Mar 08, 2010
By Frank Valish
Web Exclusive
After having graced U.S. shores with a (very) short tour in the fall, Swedish four-piece The Mary Onettes are primed and ready to bring their particular brand of lush, '80s-inflected pop music to the States once again this spring. The band will be working off its latest album, Islands, it's second with Swedish indie record label Labrador. The album may be the band's best to date, inspired largely by the loss of several important people in singer/songwriter Philip Ekström's life prior to and during the writing process. Ekström speaks with Under the Radar, sharing some of the hardships that came with Islands and discussing what is ultimately a triumph of spirit in music. More
Mar 07, 2010
By Matt Fink
Fall 2006 - The Decemberists
Though the stigma seems to be lifting-as producers such as Pharrell can make any former teenybopper sound forward thinking and innovative-making pop music can still be a frightening proposition for artists who are ingrained with the mindset that all good music must be difficult to be substantial. For Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous, this mindset produces an impulse to apologize for making a record that can be enjoyed on first listen, one that doesn't require any of the details of his rise to fame as a critically adored but deeply troubled artist More
Mar 05, 2010
By Aaron Passman
Web Exclusive
When it came time to craft their latest record, the members of Philadelphia quintet Dr. Dog were shooting for something different. Rather than lay down their latest batch of Beach Boys- and Beatles-inspired psych-pop themselves, as they'd done in the past, singer/guitarist Scott McMicken says the group decided to experiment with outside production. "The studio craft side of it has been as much what we're about as any other thing," says McMicken. More
Feb 19, 2010
By Laura Leebove
Web Exclusive
Simon Balthazar, frontman of the orchestral pop group Fanfarlo, grew up surrounded by instruments. And although he learned how to play the piano, guitar, drums and mandolin early on, it wasn't until he was about 17 that he figured out a way to effectively use them: first to play other people's songs, then to write his own More
Feb 11, 2010
By Chris Tinkham
Web Exclusive
In making North Face (Nordwand), an adventure film about alpinists ascending the most dangerous rock face in the Alps, German writer/director Philipp Stölzl and cinematographer Kolja Brandt disregarded such Hollywood films as Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit and aimed instead for the authenticity of the documentary/reenactment film Touching the Void. More
Jan 22, 2010
By Laura Studarus
Web Exclusive
"We're a bunch of idiots! We definitely mix that into what we do because that's who we are," confesses Clare and the Reasons' frontwoman Clare Muldaur. "We take the music we do very very, very seriously, but we don't take ourselves that seriously." More
Jan 14, 2010
By Laura Leebove
Web Exclusive
Since its 2005 Columbia debut Thunder, Lightning, Strike!, The Go! Team has built up a reputation for super-energetic vocalist Ninja's chants mixed with samples compiled by frontman Ian Parton. 2007's Proof of Youth (Sub Pop) found the British band taking a more melodic approach, and the still-to-be-named third LP, which Parton says will likely be out sometime in the spring, is headed in the same direction. More
Jan 13, 2010
By Chris Tinkham
Web Exclusive
In the British film In the Loop, out this week on DVD and Blu-ray, Scottish actor Peter Capaldi plays Malcolm Tucker, an intimidating, acid-tongued communications chief to the Prime Minister. When a flaky government minister claims during a radio interview that war with the Middle East is "unforeseeable," Tucker runs rampant amid the crisis, cussing out various government types while trying to administer damage control. "You should feel sorry for my mother," says Capaldi, "because she gets to come to the premiere of the movie with her son in it and sees him up on screen talking about lubricated horse cocks." More
Jan 08, 2010
By Chris Tinkham
Web Exclusive
In Wonderful World, Matthew Broderick plays Ben Singer, a former children's folk singer whose staunch idealism has led him down a dark path to disappointment and despondency. More
Jan 03, 2010
By Frank Valish
Web Exclusive
When Under the Radar was doing research for the retrospective on Swedish music of the 2000s that is featured in our Year-End issue, we stumbled upon the juicy tidbit of information that Gothenburg's Love Is All was back in the studio recording. And when we spoke to singer/songwriter Josephine Olausson for said retrospective, we found out that the album was already finished. Graciously, and without being given prior warning, Olausson agreed to give Under the Radar the scoop on the band's forthcoming, as-yet-untitled album. Album number three is scheduled for Spring 2010. More
