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Issue #53

Issue #53 - April/May 2015 - Tame Impala

Apr 10, 2015

Under the Radar is excited to announce the full details of the April/May 2015 issue, which is about to hit newsstands. It features Tame Impala on the cover. Actor Charlie Cox talks about his starring role in the new Netflix series, Marvel’s Daredevil. We interview The Jesus and Mary Chain‘s Jim Reid and Creation Records’ founder Alan McGee about the 30th anniversary of the Scottish band’s iconic debut album, 1985’s Psychocandy. The issue also includes interviews with Death Cab for Cutie, Mew, My Morning Jacket, Father John Misty, Domhnall Gleeson of Ex Machina, Courtney Barnett, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Laura Marling, Django Django, Will Butler, Purity Ring, San Fermin, TORRES, Twin Shadow, Matthew E. White, Amason, Jacco Gardner, Tobias Jesso Jr., Petite Noir, Natalie Prass, SOAK, and more.

Cover Story

The issue features an in-depth 8-page cover story on Tame Impala. It is the first interview frontman Kevin Parker has granted in honor of Tame Impala’s upcoming third album, Currents, which he was still putting the finishing touches on when we interviewed him. “I think this album without a doubt is my most musically diverse one,” Parker promises in our interview.

“By the time I’m finished with an album I have absolutely no idea what it sounds like,” Parker also admits. “I have no idea what genre it is. I have no idea what people will say it sounds like or what category it will be put in.”

The cover story goes in-depth into the creation of Currents, Parker’s music school days and the initial formation of Tame Impala, and Parker’s intense perfectionism. “If it’s not the first vocal take, then it’s the 600th, and I literally went over into four digits! In the recording program I use, it counts the takes you do. It will say ‘18 audio’ or ‘18 vocal one.’ And I looked back, and it was like 1,003 for this one track!” reveals Parker, laughing.

Shervin Iainez photographed Parker for the cover exclusively for Under the Radar in New York and Matt Fink wrote the cover story.

“People who want to live like rock stars can if they want. It’s really up to you. If you want to spend $2 million on an album and fly out to different studios and do lines of coke off prostitutes’ tits, you can do that. If you want groupies, you could have that, too. I guess I was too discerning about myself.” - Kevin Parker of Tame Impala

Detection

The front-of-book Detection section feature interviews with: The Black Ryder, Will Butler (of Arcade Fire), Charlie Cox of Marvel’s Daredevil, Django Django, Domhnall Gleeson of Ex Machina, Laura Marling, Mew, My Morning Jacket, Purity Ring, San Fermin, TORRES, Twin Shadow, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Matthew E. White.

“It’s not New York City as we know it. There’s an undercurrent of frenzy. There’s an undercurrent of crime feeding and cancer-like behavior. It’s a frightening place.” - Charlie Cox of Marvel’s Daredevil

“And then the upright piano started playing itself! It got more and more angry, its keys just stabbing randomly.” - Dave Maclean of Django Django

“[Phillip Seymour Hoffman] was someone I looked up to, and he represented everything I could want to be as an artist.” - Matthew E. White

“As with great films, I think songs should raise more questions than answers.” - Jonas Bjerre of Mew

“No matter what you’re going to do, somebody’s going to hate it, somebody’s going to love it.” - Jim James of My Morning Jacket

“My mom has given me her blessing to speak about her adoption, so I’m hoping that this song [‘The Exchange’] will be more than anything just a letter to my mom, a letter to my parents.” - Mackenzie Scott aka TORRES

“Given a choice between new music and a history or political podcast, I’ll choose the history or political podcast.” - Will Butler

“In America, you have to be successful all the time. It’s a cage, but a comfortable cage.” - Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Main Features

Our main features section includes a Retro article on The Jesus and Mary Chain and their influential 1985-released debut album, Psychocandy. For article we interviewed both frontman Jim Reid and Alan McGee, founder of the legendary Creation Records and manager of the band. The section also includes interviews with Death Cab for Cutie and Father John Misty.

“Being honest on a record is a lot easier than being honest in your life.” - Josh Tillman aka Father John Misty

“This record is not a divorce record. It’s certainly not that.” - Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie

“Sometimes the things that did happen [onstage] were kind of violent, or very non-musical, and certainly not very ‘show business.’” - Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain

Pleased to Meet You

Our Pleased to Meet You new bands section highlights seven exciting new artists: Amason, Jacco Gardner, Tobias Jesso Jr., Petite Noir, Natalie Prass, SOAK, and Talk In Tongues.

“When I was small I would always be ‘the dreamer’ in class. It’s always been part of me, I guess, using my imagination and the visual part of it.” - Jacco Gardner

“When I bought my first record player, my dad gave me Presenting Dionne Warwick and it totally changed my world.” - Natalie Prass

“Right now, all I have is my life [for lyrical inspiration]. I’m not popping champagne and doing crazy things like that. I just talk about my life and what’s happening.” - Yannick Ilunga aka Petite Noir

“I look and there’s a homeless man on my bike and he’s waving at me and riding it away.” - Tobias Jesso Jr.

“Sometimes you have to lose your dream in order to stay above it and actually have some money to live.” - Bridie Monds-Watson aka SOAK

The End

For our regular last page feature, The End, we ask a different artist the same set of questions about endings and death. Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist Courtney Barnett is this issue’s participant.

”[Heaven is] a place where nobody suffers. And there’s heaps of popcorn but it never gets stuck in your teeth.” - Courtney Barnett

Reviews

Over 90 CDs, films, TV shows, and comic books are reviewed in the issue, including reviews of releases by:

Alabama Shakes

Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield

Courtney Barnett

Boxed In

Braids

Tyondai Braxton

Tom Brosseau

Built to Spill

Will Butler

Mikal Cronin

Dan Deacon

Death Cab for Cutie

Death

Dinner

Dick Diver

Django Django

Doldrums

Du Blonde

East India Youth

Everything Everything

Jacco Gardner

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Glen Hansard

Heems

Hot Chip

Jenny Hval

Jamie xx

Tobias Jesso, Jr.

Joanna Gruesome

Simon Joyner

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper

Liturgy

Lord Huron

Lower Dens

Matt and Kim

Mew

Modest Mouse

Moon Duo

The Mountain Goats

My Morning Jacket

Sarah Bethe Nelson

of Montreal

Other Lives

Pale Blue

Passion Pit

Petite Noir

PINS

Purity Ring

Todd Rundgren, Emil Nikolaisen, & Hans-Peter Lindstrøm

San Fermin

SOAK

Speedy Ortiz

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Sufjan Stevens

Surf City

Swervedriver

The Tallest Man on Earth

Toro y Moi

TORRES

Turbo Fruits

Twin Shadow

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Vaadat Charigim

The Very Best

Villagers

Ryley Walker

Wand

Johanna Warren

Patrick Watson

Wave Pictures

Waxahatchee

Matthew E. White

Digital Edition

The digital version of the issue (available via iTunes and Zinio, and for iPads, iPhones, Macs, and PCs) also features an extra article not found in the print magazine, a Track-by-Track interview with Built to Spill in which Doug Martsch talks about every song on their new album, Untethered Moon. The digital version also contains bonus Q&As not found in the print edition with Charlie Cox, Domhnall Gleeson, Father John Misty, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Tame Impala.

“I think that maybe a lot of people try to mature as artists, and I’m not interested in that.” - Doug Martsch of Built to Spill

“He’s not trying to save the world. He’s trying to save Hell’s Kitchen, or he’s trying to save the little girl at the end of the block who’s being abused by her father.” - Charlie Cox of Marvel’s Daredevil

“I remember reading [the Ex Machina script], and thinking it was precisely the sort of movie I’d always wanted to be in.” - Domhnall Gleeson

“In some respect, I felt like I was majorly jumping the shark [with I Love You, Honeybear]. I’ve got two AK-47s and a hovercraft prototype, and I’m just flying over that fucking shark, guns a-blazin’.” - Josh Tillman aka Father John Misty

“The trick with making an album is that at some point, you have to say, ‘Look. This is finished.’ If you allowed yourself, you could just be in the studio forever.” - Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain

“I’m really putting myself out there vocally more than I have before. I usually bury my vocals and sing quite ethereally and stick in a laser beam melody washed in reverb.” - Kevin Parker of Tame Impala

Click here to buy the print version of the issue.

Click here to subscribe to the print version of Under the Radar.

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

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

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

Interviews
Amason
Death Cab for Cutie
Django Django
Father John Misty: A More Perfect Union
Father John Misty: The Truth About Love
Laura Marling
Matthew E. White
Mew
My Morning Jacket
Natalie Prass
Petite Noir
Purity Ring
SOAK
San Fermin
TORRES - Mackenzie Scott on “Sprinter”
Talk In Tongues
Tame Impala - The Under the Radar Cover Story
Tame Impala - The Under the Radar Cover Story Bonus Q&A
The Black Ryder
The End: Courtney Barnett on Endings and Death
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Jim Reid on Touring “Psychocandy”
The Jesus and Mary Chain on the 30th Anniversary of “Psychocandy”
Tobias Jesso Jr.
Track-by-Track: Built to Spill on “Untethered Moon”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Will Butler

 

Reviews
Apocalypse, girl
Before We Forgot How to Dream
Born Under Saturn
Damogen Furies
Dark Bird Is Home
Dark Red
Darling Arithmetic
Deep In the Iris
Dope
Dumb Flesh
Fables Vol. 22: Farewell
Foil Deer
Get to Heaven
HIVE1
Hypnophobia
In Colour
Jackrabbit
Kindred
Love Songs For Robots
MCIII
Makes a King
Multi-Love
N.E.W.
Peanut Butter
Primrose Green
Rituals
Runddans
Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith
Shake the Dust
Sinking As a Stone
Sound & Color
Sprinter
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
The Best of The Best Show
The D Train
The Waterfall
Untethered Moon
Wayward Pines
Welcome Back to Milk
Welcome To Me
Why Make Sense?
Wild Nights
Wuvable Oaf
nūmūn