Under the Radar (magazine)

Under the Radar is an American magazine that bills itself as "The solution to music pollution." It features interviews with accompanying photo-shoots.

It includes opinion and commentary on the Indie music scene and reviews on books, DVDs and albums.

It reviews its items based on a unique rating system. Each album, book and DVD receives a numbered rating from 1 to 10. The editors have included a guide in each issue for reference, humorously representing each number with a socially sound explanation, supposedly used by the staffers themselves to rate the different items. In each issue, there are many exclusive interviews with artists from the Indie rock scene. The interviews are not presented in the standard "Q and A" format; rather, the question and answer is implemented among the article.

The magazine has been in publication since late 2001 and is issued quarterly each year, with seasonal Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall editions.

The magazine was founded by co-publishers and husband and wife Mark Redfern and Wendy Lynch Redfern and they still run the magazine to this day. The couple were married on June 2nd, 2007. Mark is also the magazine's Senior Editor and has written many of the magazine's articles. Lynch is also the Creative Director of Under the Radar and lays out each issue. She is also a music photographer and has conducted many photo-shoots for the magazine, including shooting many of its covers.

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 the summer of 2004 Under the Radar put out their Protest Issue, to coincide with the 2004 Presidential Election. The issue featured a huge special section on the intersection of politics and music, and included three big articles on the subject. To accompany the articles Under the Radar gave various bands poster board and paint and asked them to make their own protest signs. The bands were then photographed with their 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. The protest section incorporated interviews and/or photo shoots with protest music legends and big indie musicians, including: 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 and others. Both the Los Angeles Times and The Nation wrote articles on the magazine's Protest Issue.

Chris Walla Explains It All

Since Issue 7, 2004's The 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. His last column appeared in the Summer 2006 issue.

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.

Other info

• Has twice been nominated for the Plug Awards as Magazine of the Year.
• 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.
• Wendy Lynch Redfern, wife and business partner of co-founder Mark Redfern, is the main photographer.
• Under the Radar is published independently by a husband and wife partnership.
• The following bands have appeared on Under the Radar's covers: Grandaddy, The Divine Comedy, The Flaming Lips (with Beck on the back cover), Elliott Smith, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Rilo Kiley, Interpol, Bright Eyes, Super Furry Animals, Death Cab for Cutie, O Canada! (featuring members of Broken Social Scene, The Dears, Feist, k-os, Metric, The New Pornographers, Stars, and Tegan and Sara), Belle & Sebastian, The Raconteurs, The Dears, The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, Feist, and Tegan and Sara.
• Has presented indie rock concerts.
• Often has a day-party at the South By Southwest Music Conference and Festival each year in Austin, Texas.
• Has gained a large MySpace following through its group by the same name, as well as by hosting various groups dedicated to the many artists popularly featured in the magazine.
• Is sold in most record stores and book stores: Barnes and Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, Virgin Megastores, Amoeba Records, and others.
• Has reviewed the music festival Coachella every year since the magazine's inception.
• Regular staff writers/contributors include: Mike Barthel (also the TV Editor), Bryan Borzykowski, August Brown, Bob Canning, Lorraine Carpenter, Matthew Christoffersen, Nate Daly, Chris Drabick (also the Alt-country/Americana Reviews Editor), Laura Ferreiro, Matt Fink, Jumana Farouky, Cory Frye (also the Reissues and Jazz Reviews Editor), Ryan Gillespie, Tim Grierson, Nick Hyman (also the DVD and Video Game Reviews Editor), Marcus Kagler, Gary Knight, Shannon McCarthy, Lily Moayeri, John Motley, Dave Obenour, Jason Pace, Joseph Ragusa, Mark Redfern, Michelle Salzman, Jim Scott (also the Hip-Hop Reviews editor), Justin Sohl, John Srebalus, Paul Sikes, Chris Tinkham (also the Online Cinema Editor), Frank Valish (also the Book Reviews Editor), and Chris Walla.
• Regular photographers include: Crackerfarm, Mike Lum, Wendy Lynch Redfern, Sean McCabe, Derrick Santini, and Andy Willsher. The following photographers have also conducted exclusive photo-shoots for the magazine: Christophe Collete, Steven Dewall, Autumn de Wilde, Aubrey Edwards, Hugo morris, David Redfern, Drew Reynolds, Nicky Sims, Jayme Thornton, and Celeste Wells.
• Regular copy-editors, proof-readers, and line-editors include: Heidi Antocicco, Zeenat Burns, Nathan Daly, Allison Jacobson, Ahmi Ko, Kate Mercier de Vriend, and Mandy Willingham.
• Advertising sales are handled by Robert Gleim.
• The magazine also posts web-exclusive interviews and reviews on their website from time to time.

External links

• Official site
• Under the Radar's MySpace group