Album Reviews

Sonic Youth
In/Out/In
May 18, 2022 Web Exclusive
The first “new” Sonic Youth material since 2009’s swan song The Eternal and their subsequent 2011 breakup isn’t exactly new material.

Tank and the Bangas
Red Balloon
May 17, 2022 Web Exclusive
“Minimalism” is not a word typically associated with New Orleans. Just the city’s name evokes color and heat, brassy music playing from every street corner. From music to food to funerals, New Orleans does it big. So it’s no surprise that when a NOLA-bred group breaks into public consciousness, they go all in.

Papercuts
Past Life Regression
May 17, 2022 Web Exclusive
Papercuts is a solo venture by multi-talented San Francisco songwriter/producer Jason Quever that has been in existence since 2004, if not earlier, but flying mostly under the radar as far as any broad exposure outside the indie world is concerned.
News

Angel Olsen Shares New Single “Through the Fires”
May 18, 2022
Angel Olsen has shared a lyric video for her new single, “Through the Fires.” It is the latest release from her forthcoming album, Big Time, which will be out on June 3 via Jagjaguwar.
Interviews

The War on Drugs on “I Don’t Live Here Anymore”
May 17, 2022
In the spring of 2018, The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel was experiencing one of those rare moments when a person’s professional and personal lives both reach their pinnacle. Having completed a grueling tour with 2017’s A Deeper Understanding, the band’s fourth release that would win a Grammy for Best Rock Album and sell over 200,000 copies, he had somehow cracked the code of making classic rock cool for indie kids.

Tank and the Bangas on “Red Balloon”
May 12, 2022 Web Exclusive
On a Spring day in early April, Tarriona “Tank” Ball of the New Orleans funk-soul group, Tank and the Bangas, is driving to get some lunch. The night before, Ball was joined by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for a rendition of the National Anthem at the NCAA Men’s Basketball final between Kansas and North Carolina. “Right after the game, we went straight to the bowling alley to celebrate the birthday of one of the Bangas, Norman [Spence II],” says Ball. “And now we gotta go home and pack for California.”
Pleased to meet you

W.H. Lung on “Vanities”
May 05, 2022 Issue #69 - 20th Anniversary Issue
Formed around five years ago by vocalist Joe Evans and guitarist Tom Sharkett after playing in various bands together beforehand, Manchester-via-Leeds collective W.H. Lung are the sound of the future dressed as now.
Lists

Ranked: The 15 Best Wilco Songs to Date
Apr 11, 2022
Wilco is an institution. “The American Radiohead.” Bigger than Jesus, etc. They would reasonably be one of the first bands inducted into the indie rock hall of fame, were it to exist. And the iconic artwork of their masterful 2001 release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot—featuring the imposing twin towers of Chicago’s Marina City—is recognized by even the vaguest of acquaintances.
Led by the husky-voiced Jeff Tweedy, and with bassist John Stirratt in the sidecar from day one, the band has released 11 studio albums, including the scruffy alt-country of their post-Uncle Tupelo debut, three collaborations with Billy Bragg, and the shiny drug pop of Summerteeth. Since 2007’s Sky Blue Sky, though, Tweedy and friends have settled into a comfortable groove, tinkering in the Wilco Loft—their accoutrement-filled Chicago HQ—and continuing to release solid though less ambitious work. Their influence on the modern potpourri of indie/alternative/folk pop is pervasive. (Courtney Barnett’s laidback witticisms and Parquet Courts’ anti-Americana are at least partially indebted.)
Wilco recently announced an exclusive series of shows to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. In honor of the album’s birthday, Under the Radar looks back at the band’s catalogue to rank the best of the best. See you on the other side, via Chicago. By Hayden Merrick
Live reviews

Jack White at the Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA on April 23, 2022
May 16, 2022
With rock artists making up a minority of major acts presently on the road playing larger venues, Jack White arrived in Portsmouth as a rock & roll torchbearer.
Blog

The Rolling Stones – Reflecting on the 50th Anniversary of “Exile on Main St.”
May 12, 2022
Nearly two years in the making, The Rolling Stones’ sprawling double LP Exile on Main St. was greeted with mixed reviews upon its release, Rolling Stone’s Lenny Kaye lamenting, “The great Stones album of their mature period is yet to come.” Indeed, the album felt to some like a backward stumble, rather than the great leap forward anticipated in the wake of the previous year’s masterful Sticky Fingers.
Cinema Reviews

White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch
Apr 26, 2022 Web Exclusive
An epigraph attributed to Adolph Hitler at the beginning of Bret Easton Ellis’ 1998-published novel Glamorama reads, “You make a mistake if you see what we do as merely political.” This line is especially haunting not only within the context of the book—a scathing satire of the fashion industry and political stage, in which a vapid male model is recruited into a particularly brutal global terrorist ring consisting of his colleagues—but also that of director Alison Klayman’s intriguing documentary White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch.
DVD Reviews

Times Square
Studio: Kino Lorber Studio Classics
May 18, 2022 Web Exclusive
There’s a disjointed quality to Times Square (1980), which has a great soundtrack and charming performances, but never fully gels.
Television Reviews

Hacks (Season Two)
HBO Max, May 12, 2022
May 11, 2022 Web Exclusive
The multiple-award-winning comedy with brilliant writing and flawless cast picks up right where it left off in its second season without missing a comedic beat.