Jun 30, 2011 By Mike Hilleary #37 – St. Vincent

Like a lot of songwriters, Trevor Powers has learned that the best musical inspiration often comes at the expense of a broken heart. For four years the young native of Boise, Idaho had been with a girl—as he saw it, the girl. Last year, however, things began to unravel, and Powers, who had typically spent his free time jamming with various friends, had suddenly taken to a more solitary outlet.

Jun 21, 2011 By Matt Fink Web Exclusive

It’s an oft-repeated maxim that most musicians secretly want to be comedians and comedians secretly want to be musicians, and it often follows that drummers are seen as the most reliable resources of humor within bands. Looking over the history of rock music, there seems to be some truth to this.

Jun 10, 2011 By Matt Fink The Rosebuds

Under the Radar’s Music vs. Comedy Issue, which is on stands now, features an article entitled “A Mutual Admiration Society: Where Comedy and Music Meet.” For that article we interviewed The Rosebuds’ Kelly Crisp, among others, and included a few quotes from him. Below is the full transcript of our interview with Crisp.

Jun 06, 2011 By Matt Fink Les Savy Fav

Despite the fact that musicians and comedians appear to share a healthy respect for each other’s crafts, it’s still rare that an established artist in one art form makes a serious attempt to cross over into the other. Rarer still is the artist who can do both well, an exclusive group which includes Tim Harrington and very few others. As the lead vocalist and kinetic focal point of art-rockers Les Savy Fav, Harrington and his bandmates have earned a place in the indie rock panoply with a series of increasingly ambitious releases, but in 2008 he took a considerably larger risk. He started Beardo, a sketch comedy show for Pitchfork.tv where he writes, arranges, and performs in skits that range from the absurd (a vampire whose sexual conquests are foiled by flaccid incisors) and the satirical (an indie all-star charity song to benefit the rich) to the darkly cynical (a man ghostwriting a suicide note for a friend who uses it to score points against his ex-girlfriend). In so doing, Harrington has proven that with comedy, a little bit of audacity goes a long way.

Jun 01, 2011 By Matt Fink #36 - Music vs. Comedy

Of all of the comedians who traverse the landscape stretching between the music and comedy scenes, it’s possible that none has become more synonymous with that intersection than Neil Hamburger. Wearing a tuxedo and a greasy comb-over, the alter ego of Gregg Turkington emerged in the early ’90s and became a curiously cranky counterpoint to the sardonically detached underground comedians of the era, delivering question/answer jokes in poor taste and with bad timing.

May 30, 2011 By Lauren Barbato Web Exclusive

Having a conversation with Akron/Family’s Seth Olinsky is a lot like listening to one of their albums unfold in its entirety. It swells and builds from one vaguely connected thought to another, all the while working on a seemingly higher level of consciousness that Olinsky swears is just an effect from an absurd amount of coffee consumption.

May 27, 2011 By Kenny S. McGuane Wild Beasts

Kendal, England’s Wild Beasts have just released their third album, Smother, to what is pretty much worldwide acclaim. Known for their elaborate but spacious arrangements and the flabbergasting vocal techniques of the male alto Hayden Thorpe, Wild Beasts make music where the weird meets the gorgeous, the creepy meets the sexy and the devastating meets the inspirational.

May 26, 2011 By Hays Davis Booker T. Jones

Booker T. Jones was a master of musical economy from the start. After settling in as a studio musician for Stax Records in Memphis, Jones formed Booker T. and the M.G.‘s with fellow Stax players in 1962, and the instrumental group enjoyed hit singles of their own while serving as the label’s house band.

May 26, 2011 By Matt Fink #36 - Music vs. Comedy

The late Andy Kaufman once bristled at the suggestion that he was a comedian, contending that comedians told jokes while he was simply an entertainer, an artist who would use whatever he had—songs, props, characters—to make you laugh. As the 2006 winner of “The Andy Kaufman Award,” Reggie Watts is also an entertainer for whom the word “comedian” seems insufficient.