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Wednesday, June 18th, 2025  

Album Reviews

Swallow

Steve Queralt
Swallow

Jun 18, 2025 Web Exclusive

Steve Queralt’s solo debut, Swallow, arrives not with a bang, but with a textured, atmospheric hum.

Get Sunk

Matt Berninger
Get Sunk

Jun 17, 2025 Web Exclusive

The tragic irony of getting on a plane to see a friend who is already dust before you lay eyes on them is the kind of leaden emotional milepost ripe for contemplation from The National’s gifted bard of sorrow, Matt Berninger.

Ill at Ease

Preoccupations
Ill at Ease

Jun 13, 2025 Web Exclusive

The cover image and physical media for Ill at Ease, the fifth album from Canadian post-punk outfit Preoccupations, reverberate with distortion.

Classic Interviews

Way Too Personal: Sam “EO” Shjipstone of Hookworms

Way Too Personal: Sam “EO” Shjipstone of Hookworms
"There's an idea that we routinely have near-death experiences we are never aware of."

Jul 06, 2018 Web Exclusive

Our private lives are what make us human. Uncanny patterns of rationale weave through our daily habits; mental checklists track our progress to tiny goals that would surely shrink further in the light of everyone else’s big ambitions.

Comic Book Reviews

Milk White Steed

Milk White Steed
Drawn & Quarterly

Jun 10, 2025 Web Exclusive

Michael D. Kennedy’s (New Yorker, New York Times) debut collection of beautiful, shape-shifting short stories combines West Indian folk traditions with a prismatic approach to modern indie comic illustration. These ten tales combine to create a unique and compelling journey through the Black diaspora into England and beyond.

Interviews

Digital Cover Story: Shirley Manson of Garbage on “Let All That We Imagine Be the Light”

Digital Cover Story: Shirley Manson of Garbage on “Let All That We Imagine Be the Light”

May 30, 2025 Web Exclusive

Over nearly three decades, Garbage have forged a reputation for reinvention while staying true to their distinctive sound, a bold fusion of soaring guitars, atmospheric textures, and Shirley Manson’s fiercely captivating vocals. Their latest album, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, follows the critical success of 2021’s No Gods No Masters, but marks a significant departure. It’s an album that pulses with a renewed sense of hope and possibility. Beneath it all, Manson’s lyrics strike a delicate balance between vulnerability and defiance, capturing a band that remains at the peak of their creative powers.

Ezra Furman on “Goodbye Small Head”

Ezra Furman on “Goodbye Small Head”

May 30, 2025 Web Exclusive

“Everybody showed you a wall and you saw a doorway somehow,” says Ezra Furman like it’s magic or she’s a fairy godmother as she describes the ideas that informed “Strange Girl,” one of the more haunting songs off her latest album, Goodbye Small Head—released May 16, on the Bella Union label. The statement applies more broadly to her experience as trans in an increasingly hostile world: from transgender bathroom bans, to the denial of gender affirming care and rescinding hard-won rights that enabled the separation of sex from gender, it seeks to deny their existence and actively supports their erasure.

Lists

Seven Music Documentary Films and Series From the Second Half of 2024 to Watch (and Three To Skip)

Jan 08, 2025

Halfway through 2024, we published a list of “Seven Music Documentary Films and Series From 2024 to Watch (and Three to Skip).” Another glut of music documentaries and series have been released since then including the superstar projects Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words (Prime Video), Luther: Never Too Much (CNN), Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken (Paramount+), Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Hulu), Olivia Rodrigo: Guts World Tour (Netflix), Elton John: Never Too Late (Disney+) and Yoshiki: Under the Sky (On Demand). If there is one takeaway from the overabundance of the biographical documentaries, it is that it’s best if the subject is not involved. The micromanaging of their story leaves viewers with a manicured and surface-level experience of the artist.

Although, the artist’s complete removal from the process can make a documentary spin into tabloid territory. There’s a lot of scandal on tap. Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter (Max) is the traumatic story of mental illness and sexual assault. While the latter is horrifying, the litigation is still underway. Why are the survivors on film talking about their experiences? Speaking of survivors, IMPACT x Nightline: Diddy’s Downfall (Hulu) is equally horrific and a far more disgusting explanation of the recent uncovering of Sean Combs’ abusive, and illegal actions during his entire time in the spotlight. Secret Life of Diddy: A Special Edition of 20/20 (Hulu) covers the exact same ground with many of the same talking heads journalists and individuals. On the positive side of hip hop, Tale of the Tape (Tubi) explores the world of mixtapes, the skill involved in making them, their impact on the culture and the legends of that scene. While the homemade quality of this short but deep unpacking is charming, it only speaks to people in that space and doesn’t go far in educating the uninitiated.

A brave director with a strong grasp on storytelling can create a compelling product that draws you in, whether or not you are interested in the artist or topic. But it feels like there is a positive correlation between the number of music documentaries released and how many of them aren’t worth pressing play on. Here are seven from the second half of 2024 that are worth watching and three not so much.—By Lily Moayeri

Live reviews

Pulp @ O2, London, UK, June 14, 2025

Pulp @ O2, London, UK, June 14, 2025

Jun 17, 2025 By Irina Shtreis

Pulp are back with a vengeance, scoring a number one album whilst playing some of the finest live shows of their career so far.

Blog

50% Off the Last Great Indie Rock Print Magazine – A Family-Run Labor of Love Since 2001

50% Off the Last Great Indie Rock Print Magazine – A Family-Run Labor of Love Since 2001

May 24, 2025 By Mark Redfern

While most music magazines have either shut down or pivoted to digital-only, Under the Radar is still here—still in print, still 100% independent, and still run by the same husband-and-wife team who started it all back in 2001. Subscribe here!