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Apr 29, 2020 By Mark Redfern Photography by Sean McCabe Bright Eyes

While 51 of our 66 back issues are still available to buy directly from us, some are long out of print and sold out. One such issue is our eighth issue, from 2005 and featuring Bright Eyes on the cover. None of the articles from the issue are archived on our website. To reinvigorate our dormant Patreon crowd-funding page, we will be uploading jpegs of the issue there, one article each weekday. To access them all you need to do is support us on Patreon with a contribution of at least $1.00 a month.

To be honest, running a truly independent indie rock print magazine and website was already a precarious business prior to the pandemic, but thanks to the coronavirus our revenue is down across the board and government assistance for small businesses has not come through for us as of yet (and probably never will). We have plans for some ambitious print issues this year, but those aspirations have been delayed due to COVID-19, as most stores are currently closed and not accepting new magazines and it’s a challenging time to fund the issues with print advertising. While we readily acknowledge that in this crisis there are organizations that could use your aid more than us, if you value what Under the Radar does then consider signing up to our Patreon page.

Issue 8 not only features an in-depth cover story article on Bright Eyes, in which Matt Fink interviewed Conor Oberst about the band’s two albums released that year, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. The issue also features a special Under the Influence section with joint interviews between a younger artist and a more established one who influenced them, including Devendra Banhart interviewing Donovan, Clinic’s Ade Blackburn interviewing Can’s Irmin Schmidt, The Thrills’ Conor Deasy interviewing The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie interviewing The Cramps’ Lux Interior and Poison Ivy.

The issue also includes interviews with Muse, The Zutons, The Dresden Dolls, The Go! Team, Blue States, The Bees, UNKLE, Ian Brown of The Stone Roses, Ed Harcourt, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Tim Booth of James, Supergrass, and The Delgados. Plus, we profiled the British label Memphis Industries, several notable musicians sent us photos of them voting during the 2004 presidential election and Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie contributed another installment of his then regular column Chris Walla Explains It All.

The issue also features our Best Albums, Best Songs, Best Debut Albums, and Most Overrated Albums of 2004 lists and our 2004 Artist Survey section, which includes interviews with Tegan and Sara, Caribou, Doves, The Decemberists, Idlewild, Mew, My Morning Jacket, of Montreal, and more.

Check out the table of contents below.

Visit our Patreon page every weekday to read every article and review. We will also upload all the vintage ads from the 15-year-old issue.

Any funds we receive on Patreon go towards keeping our website running, as well as towards efforts to publish future print issues.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.