Issue #41 - Yeasayer | Under the Radar Magazine Under the Radar | Music Blog for the Indie Music Magazine
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Issue #41

Issue #41 - Yeasayer

May 22, 2012

Under the Radar’s June/July 2012 Issue features Yeasayer on the cover as well as interviews with Beach House, Hot Chip, Sigur Rós, Father John Misty vs. Aubrey Plaza, Chromatics, Peaking Lights, M. Ward, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Lower Dens, Soulsavers featuring Dave Gahan, and others.

The issue includes an in-depth 10-page cover story article on Yeasayer in which the band discuss their new album Fragrant World. The exclusive photo shoot was conducted by co-publisher Wendy Lynch Redfern in New York City.

“I wanted to make a record that was legitimately, to use a bad word, funky.” – Yeasayer’s Chris Keating

“We definitely try to capture the schizophrenia of what it’s like to be alive today.” – Yeasayer’s Anand Wilder

“You say you like that Sonic Youth song, but do you really? Or is that what just you want people to think?” – Yeasayer’s Ira Wolf Tuton

The front-of-book Detection section features interviews with Choir of Young Believers, Chromatics, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Here We Go Magic, Lower Dens, Moonface, M. Ward, The Mynabirds, Soulsavers featuring Dave Gahan, and Violens.

“There’s also a pretty serious presence of the KKK in the town where I grew up. I had a bumper sticker on my car that said ‘Fight Racism,’ and some kid took it off and cut it in half so it just said ‘Racism’ and stuck it next to his confederate flag sticker on his truck.” - The Mynabirds’ Laura Burhenn

“Years ago, Chromatics made music when no one was listening, and it’s important to us that we remember that.” - Chromatics’ Johnny Jewel

“I don’t have enough experience with breakups, or ugly breakups, that I could write [my songs] all based on my own life, so some of it is fiction.” - Moonface’s Spencer Krug

“In my opinion I barely even have a job.” - M. Ward

“We didn’t want to interfere too much with trying make things sound good for the sake of sounding good.” – Soulsavers’ Dave Gahan

“We are very much still animal creatures trying to constantly improve our lives through the use of technology and pharmacology.” – Lower Dens’ Jana Hunter

“To me, one of the most rebellious things you can do is to be very open and very unironic.” – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’ Alex Ebert

“At first I was a little bit intimidated by standing on a stage.” – Choir of Young Believers’ Jannis Noya Makrigiannis

“Our first album was kind of aggressive sounding, and kind of compressed really hard. And this is a bit more relaxed.” – Violens’ Jorge Elbrecht

Our main features include articles on Beach House, Hot Chip, Liars, Sigur Rós, and Father John Misty (ex-Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman) in conversation with his friend and “Hollywood Forever Cemetary” video star, actress/comedian Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Funny People).

“It was kind of a weird process making this record, the weirdest record that we’ve ever made, definitely.” – Sigur Rós’ Georg Hólm,

“I like some sad music. I love really desolate stuff, like Will Oldham, Leonard Cohen, and lots of things, but I don’t have much time for half-assed melancholy music which sounds like kids who don’t really have any real problems whining.” – Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard.

“The idea of a hook or a chorus or the sort of thing that will stick in your head, I’m just actually not that into it.” – Liars’ Angus Andrew

“Don’t just settle for what someone else says or what someone else thinks.” – Beach House’s Victoria Legrand

“With the [‘Nancy From Now On’] video, I basically tricked myself into cutting my hair off.” – Father John Misty’s Josh Tillman

“The number one thing that I love to do, and the number one thing that I think people that I admire do, is surprise you.” – Aubrey Plaza

Our Pleased to Meet You new bands section highlights seven new artists: DIIV (formerly known as Dive), Kindness, Man Without Country, Peaking Lights, Sunless ’97, Toy, and Weird Dreams.

“I think everyone who makes music, and art, and poems, and films, or whatever, they’re mainly doing it because the music or art that they want to see hasn’t quite been achieved.” – Sunless ’97’s Edward Leeson

“I could never make something completely smiley and happy because that’s never been a reality for me.” – Weird Dreams’ Doran Edwards

“Kurt [Cobain] has this thing in Journals where he takes the whole record of Nevermind and he breaks it down and writes next to each song either ‘mad,’ ‘sad,’ or ‘happy.’ So on my record I kind of did the same thing, but my thing was ‘happy,’ ‘sad,’ and ‘Kraut,’ because a lot of my songs are Krautrock-influenced.” – DIIV’s Zachary Cole Smith

“Four years ago, if we thought we’d be trying to get Björk to listen to our cover we’d just think we were stupid or something.” – Man Without Country’s Ryan James

“I think if you have a genuine passion for music you can be a bit of a magpie.” – Kindness’ Adam Bainbridge

“When I listen to records I love, it fires me up and makes me feel good, so if people feel like that when they listen to our record I’ll be very pleased. Toy’s Dominic O’Dair

“[Our infant son Mikko’s] a good judge. If he likes [our songs], he starts bobbing his head.” – Peaking Lights’ Indra Dunis

Over 140 CDs, DVDs, books, films, TV shows, and comic books are reviewed in the issue, including reviews of releases by: Aesop Rock, Damon Albarn, Allo Darlin’, Arkells, Atom TM, Geoff Barrow/Ben Salisbury, Battles, Beach House, Best Coast, Birthmark, Black Dice, Bleeding Knees Club, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Broken Water, Ane Brun, CAN, CFCF, Neneh Cherry & The Thing, Choir of Young Believers, Chromatics, CocoRosie, Codeine, Craft Spells, Crocodiles, Dana Buoy, The dB’s, Bo Diddley, DIIV, Dntel, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, Electric Guest, El-P, Evans The Death, Exitmusic, Father John Misty, Aaron Freeman, Garbage, Grass Widow, Gravenhurst, Guided By Voices, Here We Go Magic, Hot Chip, Hush Arbors, It’s A Musical, Sarah Jaffe, JBM, Norah Jones, Killer Mike, Kindness, Kishi Bashi, Kwes, Liars, Light Asylum, Lightships, Lower Dens, Magic Wands, Man Without Country, Maps & Atlases, Dent May, Metric, Mohn, Moonface, Mount Eerie, MV & EE, The Mynabirds, Marissa Nadler, Orbital, Orcas, Peaking Lights, Preteen Zenith, Lou Ragland, Reptar, Santigold, George Sarah, Sea of Bees, Ty Segall & White Fence, The Shins, Sigur Rós, Silversun Pickups, Mariee Sioux, Soulsavers, Regina Spektor, The Spinto Band, Squarepusher, Suckers, Sun Kil Moon, Teen Daze, These United States, Yann Tiersen, Toro Y Moi, Sidi Touré, Alexander Tucker, Tu Fawning, Ursprung, Vatican Shadow, Violens, Rufus Wainwright, Walkmen, M. Ward, Nick Waterhouse, Wave Pictures, We Are Serenades, Mike Wexler, White Arrows, White Fence, Jack White, Andre Williams and The Sadies, WITCH, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Zammuto, Zulu Winter, and more.

The not-to-be-missed digital version of the issue (available for Mac, PC, iPad, and Android) includes the same articles that appear in the printed version—plus 95 extra pages of editorial content not found in the print edition. Included are extra photos of: Beach House, Choir of Young Believers, DIIV, Father John Misty vs. Aubrey Plaza, Here We Go Magic, Kindness, Liars, Lower Dens, Man Without Country, The Mynabirds, Peaking Lights, Sunless ‘97, Toy, Violens, Weird Dreams, and Yeasayer.

The digital version also features exclusive bonus interviews with: Brian Jonestown Massacre, Can, Hundreds, Light Asylum, Lotus Plaza, Mount Eerie, and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow on his DROKK project.

“I wish I could say I have vocal warm-ups, but really it’s a shot of vodka and a cigarette, and then a slap on the face.” – Light Asylum’s Shannon Funchess

“If we fight or argue, nothing can keep us away from it because we are brother and sister.” – Hundreds’ Eva Milner

“We played our concerts in a very risky way, we didn’t play the pieces as they were on record. We invented, just spontaneously, new things, and improvised onstage, so sometimes that was less good and sometimes it was good.” – Can’s Irmin Schmidt

“It starts off with a 10-minute drone. That’s kind of weird, I guess.” – Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum

“It’s the idea that there are particles that are forever entangled with each other. That despite any amount of distance, an inch or millions of light years, that if one were to change its spin or something, that the effect on the other is immediate. It’s like the quickest form of communication in a way.” – Lotus Plaza’s Lockett Pundt

“Western civilization is being very much in the mode of Brave New World these days, with a splattering of 1984 just to terrorize the population into submission.” – Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe

“Synthesizers and comics have been such a massive part of my life, mostly in my formative years. Reading Judge Dredd and discovering early electro music as well as post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies like Escape from New York and Assault on Precinct 13 all kind of rolled into one and made sense together. Now I’m 40 and I’m kind of reliving it.” – Portishead’s Geoff Barrow on his Jude Dredd-inspired DROKK project

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Subscribe to the digital version here.

Buy the digital version of this issue here.

 

Reviews
All of Us, Together
Americana
Among the Leaves
Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt
Banga
Being John Malkovich DVD/Blu-ray
Choreography
Class Clown Spots a UFO
Comedy Bang Bang!
Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Eighth Season DVD
Electrical Banana: Masters of Psychedelic Art
Falling Off the Sky
Foe
GENERALS
Get Jiro!
Heaven
Here
Hysteria
Internal Logic
Justice League Vol. 1: Origin
La Haine DVD/Blu-ray
Lex Hives
Lucifer
Manifest!
Oshin
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Swedish Music Landscape: A Photo Book About Indie Pop Music in Sweden
Synthetica
Take This Waltz
The Bravest Man in the Universe
The Cherry Thing
The Color Wheel
The Intouchables
The Lost Tapes
The Sarah Silverman Program: The Complete Series DVD
Valtari
WIXIW
What Is All This? Uncollected Stories