September 30, 2004 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles St. Paul rap act Heiruspecs. MC Felix and Sean McPherson, members of the Midway neighborhood group, talk with Roberts about their CD “A Tiger Dancing” and structure and meaning of the songs on album.
August 20, 2004 - MPR’s Chris Roberts talks with Minneapolis singer-songwriter Mark Edwards about his CD "Rewind Tomorrow." Formally of The Domo Sound, Edwards now goes by the moniker The Original Mark Edwards.
July 15, 2004 - In 1998, the Minneapolis rock band Semisonic soared to international stardom on the wings of its smash single, "Closing Time." Three years later, the band was dropped from its record contract and left contemplating an uncertain future. Semisonic drummer Jacob Slichter has written a memoir retracing the band's beginnings, its meteoric rise to fame and fall from major label grace. The book is called "So You Wana Be a Rock and Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales From a Drummer's Life."
July 9, 2004 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles St. Paul musician Greg Paulus. In interview, Paulus discusses his music influences, his current jazz work, and goal of playing with the best musicians.
June 10, 2004 - MPR’s Chris Roberts talks with champion air guitarist Jonathan Maki, who shares a few ‘tricks of the trade’ in the art form. Maki is one of the seven finer practitioners in the area to gather at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis for the U.S. Air Guitar Regional Championships.
June 2, 2004 - Chris Roberts profiles Venus, a transgender musician and visual artist from Duluth. Roberts interviews the artist, spouse, and Twin Cities filmmaker who follows the band All the Pretty Horses in documentary “Venus of Mars.”
May 13, 2004 - Flyte Tyme, the hit producing Edina-based recording studio run by Jimmy Jam Harris and Terry Lewis, is relocating to Los Angeles. Roberts reports on how the news is being received in the Twin Cities, and the legacy Harris and Lewis are leaving.
May 6, 2004 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Coach Said Not To, a Minneapolis rock foursome that deliberately tries to defy categorization. Roberts interviews members Lee Violet and Eva Mohn about the thinking person's rock band.
March 26, 2004 - A new play at the Children's Theatre Company (CTC) portrays the tension and occasional conflict between Somali immigrants and Black-Americans. "Snapshot Silhouette" examines this cultural clash through the eyes of two 12-year-old girls, one Somali, one Black-American. One of the CTC's goals is to help launch a dialogue between the two communities in the Twin Cities. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
March 24, 2004 - MPR’s Chris Roberts interviews Honeydogs founder and songwriter Adam Levy about bands’ CD “10,000 Years," a concept album which tells a futuristic story while examining society's ills. Levy says the main inspiration came from his day job. He's a social worker in St. Paul.