Under the Radar Magazine Under the Radar | Music Blog for the Indie Music Magazine
Thursday, March 28th, 2024  
Vivian Girls

Sep 02, 2008 Vivian Girls

For Cassie, Katy, and Ali of Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls, being in a band began as a fun extension of a life filled with other pursuits. When the band started in March 2007, Cassie was studying illustration at Pratt Institute, Katy was finishing degrees in physics and education at Rutgers University, and Ali, also at Rutgers, was majoring in German. However, after three 7” singles and a limited-run pressing of the band’s debut album—which sold out within a week of its May release—things have been heating up. In fact, Cassie, Katy, and, Ali—who all prefer to be referred to only by their first names—were lucky to make it out of school at all. More

The Week That Was

Sep 02, 2008 The Week That Was

If you want to watch broadcast television in the United Kingdom, you must purchase an annual “television license” that costs well over 100 pounds. For Peter Brewis—who along with his brother, David, forms the core of Sunderland indie-rock band Field Music—having to pay the fee again after moving into a new apartment was all the excuse he needed to finally do what he’d long threatened: get rid of his television. More

The Verve

Sep 02, 2008 The Verve

The fact that The Verve’s 1997 breakthrough mainstream hit was a song called “Bittersweet Symphony” is apt in almost every way. Not only did the track catapult the little-known and criminally ignored band from Wigan, England into superstardom, it also epitomized their future (or lack thereof) and proved to be a fitting epitaph for a band on the cusp of continually falling apart. Indeed, when “Bittersweet Symphony” became a hit, it already seemed that The Verve’s days were numbered. More

Okkervil River

Sep 02, 2008 Okkervil River

Okkervil River singer/guitarist Will Sheff is having more fun these days. Before 2005’s Black Sheep Boy charmed critics, he was seriously contemplating throwing in the towel. “Basically, I was broke,” he says from his home in Brooklyn. “I was totally broke, and I’d been broke for my entire adult life.” More

Of Montreal

Sep 02, 2008 of Montreal

“Everybody involved is so emotionally invested in Of Montreal that it’s become like a cult,” says Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal’s master of ceremonies. He’s assessing not only the status of his band in the public eye—due to mount with the release of the band’s exceptional new album, Skeletal Lamping, to be promoted on tour with a “show to end all shows”—but the drive among its members and in the extended family that makes all their DIY dreams come true. More

Mumford and Sons

Sep 02, 2008 Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis

“Not everyone sees the genius in bluegrass,” says Mumford and Sons vocalist/guitarist Marcus Mumford. “Our banjo player, Winston, is the driving force behind the bluegrass leanings in Mumford and Sons. He taught himself how to play banjo while in high school. He’s really the bluegrass guy, but we all love it.” More

Girl Talk

Sep 01, 2008 Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis

“I still question it, because I feel like anyone can make great music,” replies Gregg Gillis when asked about his status as the current king of mash-up remixes, the leading face in the most faceless of musical movements. Only a few days after the online-only release of Feed the Animals, his much-anticipated followup to 2006’s breakthrough Night Ripper, Gillis is in a grateful mood. After all, just over two years ago, he was working a day job, thrilled to be performing for crowds of 30 in his native Pittsburgh. More

Fujiya & Miyagi

Sep 01, 2008 Fujiya & Miyagi

For all you Yanks, let’s get one thing out of the way: The song “Knickerbocker” and its lyric “knickerbocker glory” have nothing to do with basketball. It’s the U.K. equivalent of an ice cream sundae. It’s also the sonic confection opening Fujiya & Miyagi’s third full-length, Lightbulbs. More

Frances

Sep 01, 2008 Frances

Between the two of them, Frances’ Paul Hogan and Brian Betancourt are in the midst of counting just how many instruments were involved in the making of the Brooklyn-based band’s full-length debut, All the While. They are talking themselves through the numbers like two students working out some difficult mathematics problem, and just as the bandmates are about to settle on a final estimate, Hogan remembers to bring up their song, “Decoy.” More