10 Best Songs of the Week: CMAT, Nourished By Time, Goon, The Mary Onettes, and More

Jun 20, 2025 Mark Redfern (with Issa Nasatir)

Welcome to the 21st Songs of the Week of 2025. This week Andy Von Pip, Caleb Campbell, Issa Nasatir, Scotty Dransfield, and Wendy Redfern helped me decide what should make the list. We considered over 40 songs and narrowed it down to a Top 10.

Digital Cover Story: Shirley Manson of Garbage on “Let All That We Imagine Be the Light”

May 30, 2025 Web Exclusive

Over nearly three decades, Garbage have forged a reputation for reinvention while staying true to their distinctive sound, a bold fusion of soaring guitars, atmospheric textures, and Shirley Manson’s fiercely captivating vocals. Their latest album, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, follows the critical success of 2021’s No Gods No Masters, but marks a significant departure. It’s an album that pulses with a renewed sense of hope and possibility. Beneath it all, Manson’s lyrics strike a delicate balance between vulnerability and defiance, capturing a band that remains at the peak of their creative powers.

Ezra Furman on “Goodbye Small Head”

May 30, 2025 Web Exclusive

“Everybody showed you a wall and you saw a doorway somehow,” says Ezra Furman like it’s magic or she’s a fairy godmother as she describes the ideas that informed “Strange Girl,” one of the more haunting songs off her latest album, Goodbye Small Head—released May 16, on the Bella Union label. The statement applies more broadly to her experience as trans in an increasingly hostile world: from transgender bathroom bans, to the denial of gender affirming care and rescinding hard-won rights that enabled the separation of sex from gender, it seeks to deny their existence and actively supports their erasure.

Sandhouse on Genre, Persona and Building Worlds

May 22, 2025

South London duo Sandhouse dive into genre fluidity, DIY visuals and the creative freedom behind their evolving sound.

Seven Music Documentary Films and Series From the Second Half of 2024 to Watch (and Three To Skip)

Jan 08, 2025

Halfway through 2024, we published a list of “Seven Music Documentary Films and Series From 2024 to Watch (and Three to Skip).” Another glut of music documentaries and series have been released since then including the superstar projects Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words (Prime Video), Luther: Never Too Much (CNN), Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken (Paramount+), Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Hulu), Olivia Rodrigo: Guts World Tour (Netflix), Elton John: Never Too Late (Disney+) and Yoshiki: Under the Sky (On Demand). If there is one takeaway from the overabundance of the biographical documentaries, it is that it’s best if the subject is not involved. The micromanaging of their story leaves viewers with a manicured and surface-level experience of the artist.

Although, the artist’s complete removal from the process can make a documentary spin into tabloid territory. There’s a lot of scandal on tap. Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter (Max) is the traumatic story of mental illness and sexual assault. While the latter is horrifying, the litigation is still underway. Why are the survivors on film talking about their experiences? Speaking of survivors, IMPACT x Nightline: Diddy’s Downfall (Hulu) is equally horrific and a far more disgusting explanation of the recent uncovering of Sean Combs’ abusive, and illegal actions during his entire time in the spotlight. Secret Life of Diddy: A Special Edition of 20/20 (Hulu) covers the exact same ground with many of the same talking heads journalists and individuals. On the positive side of hip hop, Tale of the Tape (Tubi) explores the world of mixtapes, the skill involved in making them, their impact on the culture and the legends of that scene. While the homemade quality of this short but deep unpacking is charming, it only speaks to people in that space and doesn’t go far in educating the uninitiated.

A brave director with a strong grasp on storytelling can create a compelling product that draws you in, whether or not you are interested in the artist or topic. But it feels like there is a positive correlation between the number of music documentaries released and how many of them aren’t worth pressing play on. Here are seven from the second half of 2024 that are worth watching and three not so much.—By Lily Moayeri

Festival Preview: Glastonbury Festival 2025

Jun 21, 2025 By Luciana Cacciatore

Worthy Farm opens its gates for the 2025 edition of Glastonbury Festival returns next week (25-29 June). Here, Under the Radar’s Luciana Cacciatore picks the 10 acts she’s most looking forward to seeing.

50% Off the Last Great Indie Rock Print Magazine – A Family-Run Labor of Love Since 2001

May 24, 2025 By Mark Redfern

While most music magazines have either shut down or pivoted to digital-only, Under the Radar is still here—still in print, still 100% independent, and still run by the same husband-and-wife team who started it all back in 2001. Subscribe here!