Jun 16, 2009 By Frank Valish Web Exclusive

With Mama, I'm Swollen, Cursive has written the most polarizing album of their career. The band's sixth album overall follows the vicious, raving song cycle about religion and angst that was 2006's Happy Hollow, and its predecessor, the widely lauded masterpiece, 2003's The Ugly Organ. But unlike those two works, this album has drawn both praise and critical disdain. Despite featuring some of songwriter/vocalist Tim Kasher's most personal lyrics involving themes of growing older and confronting the realities of adulthood, it remains an album on which many fans and critics are split. Under the Radar caught up with Tim Kasher on day seven of what seems like a nonstop spring and summer tour to talk about fans, critics, Mama, and how to remain vibrant in an industry that forever compares artists with their most recognizable work. More

Jun 03, 2009 By Lily Moayeri Web Exclusive

Listening to any of the endless dance-floor-oriented hits from Pet Shop Boys in their 13-year-long career, you would think the duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have nothing but disco balls on their mind. But the two, who have just released their tenth studio album, Yes, have a lot more running through their brains. Starting their musical career in the mid-'80s, Pet Shop Boys have been through the boom of that decade, through the changeable '90s, and are now closing out the doom-filled '00s with not a lot changing in their songwriting process. More

Jun 02, 2009 By Kyle Lemmon Web Exclusive

Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn grew up surrounded by nature. The indie-pop songwriter is used to observing the Ying and Yang in life, after coexisting on a farm community in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, surrounded by her strong Protestant mother and aunts, and the warm Jewish culture on her father's side. After attending college in Olympia, Washington's Evergreen State College, she began experimenting on her 4-track recorder the sounds that would eventually become her debut album You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This. At the same time, her longstanding collaboration with the lo-fi production wizard Phil Elverum, of The Microphones and Mt. Eerie fame, began. Mirah talked with us about the implications of her new project on her general outlook, how she was sheltered from the pervasiveness of what she calls "dude rock," the counsel she would give President Obama if she was in his advisory committee, and the story behind (a)spera's curious extraterrestrial cover. More

May 19, 2009 By Tom Vale Web Exclusive

We've all been there: you're the frontman for a popular indie rock act, but you leave your beloved home state of Texas to pursue a PhD in Biochemistry at Columbia. Ok, maybe we haven't all been there, but that's where The American Analog Set's Andrew Kenny has been, and now he's back, a in Texas and on the indie music scene, with Magnolia, the debut release from his new band, The Wooden Birds. More

May 15, 2009 By Mark Redfern Web Exclusive

"It's like a magical, unreal, heavenly land, isn't it?," observes Los Campesinos! violinist Harriet about the Coachella music festival. The Welsh band is hanging out backstage at the festival in the California desert a few hours before their energetic performance later that afternoon. Los Campesinos! released their first two albums, Hold on Now, Youngster and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, in 2008. The band has been recording their third album in Connecticut, but took a break for a short U.S. tour, including their Coachella appearance. We spoke to Harriet and drummer Ollie as they spilled the beans on what to expect from their next album, which is due out next year. More

May 12, 2009 By Kyle Lemmon Web Exclusive

Pseudologia, fantastica, or mythomania, is the scientific term for pathological lying, but the clinical jargon can also uncoil plenty of meanings in the imaginative realm of pop music. What comes out of the jukebox and the music halls are often enchanting twists of the truth. For Cryptacize singer Nedelle Torrisi, guitarist Chris Cohen (former Deerhoof member), drummer Michael Carreira, and new bassist Aaron Olson, the term is inverted and warped by Torrisi and Cohen's sped-up and indolent guitar and organ figures and the jerky rhythms of the quartet's new tempo duo. The Oakland band's Asthmatic Kitty 2008 debut (Dig That Treasure) gave fans of quirky pop a gem to unearth and the aptly-titled Mythomania continues the trend. As the group prepared for a European and U.S. tour that will take them well into the summer months, several members of Cryptacize spoke at length about the concept of their new album, the gift and slight embarrassment of encouraging parents, the Bay Area music community, and the Brazilian drumming style called 'Maracatu.' More

Apr 30, 2009 By Mike Hilleary Web Exclusive

Death Cab for Cutie is currently on the road alongside Ra Ra Riot and Matt Costa (with Cold War Kids as the opener during the first half of the tour). While on tour Death Cab's vocalist Ben Gibbard doesn't do much with his available free time. The things he does do, however, he commits to with consuming sincerity. Aside from raiding the inventory of numerous cities' record shops, with the new season of Major League Baseball starting up, Gibbard has been living in a state of nine-inning increments: watching games, checking the latest stats, and listening to all kinds of sports commentary. He's even managed to get out to an actual ballpark, recently catching the Twins face off against the Blue Jays in Minneapolis. More

Apr 28, 2009 By Chris Drabick Web Exclusive

Isaac Edwards and Michael Tapscott, the principles and mainstays of Odawas, have succumbed to their wanderlust. Relocating to the West Coast, the band now makes the Bay Area their home base. It is from there that the duo discussed their latest record, the downright oceanic The Blue Depths, their third full-length for Bloomington, Indiana's Jagjaguwar Records (Bloomington was once also home to Odawas). Edwards and Tapscott touch on all their influences, from the obvious (Brian Eno), to the less obvious (Eric Serra) to the, err, completely unpredictable (Arrested Development). More

Apr 25, 2009 By Tom Vale Web Exclusive

Onstage at Club De Ville at this year's SXSW, time finally ran out. "Well, goddamnit, Austin, we have to go," said Matthew Houck, singer/songwriter and organizing Beard Number One of the multibearded monster that is Phosphorescent. His joy was slightly dented by the news, but he recovered quickly ("we're not going to pout. Well, we might pout a little"). Then he brought the show to its slightly premature close with a raucous, freewheeling version of-what else?-"The Party's Over": "Let's call it a night/The party's over/You know that all good things must end." More