Miss Grit Shares New Song “Northing’s Wrong”

Feb 07, 2023 Mark Redfern

Miss Grit (aka Margaret Sohn, who uses they/she pronouns) are releasing their debut album, Follow the Cyborg, on February 24 via Mute. Now they have shared the album’s fourth single, “Nothing’s Wrong.”

The Kinginging: Politics Editor Steve King Interviews Former Congressman Steve King of Iowa

Feb 07, 2023

Shep Smith once said, “Politics is weird… And creepy… And now, I know, lacks even the loosest attachment to anything like reality.” Well, get ready to go down the damn rabbit hole, baby! You need a little background on this one. This whole thing is a bit much.

Basketball Legend Craig Hodges on Phil Jackson, Kyrie Irving, and Life After the NBA

Feb 02, 2023 Web Exclusive

Today, it’s widely acknowledged that the National Basketball Association (the NBA) is the most star-studded sports league in America, if not the world. From Julius “Dr. J” Erving to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Stephen Curry, the league is a veritable hotbed for big names. But one name many NBA fans—especially those now under, say, 30-years-old—who may not be as widely known is Craig Hodges.

Italia 90 On “Living Human Treasure”

Jan 31, 2023 Web Exclusive

Italia 90 discuss their debut album “Living Human Treasure” and much more besides.

Under the Radar’s Top 100 Albums of 2022 Part 1

Dec 23, 2022

Are things back to normal in 2022? They are, aren’t they? Well not quite. In the past year we eased out of the pandemic, but COVID-19 is still around and still deadly to some (just look at what’s happening in China, now that their long national lockdown has lifted). The pandemic door has been left ajar, rather than fully closed. We put the chaos for the Trump administration in the rearview only for us to relive it via the very necessary January 6th Commission and the specter of the former president running again in 2024 (if he’s not barred from doing so or even in jail). And while Biden’s administration has been fairly steady and helped lead the Democrats to an unexpectedly strong showing in the midterm elections, over in the UK chaos has reigned with no less than three different prime ministers in one year (Liz Truss being the shortest serving prime ministers in British history), the death of the Queen, strikes across the country, and a recent poll having a majority of Brits admitting that Brexit was a mistake.

Those of us who grew up during the tale end of the Cold War and the beginning of perestroika have not been totally surprised that Russia has become a major adversary to the West again in the last decade, but it was still shocking when Russian President Vladimir Putin followed through with his threats to invade Ukraine. On top of the terrible toll on the Ukrainian people and its extraordinary President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the war has destabilized financial markets worldwide and helped lead to massive inflation, with all this talk from financial experts of a possible recession next year seemingly willing such a thing into existence.

After the last few years of the pandemic and all the political upheaval worldwide, the massive right and left divisions in this country and in others, it leaves one wondering if the events of every single year felt this monumental to our younger selves and to our ancestors. Certainly there have been other eras of even greater turmoil (World War II, the 1960s), but will things ever feel truly normal again?

Musicians continued to find their footing in 2022, with live shows and festivals pretty much back to normal and free of major COVID restrictions. Still, many musicians were finding it more expensive than ever to tour this year, in large part because of inflation, but also because of the unfair financial cuts some venues were taking of merchandise sales. With it being hard for indie artists to make much money from streaming or record sales in recent years, this year touring also became a less reliable source of income, with bands such as Animal Collective cancelling whole tours because they knew they’d lose money. 2022 also saw a slew of albums written and recorded during the pandemic, with some lyrics betraying their lockdown inspiration. Ben Gibbard, for example, sang about missing strangers on Death Cab For Cutie’s return-to-form, Asphalt Meadows, a lyric likely written at a time when interacting with strangers could prove deadly.

Asphalt Meadows lands at #12 on Under the Radar’s Top 100 Albums of 2022 list. Prior to June 2021, we had never even heard of the band that made it to #1 on our list, so meteoric was their rise. The rest of the list is filled with some familiar faces to be sure, but some other debut albums are peppered throughout our Top 100. To arrive at such a list, 23 of our writers and editors (including myself and my co-publisher/wife Wendy Redfern) submitted ballots of their 45 favorite albums of 2022, listed in order of preference from first to last. They were submitted via a Google Sheets spreadsheet that helped tabulate the eventual list. An album had to be picked by at least three or four writers to make the list (19 of our writers had our #1 album on their list and it was the clear winner of the vote, getting 100 more points than our #2). Then we worked out the Top 94 albums and held a separate vote to determine which albums should round out the bottom six, with our writers deciding between 21 albums that could make the bottom of the list. Some albums that almost made the list include (in no particular order) ones by GIFT, Tomberlin, Crack Cloud, Broken Bells, Skullcrusher, Sam Prekop and John McEntire, Just Mustard, Florence + The Machine, Warpaint, Cheekface, The Weeknd, Maggie Rogers, Craig Finn, The Orielles, and My Idea. Consider those honorable mentions.

As the next year dawns, I’ve already heard some January to March albums that will surely make our Top 100 Albums of 2023 list. It’s already shaping up to be another great year for new music. But it’s been exhausting living through history, so can 2023 please just be a boring year?

Editors, The KVB @ Rock City, Nottingham, UK, 25th January, 2023

Jan 29, 2023 By Dom Gourlay

Editors wow a sold out Nottingham Rock City on the first night of their 2023 tour.

Sundance 2023: Five More Films to Check Out

Feb 06, 2023 By Kaveh Jalinous

Here are some additional films worth checking out, as selected by Kaveh Jalinous, UTR’s critic who covered the festival beyond the many we’ve already profiled.