Pistols played their first concert, at a London art school dance. Ten minutes into it, the school social programmer unplugged their amps. Music history highlight: Today in 1968, Joe Cocker was at No.1 in the UK singles chart with his version of The Beatles song "With A Little Help From My Friends". Cocker's rendition of this song became one of his signature tunes (not to mention a target for easy parody by the likes of John Belushi in his awesome Joe Cocker impersonation).

Collins and Lucia

2009-11-06T02:04:29Z

Good, nobody seems to be around. So I'm sneaking in here to tell you that the afternoon conversation between Mary Lucia and Bob Collins (me) is being posted online on MPR's News Cut. As humans, when we don't know the full details of a story, we fill in the blanks. Several stories in the news today provide an example. That's the subject of today's discussion, which you can find here.