''Under the Radar'' is an American music
magazine
A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
that features interviews with accompanying photo-shoots. Each issue includes opinion and commentary of the
indie music scene as well as reviews of books, DVDs, and albums. The magazine posts web-exclusive interviews and reviews on its website.
Items are reviewed based on a rating system in which each album, book, and DVD receives a rating from 1 to 10. The magazine has been in publication since late 2001 and is issued three times per year.
The magazine was founded by co-publishers (and husband and wife) Mark Redfern and Wendy Lynch Redfern, who currently run the magazine. Mark is the magazine's Senior Editor and writes many of the magazine's articles. Wendy is the Creative Director and lays out each issue. She is also a
music photographer and conducts photo-shoots for the magazine, including many of its covers.
Contents
It was the first American magazine to interview the following non-American bands:
the Aliens,
the Besnard Lakes,
the Dears,
the Duke Spirit,
the Earlies,
Editors,
the Go! Team,
Hope of the States,
iLiKETRAiNS,
I'm from Barcelona,
the Long Blondes,
Los Campesinos!,
Love Is All,
Lucky Soul,
Mew,
Mugison,
Mystery Jets,
the Pipettes,
the Research,
Serena Maneesh,
the Sleepy Jackson,
Taken By Trees,
the Thrills, and
Young Galaxy. It was also the first print magazine to interview
Vampire Weekend and
Fleet Foxes.
Photographers who have shot for the magazine include: Crackerfarm, Wendy Lynch Redfern, Ray Lego, Koury Angelo, Ian Maddox, James Loveday,
Autumn de Wilde, and
David Redfern.
Issues
''Under the Radar'' has had 72 print magazine issues since its debut in December 2001.
* Issue 1:
Grandaddy (Dec 2001)
* Issue 2:
The Divine Comedy (Jul 2002)
* Issue 3:
The Flaming Lips (Oct 2002)
* Issue 4:
Elliott Smith (Mar 2003)
* Issue 5:
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Oct 2003)
* Issue 6:
Rilo Kiley (Jul 2004)
* Issue 7:
Interpol (Protest Issue)
ct 2004* Issue 8:
Bright Eyes (Jan 2005)
* Issue 9:
Super Furry Animals (Mar 2005)
* Issue 10:
Death Cab for Cutie (Jul 2005)
* Issue 11: O Canada! (Oct 2005)
* Issue 12:
Belle and Sebastian (Jan 2006)
* Issue 13:
The Raconteurs (Mar 2006)
* Issue 14:
The Dears (Jul 2006)
* Issue 15:
The Decemberists (Oct 2006)
* Issue 16:
Modest Mouse (Jan 2007)
* Issue 17:
Feist (Mar 2007)
* Issue 18:
Tegan and Sara (Jul 2007)
* Issue 19:
Beirut
Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
(Oct 2007)
* Issue 20:
She & Him (Jan 2008)
* Issue 21:
Flight of the Conchords (Mar 2008)
* Issue 22:
Colin Meloy,
Chris Walla, and
Britt Daniel (Protest Issue)
ul 2008* Issue 23:
Jenny Lewis (Oct 2008)
* Issue 24:
Meric Long,
Robin Pecknold, and
Ezra Koenig (Dec 2008)
* Issue 25:
Grizzly Bear (Feb 2009)
* Issue 26:
Bat for Lashes (Apr 2009)
* Issue 27:
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...
(Jul 2009)
* Issue 28:
Monsters of Folk (Sep 2009)
* Issue 29:
Ben Gibbard,
Kevin Barnes,
Devendra Banhart,
Jenny Lewis, and
Bradford Cox (Dec 2009)
* Issue 30:
Vampire Weekend (Mar 2010)
* Issue 31:
Joanna Newsom (May 2010)
* Issue 32:
Matt Berninger (Jul 2010)
* Issue 33:
Interpol (Oct 2010)
* Issue 34:
Sufjan Stevens (Dec 2010)
* Issue 35:
Death Cab for Cutie (Feb 2011)
* Issue 36:
Aziz Ansari (May 2011)
* Issue 37:
St. Vincent (Jul 2011)
* Issue 38:
Robin Pecknold and
Joanna Newsom (Oct 2011)
* Issue 39:
Faris Badwan,
M83, and
Bon Iver (Jan 2012)
* Issue 40:
Ed Droste,
David Longstreth, and
Twin Shadow (Mar 2012)
* Issue 41:
Yeasayer (May 2012)
* Issue 42:
Tegan and Sara and
Dan Deacon (Protest Issue)
ug 2012* Issue 43:
Animal Collective (Nov 2012)
* Issue 44:
Grimes (Jan 2013)
* Issue 45:
Phoenix (Mar 2013)
* Issue 46:
Charli XCX
Charlotte Emma Aitchison (born 2 August 1992), known professionally as Charli XCX, is a British singer and songwriter. She began posting songs on Myspace in 2008 before entering the London rave scene. Signing a recording contract with Asylum Re ...
(Jun 2013)
* Issue 47:
MGMT (Sep 2013)
* Issue 48:
HAIM (Nov 2013)
* Issue 49:
Fred Armisen and
Carrie Brownstein (Feb 2014)
* Issue 50:
Future Islands (May 2014)
* Issue 51:
alt-J (Sep 2014)
* Issue 52:
St. Vincent (Dec 2014)
* Issue 53:
Tame Impala (Apr 2015)
* Issue 54:
CHVRCHES
Chvrches (stylised CHVRCHΞS and pronounced "Churches") are a Scottish synth-pop band from Glasgow, formed in September 2011. The band consists of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and, unofficially since 2018, Jonny Scott. Mostly deriv ...
(Aug 2015)
* Issue 55:
EL VY (Nov 2015)
* Issue 56:
Father John Misty and
Wolf Alice (Jan 2016)
* Issue 57:
M83 (May 2016)
* Issue 58:
Amanda Palmer (Protest Issue)
ep 2016* Issue 59:
The Flaming Lips (Dec 2016)
* Issue 60:
Father John Misty (Apr 2017)
* Issue 61:
Grizzly Bear (Jul 2017)
* Issue 62:
Julien Baker (Oct 2017)
* Issue 63:
Courtney Barnett (Mar 2018)
* Issue 64:
Kamasi Washington (Aug 2018)
* Issue 65:
Mitski and
boygenius (Mar 2019)
* Issue 66:
Angel Olsen and
Sleater-Kinney (Sep 2019)
* Issue 67:
Phoebe Bridgers and
Moses Sumney (Sep 2020)
* Issue 68:
Japanese Breakfast and
HAIM (Protest Issue) (Apr 2021)
* Issue 69: 20th Anniversary Issue (Dec 2021)
* Issue 70:
Sharon Van Etten and
Ezra Furman (Nov 2022)
* Issue 71:
Weyes Blood and
Black Belt Eagle Scout (Apr 2023)
* Issue 72:
The Cardigans and
Thurston Moore (Apr 2024)
Special issues and features
Issue 10, the Summer 2005 issue, featured the
Britpop: A Decade On special section. The section featured new interviews with key members of mid-1990s Britpop bands.
For Issue 11, the Fall 2005 issue, ''Under the Radar'' ran a big 36-page special section on Canadian indie rock. The section included interviews with Canadian bands.
In Issue 17, the Spring 2007 issue, ''Under the Radar'' ran a 15-page special section entitled Music vs. Film. For the section, British band
Kaiser Chiefs interviewed comedian/actor/writer
Simon Pegg and
Kevin Drew of the Canadian collective
Broken Social Scene interviewed Irish actor
Cillian Murphy. The section also included an interview with singer/actress
Charlotte Gainsbourg. In addition, various bands wrote about their favorite movies.
For Issue 29, the Winter 2009 issue, included a Best of the Decade section, where a Top 200 Albums of the Decade list was featured.
Issue 36, the Spring 2011 issue, featured a special section entitled Music vs. Comedy, which featured interviews between music artists and comedians.
Issue 38, the Fall 2011 issue, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the magazine's debut. It featured an extensive interview between
Robin Pecknold of
Fleet Foxes and
Joanna Newsom, along with new interviews with the artists that graced the cover of the first six editions. The magazine then celebrated its 15th anniversary with Issue 59, the Winter 2016 edition.
Issue 66, the Fall 2019 issue, featured a section entitled My Favorite Album, where many artists (including
the Flaming Lips,
Slowdive,
Wilco, and many more) talk about their all-time favorite album.
Elliott Smith's last interview
In 2003, Mark Redfern and writer Marcus Kagler interviewed acclaimed singer/songwriter
Elliott Smith for an ''Under the Radar'' cover story and Wendy Lynch photographed him for the cover. It was the first interview that Smith had done in a couple of years and at the time he was hard at work on his album ''
From a Basement on the Hill''. Elliott Smith killed himself later that year and the ''Under the Radar'' feature ended up being Smith's last interview and photo-shoot.
The Protest Issue
In
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
and
2008, coinciding with the U.S. presidential elections, ''Under the Radar'' put together special "Protest Issue." In addition to politically themed articles, bands were photographed with self-made protest signs and the photos ran in the issue. The autographed protest signs were later auctioned off on
eBay, with all the profits donated to the political action group Music for America. This trend continued for both the
2012 and
2016 U.S. presidential elections. The latest Protest Issue was released in 2021 and features
Japanese Breakfast and
HAIM on the covers.
U.S. political magazine ''
The Nation'' named ''Under the Radar'' the Most Valuable Music Magazine in their 2016 Progressive Honor Roll.
Chris Walla Explains It All
From issue 7, 2004 through issue 22, 2008's editions of "The Protest issue",
Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
producer
Chris Walla has written a regular column for ''Under the Radar'' entitled "Chris Walla Explains It All".
Versus
From time to time, ''Under the Radar'' has a special feature where a current musician interviews for the magazine a musician whom they admire and who has influenced them. Versus features have included:
Clinic vs.
Can,
Devendra Banhart vs.
Donovan,
the Dresden Dolls vs.
Bauhaus,
Love Is All vs.
the Vaselines,
Primal Scream vs.
the Cramps, and
the Thrills vs.
Brian Wilson.
In popular culture
A fictitious cover of ''Under the Radar'' magazine makes an appearance in the 2019
Oscar-winning film ''
Sound of Metal''.
Awards
The magazine has been nominated as the
Plug Awards "Magazine of the Year" three times.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Under The Radar (Magazine)
Music magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 2001
Magazines published in Los Angeles