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Dec 21, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern

Under the Radar is proud to announce Covers of Covers, which is the magazine’s first ever album. In honor of our 20th anniversary we approached some of our favorite musicians and asked them to cover any song by any artist who had been on the front or back cover of our print issue over the years. Covers of Covers is due out March 4, 2022 via American Laundromat, but today we are sharing two of its tracks: Grandaddy’s cover of Metric’s “Blindness” and EMA’s cover of Modest Mouse’s “Trailer Trash.” The album also features Cassandra Jenkins, Alex Lahey, Peter Bjorn and John, Hatchie, Nation of Language, Cults, Kevin Drew, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Sondre Lerche, Girl Ray, Piroshka, Strand of Oaks, Oceanator, C Duncan, NZCA LINES, Ora the Molecule, James Yorkston, and Water From Your Eyes. Check out the full tracklist below, as well as the Grandaddy and EMA tracks. Above is the cover art.

Covers of Covers will be available on CD and digitally, with cassette tape and vinyl releases in the works too. Visit www.alr-music.com to preorder the album. We are also donating $1.00 from every physical album sold and every full album download purchased to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund (www.sweetrelief.org), which “provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems.”

Grandaddy was on the cover of Under the Radar’s very first issue, way back in December 2001, which is why it was essential to have them take part in the compilation. Metric’s Emily Haines was one of several musicians to appear on the fold out cover of our O Canada Issue in 2005, appearing alongside members of fellow north of the border artists Broken Social Scene, Tegan and Sara, The Dears, The New Pornographers, Stars, and others. Grandaddy’s last album was 2017’s Last Place.

Grandaddy’s main creative force Jason Lytle had this to say about his cover: “Apparently my band Grandaddy was on the cover of issue #1 of Under the Radar and continued a cozy relationship with the mag so it seemed a no brainer to be involved with this Covers of Covers project. I thought it was a good idea in general too.

“I’m a big Metric fan. One time I drove from Bozeman Montana to Salt Lake City Utah (nine-hour drive) to see them play live. I don’t even like going to shows. That says a lot. I chose to cover the song ‘Blindness’ as it has been one of my favorite songs of theirs since I first heard it in 2009. I recorded and mixed it all in my garage and enjoyed treading that line of trying to emulate some of the original sounds and ‘feels’ but also make it mine for a bit and have a little fun with it.”

Modest Mouse first appeared on Under the Radar’s cover in 2007 in honor of We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Frontman Isaac Brock was on the cover again for our 2008 Protest Issue, this time appearing with R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe. EMA is the project of Erika M. Anderson. Her last album was 2017’s Exile in the Outer Ring, released by City Slang.

Anderson had this to say about her Modest Mouse cover: “This song reminds me of a person I used to be in love with. We were teenage robo-buddies. We drove around on gravel roads, pulling over at abandoned barns and country cemeteries. We weren’t physical, except once when I started crying, gave them a kiss and then ran out of the car. Very dramatic. People used to say we were going to end up married and living like the ‘trailer trash’ couple in this song. It didn’t happen…”

When hatching plans to celebrate Under the Radar’s 20th anniversary I knew I wanted to go beyond just producing a special 20th anniversary issue. Despite two decades of writing about albums, one thing we’d never done is actually put one out ourselves. Thus I came upon the idea for Covers of Covers.

To pull all this off we have partnered with Joe Spadaro and his Connecticut-based record label American Laundromat. As well as releasing albums by Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donelly, American Laundromat have a long history of producing amazing covers albums, including their tributes to Elliott Smith, The Cure, Neil Young, The Smiths, and the music of Wes Anderson films. They even put together a track-by-track tribute to the soundtrack to Alex Cox’s cult classic 1984 movie Repo Man. Without Joe’s help, Covers of Covers would still just be an idea in my head. He has the know-how to get an album mastered and manufactured, not to mention how to handle all the legal stuff. My Co-Publisher/wife Wendy Lynch Redfern then photographed and designed the album cover, which features a tower of all our print issues.

Purchase a copy of our just-announced 20th Anniversary Issue, our new double print issue, for an article on the making of Covers of Covers, including quotes from all 20 artists who recorded tracks for the album. The issue’s downloadable MP3 sampler also includes Piroshka’s cover of Grandaddy’s “The Crystal Lake.”

And once again, you can preorder Covers of Covers here from American Laundromat and here from Bandcamp.

Covers of Covers Tracklist:

1. Grandaddy: “Blindness” (Metric)
2. Piroshka: “The Crystal Lake” (Grandaddy)
3. Peter Bjorn and John: “Songs of Love” (The Divine Comedy)
4. Cults: “Bourgeois” (Phoenix)
5. Nation of Language: “Stars and Sons” (Broken Social Scene)
6. Kevin Drew: “The Loose Ends Will Make Knots” (Stars)
7. Hatchie: “FUBT” (HAIM)
8. Sondre Lerche: “Townie” (Mitski)
9. C Duncan: “Acrobat” (Angel Olsen)
10. Cassandra Jenkins: “It’s You” (Animal Collective)
11. NZCA LINES: “Debra” (Beck)
12. Oceanator: “The Biggest Lie” (Elliott Smith)
13. Black Belt Eagle Scout: “Calculation Theme” (Metric)
14. Strand of Oaks: “’81” (Joanna Newsom)
15. Ora the Molecule: “The Fox in the Snow” (Belle and Sebastian)
16. Girl Ray: “Another Try” (HAIM)
17. James Yorkston: “Smoke Signals” (Phoebe Bridgers)
18. EMA: “Trailer Trash” (Modest Mouse)
19. Alex Lahey: “New York” (St. Vincent)
20. Water From Your Eyes: “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” (R.E.M.)

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