El-P and his Def Jux monolith hovered over Minneapolis several weeks ago. But underground hip hop has felt this looming presence for more than a year. Since mid-2001, when El-P introduced Cannibal Ox to...

The life of Beck Hansen reads like a tall tale and could very well be remembered as one. The story of his adventures will be passed down from generation to generation, like those of Paul Bunyan and Johnny...

The Rakes are a band that likes to play rock music, drink beer and play loud. And that's about as interesting as they get. Not to say that the Rakes are a bad band, because they aren't. It is just they...

It is a fine example of the illogic of the music industry machine that 93X talked up the fuzz-box rock of California's Queens of the Stone Age for weeks prior to their show, yet rarely if ever played them....

There is plenty of the usual, boring background stuff that Erik Appelwick is sick of talking about. But there are also plenty of Minnesotans who don't know his music. Once he was convinced that the basic...

Lately I've been mulling over this relevant Jimi Hendrix quote: "Blues is a part of America. When music goes too far out and is in danger of becoming a technique, people always come back to basic honesty...