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Nov 19, 2013 Thumpers By Christopher Roberts

Under the Radar is excited to announce the full details of the November/December 2013 issue, which is on newsstands now and will be out until late December/early January. It features HAIM on the cover as well as interviews with Cut Copy, Cocteau Twins on Blue Bell Knoll, Cillian Murphy vs. Nils Frahm, Anna Calvi, Luke Temple, Willis Earl Beal, Glasser, Yuck, Midlake, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, Deltron 3030, Courtney Barnett, Mac DeMarco vs. Beach Fossils, Dan Harmon, and much more.

Cover Story

The issue features an in-depth 10-page cover story article on HAIM. The article covers the Los Angeles sisters’ journey from being part of a family band with their parents, to finding their own voice as songwriters. Matt Fink wrote the article and our exclusive photo shoot was conducted by Kate Garner in London.

“If someone fucking told me, ‘Hey, check out this band! They sound like TLC mixed with Fleetwood Mac,’ I’d say, ‘That sounds like worst thing I’ve heard of in my entire life.’” – Danielle Haim

“We played our first [SXSW] show, and there were maybe four people in the audience, including a toddler who was running around and shitting everywhere. I’m not even kidding about that. It was on a grassy knoll and you could see everything.” – Este Haim

“It was a fucking awesome way to grow up. I can brag now that I was in a band with my parents, which is super fucking dope.” – Alana Haim

Fashion Forward

Our Fashion Forward section features a fashion spread that’s the opening article to each issue and also includes a 500+ word article on the artist. This issue features an interview and fashion shoot with Luke Temple of Here We Go Magic on his new solo album.

“The first half of the record is lighter, while in the second half the themes become literally dark. There’s one about Hiroshima, there’s one about the Newtown massacre, there’s one about Mexican immigration.” – Luke Temple

Detection

The front-of-book Detection section features interviews with: Anna Calvi, Cut Copy, Deltron 3030, Glasser, Midlake, Summer Camp, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, Yuck, and Dan Harmon (Community) and Justin Roiland on their new Adult Swim animated show Rick and Morty.

“As a songwriter, I think it’s important that you’re trying to work towards honesty in your writing. So when I saw that was happening, I didn’t try to fight it or obscure it.” – Anna Calvi

“Often when we’re recording none of us are actually playing instruments we know how to play.” – Dan Whitford of Cut Copy

“When we were thinking about making this record, we went from 9/11 to Occupy Wall Street and banks collapsing. Those were all prominent thoughts in our minds at one point or another.” – Dan the Automator of Deltron 3030

“I get a little freaked about having to cross a wide street. The thing that gets me are those counting down crosswalks. I have insane anxiety about that.” – Cameron Mesirow of Glasser

“Where do we go? We were not only trying to find that out, but find it quickly, because for all intents and purposes we’d just wasted two years of our lives recording a record that would never see the light of day.” – Eric Pulido of Midlake

“When I was younger, I used to say that I wanted a really violent, extreme, memorable death…. Like a shark eating me alive in a fish tank in an aquarium while I was eating an ice cream.” – Elizabeth Sankey of Summer Camp

“The opening number refers to the [Greek mythology] character Atalanta. She’s the fastest runner, and she will only marry someone who can run faster than her, and the only way someone can beat her is by cheating.” – Alaska B of Yamantaka // Sonic Titan

“[Daniel Blumberg] was just really intent on focusing on his solo stuff and we were waiting for a really long time to carry on doing the band and recording the second album and things never really happened.” – Max Bloom of Yuck

“[The new season of Community is] going well. The stakes are high, especially for me and this odd story I’ve wandered into where I’m like a weird Lazarus figure who’s either a hero or a villain depending on what I do and how I do it.” – Dan Harmon

Main Features

Our main features include articles on Willis Earl Beal, Mac DeMarco vs. Beach Fossils, actor Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Inception, The Dark Knight) vs. Nils Frahm, and Cocteau Twins, who discuss their 1988 album Blue Bell Knoll.

“I’d rather be somewhere building a house, if I knew how. The whole idea of being a professional artist is like a demeaning kind of thing.” – Willis Earl Beal

“Our relationships with ourselves, with each other, with our partners, with our record labels, all of those relationships were utterly dysfunctional.” – Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins

“Perhaps if our personalities were a bit more hipster we would have made a bigger splash. We were too busy making records to be hipsters.” – Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins

“I shave daily. I look like a fucking hillbilly if I don’t shave for long, but I like a little bit of scruff.” – Mac DeMarco

“The first time I heard Mac [DeMarco] was by watching the “Only You” video. It floored me. I knew I would love this man.” – Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils

“I think it’s necessary to keep moving forward. I’ve always said that nostalgia is death, really for anyone creative.” – Cillian Murphy

“The only thing I try to watch carefully is that I never lose the love for the instrument. That’s also why I decided against a professional piano career when I was younger.” – Nils Frahm

Pleased to Meet You

Our Pleased to Meet You new bands section highlights nine exciting new artists: Courtney Barnett, Big Scary, Painted Palms, Snakadaktal, Society, The Spook School, THUMPERS, Woman’s Hour, and Younghusband.

“I played at open mics, and I was so nervous all the time. I was probably a terrible performer ’cause I’d get the nervous stutter and I couldn’t look at anyone.” – Courtney Barnett

“Aussie bands don’t really get big until someone in America discovers them.” – Jo Syme of Big Scary

“The Satanic murderer? Yeah, I Googled myself a while ago and I was like, ‘That is not a good guy to have the same name as.’” – Chris Prudhomme of Painted Palms

“We all felt a bit strange about how seriously people took their band names.” – Phoebe Cockburn of Snakadaktal

“[We] just had this vision to do this old-fashioned record, but mixed with really contemporary beats and mad samples and kind of approach it in a different way.” – Jamie Girdler of Society

“I write about gender identity and Buster Keaton.” – Nye Todd of The Spook School

“[Our album is] called Galore because it’s about a three-dimensional, Technicolor, overwhelming experience and nostalgia of firsts.” – Jack Hamson of THUMPERS

“I think a lot of our artwork and our sound is about displaying vulnerability.” – Fiona Jane Burgess of Woman’s Hour

“I opened the book and on the first or second page, one of the characters’ last names was Younghusband. I really liked how it looked on the page, and I liked the way it sounded like a ’90s band name, just two words put together, like Slowdive or something.” – Euan Hinshelwood of Younghusband

Reviews

Over 130 CDs, DVDs, books, films, TV shows, and comic books are reviewed in the issue, including reviews of releases by: 65daysofstatic, Au Revoir Simone, Autechre, The Avett Brothers, Courtney Barnett, bEEdEEgEE, Brendan Benson, Best Coast, Black Hearted Brother, Blind Boys of Alabama, Blitzen Trapper, Blood Orange, The Blow, Body Parts, Charlie Boyer & the Voyeurs, Breathe Owl Breathe, Danny Brown, Cage the Elephant, Anna Calvi, Alex Chilton, Cloud Control, Crystal Antlers, Cut Copy, Darkside, Delorean, Bryce Dessner/Kronos Quartet, Destroyer, Diane Coffee, The Dismemberment Plan, Ducktails, Sky Ferreira, The Field, First Rate People, Forest Fire, Four Tet, Nils Frahm, Frog Eyes, Gambles, Gap Dream, Howe Gelb, Girls Names, Glasser, Grails, HAIM, Tim Hecker, Heidecker & Wood, Higgins Waterproof Black Magic Band, Joanna Gruesome, John Wizards, Tim Kasher, Kwes, Latyrx, Cate Le Bon, Murray A. Lightburn, Lily & Madeleine, London Grammar, Los Campesinos!, Lucius, M.I.A., Magik Markers, Paul McCartney, Cass McCombs, The Melvins, The Men, MGMT, Midlake, Minor Alps, Minus the Bear, Connan Mockasin, Juana Molina, Janelle Monáe, Moonface, Mount Eerie, múm, Nine Inch Nails, Obits, Oozing Wound, Pearl Jam, Pillars and Tongues, Pixies, Psapp, Quasi, Lee Ranaldo and the Dust, Lucy Wainwright Roche, San Fermin, Shearwater, Sisu, Sleigh Bells, Omar Souleyman, The Spook School, Summer Camp, Sébastien Tellier, Luke Temple, Emiliana Torrini, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Upset, Dean Wareham, The Weeknd, Wooden Shjips, World’s End Press, Xiu Xiu, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, Yip Deceiver, Younghusband, Yuck, and more.

Postscript

Our last page feature, Postscript, features a postcard sent to us from Hawaii by Reggie Watts.

Digital Magazine

The digital version of the issue (available for iPads, Android devices, Macs, and PCs) also features bonus articles not found in the print edition. Included is an article on John Wizards, as well as extended Q&As with artists interviewed in the print edition, quotes that didn’t make it into the print version, including bonus interviews with HAIM, Willis Earl Beal, and Rick and Morty’s Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland.

“I would much rather not be the center of attention, and I’d much rather travel and be writing my novel, rather than standing on a stage and trying to get people to understand something.” – Willis Earl Beal

“What’s important is passion, investment, and people laughing out loud as they work.” – Dan Harmon

“At some point I’d like to go back to college, but the Forever EP basically saved me from that awkward parental talk.” – Alana Haim

“I was a senior when Danielle was a freshman at my high school, and the first thing that I said to all of my guy friends that hadn’t met her was, ‘Get the fuck away from her, or I’ll chop your balls off.’” – Este Haim

“I remember Jenny Lewis was on the cover [of Under the Radar] several years ago. I remember seeing it and thinking ‘Maybe one day’.... I honestly can’t believe that it’s happening for us now.” – Danielle Haim

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