Jul 17, 2009 By Paul Bullock Winter 2009 - Anticipated Albums of 2009

Kent, England’s It Hugs Back make smart, positive indie rock that waves back to the major Matador Records and Merge Records acts of the early ’90s while moving forward in exciting new directions. After settling on their name with some advice from Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon (after a chance meeting at the Tate Modern in London), the band has slowly built up speed with an increasingly interesting series of releases that recall the intelligence, charm, and humor of acts like Teenage Fanclub and Pavement.

Jul 16, 2009 By Chris Tinkham Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara plan to master their sixth studio album, Sainthood, at the beginning of August and release it at the end of October. Tegan Quin spoke with Under the Radar this morning to update us with some of the basic details and offer her impressions of the new music.

Jul 10, 2009 By Paul Bullock Winter 2009 - Anticipated Albums of 2009

“There’s a way to write a love song differently… there’re so many different kinds of love songs. And I think specifically with this album, this album is a lot about love and a lot about… finding the antidote to misery,” says Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos. He then adds with a chuckle, “There’s no reason why you shouldn’t embrace love as an antidote to your problems when you are a depressed, miserable person.”

Jul 04, 2009 By Mark Redfern Eve Myles

When Welsh actress Eve Myles recently found out she was pregnant, she made sure that her baby was of this Earth. “We checked on the scan that it was a human and was not an alien,” Myles jokes. Gwen Cooper, the secret government agent that Myles plays on the British sci-fi show Torchwood, was pregnant with an alien baby last season, so Myles jokes that her mother was especially pleased to know fiction wasn’t bleeding over to reality.

Jul 03, 2009 By John Everhart The Phantom Band

From their nebulous beginnings as cut-up pranksters, employing Felliniesque stage prop stunts like stairmasters and smoke-breathing wolf heads as well as an extemporaneous set of band names (NRA, Robert Redford, Tower of Girls), the wildly eclectic Glaswegian sextet The Phantom Band have gradually metamorphosed into a proper band and settled on the appropriately elusive moniker. Now they’ve got a great debut LP, Checkmate Savage, to show for it.

Jul 02, 2009 By Aaron Passman Bishop Allen

Shortly after beginning their Spring tour in support of the recently-released third album Grr…, Bishop Allen frontman Justin Rice spoke over the phone with Under the Radar while driving on the way to a gig in Salt Lake City. Not only is Rice the band’s frontman, but he’s gained a following in film circles as well, having acted in a number of films, including Mutual Appreciation, Let Them Chirp a While, Alexander the Last and, most recently, Harmony and Me.

Jun 30, 2009 By Frank Valish Web Exclusive

Lucky Soul is currently in the studio finalizing its sophomore album, which has yet to be titled. Two years since the release of its ‘60s girl group and Motown soul inflected debut, The Great Unwanted, the British band is prepared to move things in a slightly different direction, adding some different flavors to its anachronistic sound, which will hopefully distance the band from the retro label with which it was tagged as a result of its last album. Songwriter and guitarist Andrew Laidlaw corresponded with Under the Radar via email in between trips to Sweden where he was recording with Stockholm Strings to give a little taste of what we will be in for come the fall.

Jun 26, 2009 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

Even though actress Pell James has only about a dozen film credits to her name, she’s worked with an enviable list of directors that includes Terrence Malick, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Jim Jarmusch, Sidney Lumet, Barry Levinson, James Toback and James Marsh. Her latest film, Surveillance, is a twisted thriller directed by Jennifer Lynch, the daughter of David Lynch.

Jun 23, 2009 By Frank Valish Web Exclusive

In his more than 30 years of writing and recording—with The Soft Boys, The Egyptians, solo, and now The Venus 3—Robyn Hitchcock has firmly established himself within the pantheon of great English songwriters, dating back to the eccentric master himself, Syd Barrett. Hitchcock’s latest album, Goodnight Oslo, is his second with his Venus 3 band of Peter Buck (R.E.M.) on guitar, Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows) on bass, and Bill Rieflin (Ministry) on drums, and the album clearly demonstrates the rapport the musicians have established since 2006’s Olé Tarantula.