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Issue #50

Issue #50 - June/July 2014 - Future Islands

May 23, 2014

Under the Radar is excited to announce the full details of the June/July issue, which is on newsstands now. It features Future Islands on the cover as well as interviews with Slow Club, Lykke Li, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Horrors, Slowdive, The War on Drugs vs. Sharon Van Etten, First Aid Kit, James McAvoy, John Slattery, tUnE-yArDs, and more.

COVER STORY

The issue features an in-depth eight-page cover story on Future Islands about life in a hard-touring band, being unafraid of wearing their hearts on their sleeve, and their Letterman performance that helped launch their new album, Singles. The interview was conducted by Laura Studarus and the band was photographed by Wendy Lynch Redfern.

“Whatever you want in this world, in this life, you have to work your ass off for it.” – Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands

“Life is filled with beautiful moments and really sad moments. That’s what it is. Sad moments are just more interesting.” – Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands

“We’ve always talked about the really, not necessarily sad, but longing quality for the music, while also having a dancey upbeat quality or vibe.” – William Cashion of Future Islands

“They have such an amazing grasp on pop music and of their performance. I’ve never not seen them crush it; every show over the past 10 years has killed.” – Dan Deacon on Future Islands

FASHION FORWARD

Our Fashion Forward section features a fashion shoot with Slow Club, photographed by Kate Garner in London.

“One night we put both [previous] records on just to see how we felt about them, and it was a huge learning curve.” – Charles Watson of Slow Club

“I can’t be cool. I can’t be quiet. I can’t be reserved in any way.” – Rebecca Taylor of Slow Club

DETECTION

The front-of-book Detection section and our Main Features section feature interviews with: The Antlers, First Aid Kit, Lykke Li, actor James McAvoy (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Filth), The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Ramona Lisa (Caroline Polachek of Chairlift), actor/director John Slattery (God’s Pocket, Mad Men), tUnE-yArDs, and Wye Oak.

“I think a lot of this record, for me, was about getting a better handle on myself, getting to know the past better.” – Peter Silberman of Antlers

“We realize it’s a pretty dark record.” – Johanna Söderberg of First Aid Kit

“I work from that tradition that you have a wound and you’re trying to heal yourself. So you put your wound into your art.” – Lykke Li

“We’ve all got our fucked-up-ness, and it was just very, very easy to take mine and to give it to Filth.” – James McAvoy

“Art exists because of the things that people can’t just say. Or say well in conversation.” – Kip Berman of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

“To me, Ramona Lisa is not a pseudonym, but a format.” – Caroline Polachek of Ramona Lisa

“[Mad Men has] been a fairytale of a job; it’s going to be tough to say goodbye to it.” – John Slattery

“This band was built on this premise of a one-woman show and ‘She can do it all herself.’ I really wanted that for a long time and I think it grew to a point of being absurd.” – Merrill Garbus of tUne-yArds

MAIN FEATURES

Our main features include articles on The Horrors and Slowdive. Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs and Sharon Van Etten interview each other. And there’s an article examining the challenges of SXSW for the first time that incorporates interviews with Arthur Beatrice, Casual Sex, Connan Mockasin, Future Islands, Glass Animals, Saintseneca, San Fermin, Vaadat Charigim, Woman’s Hour, and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan.

“This 10-year-old pulled a gun out of his trousers and started waving it around. It scared the shit out of me.” – Tom Cowan of The Horrors

“One thing I do regret is that we paid too much attention to what was written about the band.” – Neil Halstead of Slowdive

“[Are We There has] some of the heaviest stuff that I’ve ever done. The vibe, lyrically, is really heavy.” – Sharon Van Etten

“For so long, it was such a mystery to [my dad] why I connected so heavily to listening to music from a young age. Now I think he can read about it and see how people like it, and I think that has changed it all.” – Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs

“When I went to grab my laptop, the entire bag was filled with a sticky pool of liquid.” – Alaska B of Yamantaka // Sonic Titan on SXSW

“We immediately got way too drunk because we were so stressed out, and then [vocalist Rae Cassidy] went out and got a tattoo.” – Ellis Ludwig-Leone of San Fermin on SXSW

“I knew [SXSW] was going to be hectic, but the level of hectic. You can’t prepare yourself for it in any way.” – Elliot Barnes of Arthur Beatrice on SXSW.

PLEASED TO MEET YOU

Our Pleased to Meet You new bands section highlights five exciting new artists: Casual Sex, Jungle, Gulp, MONEY, and Syd Arthur.

“I think one of the most painful processes anyone can go through other than childbirth is trying to find a name for a band.” – Sam Smith of Casual Sex

“We’re not trying to hide anything…we just don’t want to put our faces on a Facebook profile, because what does that actually mean?” – J of Jungle

THE END

For our new regular last page feature, The End, we will ask a different artist the same set of questions about endings and death. Hamilton Leithauser is our inaugural participant. His band, The Walkmen, is on hiatus and he’s releasing his debut solo album, Black Hours.

REVIEWS

Over 110 CDs, films, DVDs, TV shows, books, and comic books are reviewed in the issue, including reviews of releases by:

Afghan Whigs, Damon Albarn, Lilly Allen, Amen Dunes, Tori Amos, Amps For Christ, The Antlers, Architecture in Helsinki, Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, Beverly, Bis, Bo Ningen, S. Carey, Chromeo, The Clean, The Clientele, Cloud Nothings, Dan Croll, Brody Dalle, Miles Davis, Mac DeMarco, Donovan Blanc, Echo and the Bunnymen, Eels, Elbow, EMA, Eno Hyde, Eternal Summers, The Faint, Fear of Men, First Aid Kit, Fucked Up, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Glass Animals, Jimi Goodwin, Haunted Hearts, The Horrors, How to Dress Well, HTRK, Elton John, Kan Wakan, Kishi Bashi, La Sera, Hamilton Leithauser, Little Dragon, Lykke Li, The Mary Onettes, MONEY, Bob Mould, Oasis, Conor Oberst, Odonis Odonis, OFF, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Owen Pallett, Papercuts, Parquet Courts, Paws, Perfect Pussy, Ramona Lisa, The Range, Reigning Sound, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Roman Remains, Rush Midnight, Say Hi, The Shilohs, Sisyphus, Slint, Slow Club, Small Black, The Soft Pink Truth, Squarepusher, Swans, Todd Terje, Thee Oh Sees, Yann Tiersen, Tobacco, Tokyo Police Club, tUnE-yArDs, Sharon Van Etten, Chad VanGaalen, White Hinterland, Woman’s Hour, Wooden Wand, Woods, Wye Oak, Xiu Xiu, Young Widows, and more.

Digital Bonus Features

The digital version of the issue (available via iTunes, Google Play, and Zinio, and for iPads, iPhones, Android devices, Macs, and PCs) also features bonus Q&As not found in the print edition with Future Islands, James McAvoy, Lykke Li, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Ramona Lisa, Slow Club, Slowdive, tUnE-yArds, and Wye Oak.

“Gerrit is the treasurer. William is all-purpose. He takes care of city planning. He keeps the records and everything. I’m the mayor who just waves!” – Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands

“That’s something that I’m looking forward to—becoming more happy and seeing what I could create from that.” – Lykke Li

“I have quite a lot of experience with mental illness in my life. It seems to be a recurring theme in my life with friends, and with people I’ve run into again and again.” – James McAvoy

“No one needs another bland rock band. There’s plenty of that.” – Kip Berman of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

“There’s something really tragic to me about [Rome]. It’s the heart of western culture and antiquity as we know it, but it’s totally crumbling.” – Caroline Polachek of Ramona Lisa

“I was in a really horrible relationship that was taking over my life, really. And it was around the time that we needed to be writing our next album.” – Rebecca Taylor of Slow Club

“We’d all drive around endlessly in Nick’s car—because he was the only one of us who had a car—and listen to tapes of Cocteau Twins albums.” – Neil Halstead of Slowdive

“I think I always had an awareness as a kid, in a really wonderful way, that the sheltered suburban world that I mostly lived in was not the whole world.” – Merrill Garbus of tUne-yArds

“I really like playing with ambiguity, and the ambiguity of having a dark sound and happy lyrics and having something upbeat be dark.” – Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak

Click here to buy the print version of the issue.

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Click here to buy the digital version of the issue (via iTunes, Google Play, and Zinio, and for iPads, iPhones, Android devices, Macs, and PCs).

Click here to subscribe to the digital version of Under the Radar (via iTunes, Google Play, and Zinio, and for iPads, iPhones, Android devices, Macs, and PCs).

Click here for a list of U.S. stores that carry Under the Radar.

(Note: The Zinio digital version is available now and the more enhanced digital version of this issue via Under the Radar’s app will launch next week.)

Interviews
First Aid Kit
Future Islands - The Under the Radar Cover Story
Future Islands on Their Childhoods, First Broken Hearts, The Band’s Early Days, and Their Fans
Gulp
James McAvoy on Playing a Mentally Ill Corrupt Cop in the Irvine Welsh Adaptation Filth
John Slattery on His Directorial Debut and Saying Goodbye to Mad Men
Jungle
Lykke Li on Broken Hearts, Broken Characters, and Battling Self-Doubt
Lykke Li on Rejecting Pop with I Never Learn
MONEY
Ramona Lisa – Charilift’s Caroline Polachek on Her Solo Album
Ramona Lisa – Charilift’s Caroline Polachek on Recording in Unusual Places
Scotland Week: Casual Sex
Scotland Week: James McAvoy on the Irvine Welsh Adaptation “Filth”
Slow Club on Avoiding Retro, Reverb, and Horrible Relationships
Slow Club on the Less-Is-More Philosophy of “Complete Surrender”
Slowdive - Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell on the Bands That Inspired Them
Slowdive on Their Reunion, “Souvlaki,” Creation Records, “Pygmalion,” and Shoegazing
South by Southwest’s First-Timers – Members of 2014’s Rookie Class Talk About Their First SXSW
Syd Arthur
The Antlers
The End: Hamilton Leithauser on Endings and Death
The Horrors on Bizarre American Touring Experiences and Their Fourth Album, “Luminous”
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Kip Berman on Finding Humor in the Dark Moments
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Kip Berman on the Complexities of Life
The War on Drugs vs. Sharon Van Etten
Wye Oak - Jenn Wasner on Sexism in the Music Industry and Their “Intensely Dark” New Album
Wye Oak on Overcoming Writer’s Block, Abandoning Guitars, and Subverting the Formula
tUnE-yArDs - Merrill Garbus on Puppetry, Her Sheltered Suburban Childhood, and Visiting Haiti
tUnE-yArDs - Merrill Garbus on the Art of Songwriting and No Longer Faking It

 

Reviews
“What Is This Heart?”
A New Nature
Ace In the Hole Blu-ray/DVD
Alvvays
Anchor
Beauty & Ruin
Black Hours
Buddy Buys a Dump: The Complete Buddy Bradley Stories from “HATE” Comics, Vol. III
Careers
Coffin Hill Vol. 1: Forest of the Night
Complete Surrender
Conversations
Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist
Donovan Blanc
Familiars
Filth
Glass Boys
In Conflict
It’s Album Time
Life Itself
Like Someone in Love Blu-ray/DVD
Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s
Meteorites
Moving On
Nosferatu the Vampyre Blu-ray
Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer
Shattered
Stay Gold
Sunbathing Animal
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club
The Return of Zita the Spacegirl
The Rise and Fall of The Clash DVD
Third Person
This One Summer
Trust Me
Venus In Fur
We Are The Best!
ZABA