When it comes to techno music, few, if any, names loom as large as that of Carl Craig. Alongside several peers from his native Detroit, Craig is considered one of techno’s pioneers, but one would be hard-pressed to name an electronic musician of any kind who can match the sheer volume and breadth of Craig’s […]
Kimbra gets Prince. Since buying Musicology in a New Zealand record store, she’s released three of her own shape-shifting albums, including today’s Primal Heart. But she’s never lost sight of principles she learned from Prince — especially evolution, duality, and joy. You know her from “Somebody That I Used To Know,” the song that sent her and Gotye to […]
On the night that Prince and the Revolution were recording their historic August 3, 1983 concert at First Avenue — where the band would debut “Purple Rain” — the studio technician Susan Rogers was celebrating her 27th birthday and packing up her life in Los Angeles to move to Minneapolis, where she would spend the […]
Whenever reporters talk to John Maus, they tend to end up writing a lot about the way John Maus talks. Some phrases and sentences that have been used to describe him in conversation include “maddeningly referential,” “circular,” “nonlinear tangents abound,” and “It is not easy to talk to John Maus.” The very first sentence of […]
The story of Prince on keyboards is also the story of how technology routed his music — and all pop music — in the ’80s. Manning a bank of synths in his trademark surgical scrubs, “Dr.” Matt Fink wasn’t Prince’s longest-running keyboardist (Morris Hayes played with the NPG for 20 years), but Fink’s dozen years, […]
When you think about the Minneapolis Sound, synths and drum machines probably jump to mind before you think of bass. Possibly the best-known thing Prince ever did regarding bass guitar was to leave it out of one of his most iconic hits: “When Doves Cry.” As BrownMark explains, though, there was a reason that song […]
Though Prince’s use of drum machines—in particular, the LM-1, designed by Roger Linn—was a major part of his singular sound, he could also play serious grooves in a wide array behind a real-deal drum kit. Prince began drumming at age 12. “I learned on a big box of newspapers,” he told Modern Drummer in 2001. […]
Earlier this month, the longtime promoter, manager, advertising executive, and musician Owen Husney released his long-in-the-works memoir Famous People Who’ve Met Me. Owen is best known in the Prince universe for his role as Prince’s first manager — specifically, the one that was at Prince’s side helping to negotiate his historic three-album deal with Warner Bros. […]
When you think of artists who might cover pop star Olivia Newton-John, alt-rock luminary Juliana Hatfield probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind. When you hear Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, though, it all makes beautiful sense. Hatfield spoke with me by phone about her joyful new album, which is out today. I understand […]
This Friday and Saturday, the annual Minnesota Music Summit returns with a timely new theme: “Amplifying Our Voices,” a two-day series of events at St. Catherine University that seeks to elevate women and nonbinary artists in the music community. The headliner for this year’s summit is the revered Portland songwriter Laura Viers, who will deliver […]
