Oct 14, 2013 By Matt Fink Web Exclusive

For our Track-by-Track feature, we go in-depth with an artist about each song on their new album. This week we are featuring of Montreal‘s Lousy With Sylvianbriar, and for the next three days we’ll post commentary by frontman Kevin Barnes on all of the album’s songs. Lousy With Sylvianbriar was released last week on Polyvinyl.

Oct 11, 2013 By Austin Trunick The Stepkids

With its unusual blend of funk, soul, and trippy jazz, the self-titled debut from Connecticut’s The Stepkids was one of the most offbeat records to make Under the Radar‘s 2011 Best Albums of the Year list.

Oct 11, 2013 By Laura Studarus

Bloc Party frontman and solo artist Kele Okereke does not have Shazam installed on his phone.

Oct 10, 2013 By Dan Lucas Weekend

When you think of post-punk’s 1980s heyday, the mind doesn’t tend to wander too far outside of London. Killing Joke, The Cure, and Wire were all huge influences on the New York scene that followed and warped into New Wave, so it seems a little incongruous that one of the most exciting bands leading its revival actually hails from sunny California.

Oct 08, 2013 By Laura Studarus Issue #47 - September/October 2013 - MGMT

After six albums skittering from haunted ambient soundscapes to hypersexualized dance floor fodder to dream-influenced folk, both members of London-based Goldfrapp admit that it would be near impossible to sum up their body of work in a single concise statement.

Oct 07, 2013 By Mark Redfern Issue #47 - September/October 2013 - MGMT

For this My Firsts we talk to The Love Language‘s Stuart McLamb. The North Carolina native is the main creative force behind the band, whose third album, Ruby Red, was released in July by Merge.

Oct 04, 2013 By Laura Studarus Trentemøller

On a recent tour opening for Depeche Mode, Anders Trentemøller (known professionally by his last name) discovered that he has a fan in the band’s chief songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Martin Gore.

Oct 03, 2013 By Matt Fink of Montreal

It has been nearly 10 years since he pulled off one of the most unexpected mid-career reinventions in recent rock history, stripping of Montreal down to its psychedelic twee foundation and rebuilding it as an electronic pop band, but Kevin Barnes has never stopped reimagining his sound.

Oct 01, 2013 By Chris Tinkham First Aid Kit

This week, Swedish duo First Aid Kit is making a brief return to the U.S. for select performances on both coasts, including a set on Sunday at the inaugural Way Over Yonder festival in Santa Monica. Sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg kick things off tonight by revisiting the Late Show With David Letterman, this time to perform front and center. In November 2011, they appeared on the show, singing backup for Lykke Li. Under the Radar spoke with Johanna and Klara Söderberg last week, while they were still in Stockholm, to ask them about their appearance at Way Over Yonder and how things are progressing on the follow-up to First Aid Kit’s critically acclaimed 2012 LP, The Lion’s Roar.