Cursive launched their U.S. tour Wednesday night at Minneapolis' Triple Rock Social Club, returning to the stage for the first time in seven months. Along with classic tunes, the Omaha band debuted five new songs off their upcoming album, Mama, I'm Swollen, which they recently completed with producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, the Faint, Rilo Kiley) for release this spring.

"Tuesday. You gotta fuckin' vote," Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock told a sold-out crowd at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, MN, Saturday night, where the New York hip-hop act -- along with Tenacious D and Ben Harper -- played the second to last show of the Get Out and Vote '08 Tour.

Last night at St. Paul, MN's Xcel Energy Center, Neil Young kicked off his North American tour with a solid opening lineup that demonstrated the contemporary influence of his storied catalogue -- and breathed new vitality into songs more than three decades old.

What? The Hold Steady are consummate rock'n'roll storytellers, and the band's newest record, Stay Positive, out stateside via Vagrant July 15, proves once again the quintet won't disappear any time soon.

Making their entrance by weaving through the crowd to the stage, L.A. noise rockers the Mae Shi brought their loud, spastic, and over-reactive sound to Minneapolis’ Uptown Bar last night (July 7th). The set's second song, “I Get (Almost) Everything I Want,” was barebones instrumentally but full of cathartic harmonies and buoyed by a powerful chorus.

Tuesday night's (May 13) crowd at Minneapolis' 7th Street Entry was packed in like sardines for this long-awaited and much-anticipated showing by elusive Liverpool-based psychedelic garage-rockers Clinic.