Under the Radar (magazine)

Under the Radar is an American magazine that bills itself as "The solution to music pollution" and features interviews with accompanying photo-shoots. Each issue includes opinion and commentary of the Indie music scene as well as reviews on books, DVDs and albums.

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 quarterly each year, with Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall editions.

The magazine was founded by co-publishers (and husband and wife) Mark Redfern and Wendy Lynch Redfern who were married on June 2, 2007 and currently run the magazine. Mark is the magazine's Senior Editor and writes many of the magazine's articles. Lynch 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 and reception

• Three time Plug Awards "Magazine of the Year" nominee.^[1]
• 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.
• Has reviewed the music festival Coachella every year since the magazine's inception.
• Notable photographers who have shot for the magazine include: Crackerfarm, Wendy Lynch Redfern, Autumn de Wilde, and David Redfern.
• The magazine posts web-exclusive interviews and reviews on their website.

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 a Hill. Elliott Smith took his own life later that year and the Under the Radar feature ended up being Smith's last ever interview and photo-shoot.

The Protest Issue

In 2004 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. Previous participants have included: Yoko Ono, Billy Bragg, Death Cab for Cutie, Badly Drawn Boy, Joan Baez, Devendra Banhart, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Bright Eyes, David Cross, Cursive, The Decemberists, Ani DiFranco, Elbow, Faithless, Perry Farrell, The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Interpol, Iron and Wine, Ted Leo, Les Savy Fav, Le Tigre, Luna, MC5, Metric, Pedro the Lion, Radio 4, The Secret Machines, Pete Seeger, The Sleepy Jackson, Super Furry Animals, They Might Be Giants, Sharon Jones, St. Vincent, Built to Spill, The Dresden Dolls, Modest Mouse, Jarvis Cocker, Shout Out Louds, The Dears, British Sea Power, Foals, Jamie Lidell, The Duke Spirit, Neon Neon, Lightspeed Champion, Stars.

Chris Walla Explains It All

From issue 7, 2004's The Protest Issue,through issue 22, 2008's Protest issue, Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and respected Indie rock producer Chris Walla has written a regular column for Under the Radar entitled Chris Walla Explains It All.

Under the Influence

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. Under the Influence 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 (of The Beach Boys).

Britpop: A Decade On special section

Issue 10, the Summer 2005 issue, featured the Britpop: A Decade On special section. The section featured new interviews with key members of the following mid-'90s Britpop bands: Ash, The Bluetones, Blur, The Charlatans, Elastica, Embrace, Gene, Kula Shaker, Longpigs, Lush, Menswear, Pulp, Rialto, Sleeper, and Teenage Fanclub (plus Kaiser Chiefs and The Dears on Britpop).

The Canada Issue

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 such notable Canadian bands as Apostle of Hustle, Bell Orchestre (Arcade Fire side-project), Black Mountain, Broken Social Scene, The Constantines, The Dears, Feist, Final Fantasy, Hank, The Hidden Cameras, Hot Hot Heat, k-os, Metric, The Most Serene Republic, The New Pornographers, Pony Up!, Stars, The Stills, Tegan and Sara, Wolf Parade and more.

Music vs. Film Section

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 (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) and Kevin Drew of the Canadian collective Broken Social Scene interviewed Irish actor Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Batman Begins, Sunshine). The section also included an interview with singer/actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. Various bands also wrote about their favorite movies.

References

External links

• Official site