Oscar-Winning Composer Vangelis Dies at 79

May 19, 2022 Joey Arnone

Vangelis, composer of films such as Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, passed away on May 17 at the age of 79. A cause of death was not reported, but the Greek newspaper OT reported that he was being treated for COVID-19 at the hospital in France where he passed away.

My Firsts: Jonathan Higgs of Everything Everything

May 19, 2022

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.). For this My Firsts we talk to Jonathan Higgs, frontman of British art-rockers Everything Everything.

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.

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.

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

Jack White at the Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA on April 23, 2022

May 16, 2022 By Hays Davis

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.

The Rolling Stones – Reflecting on the 50th Anniversary of “Exile on Main St.”

May 12, 2022 By Austin Saalman

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.