Anthony picked this up for me because of my current Zooey Deschanel obsession (patron saint if she hasn't been declared one yet) and the cover article which is an interview with m.ward and zooey deschanel about their collaborative project She&Him and it is a good piece. Some words to live by from Zooey D. about her fear of sending her demos to M. Ward because she figured that as an actress she wouldn't be taken seriously as a musician: at first "I was like,AW, I can't do it [send the demos]. Then I realized, I actually had this moment where I was like, You know what? Worst case, he's like, It's not for me...But if you never try,then you never know if something works out."
She goes on to talk about how they are both Emmylou Harris fans (patron saint number 8 gazillion) and old music and sounds. And I think that is what separates Zooey from other actresses putting out albums now is that she is genuinely interested in not just music but experimenting with sound and finding new ways to put sounds together and that is what makes her sincere to me and what makes me look forward to her release and hope that tour dates are some day announced for nyc.
The other thing that is great about this issue is that they have a pretty wide-ranging number of "best of 2007" lists and they aren't all by critics they asked artists what was important in 2007 to a number of artists like art brut, camera obscura and modest mouse and the lists were pretty interesting and ranged from various releases to takes on the war, and other events and show the idiosyncratic nature of inspiration. Also amazing is their review section which is pretty comprehensive in terms of indie releases and goes on to include books, dvds, video games, and comic books. And the writing isn't going to garner any Pulitzer Prizes but it doesn't fall prey to the overly adjectival gush of much "under the radar-type" writing and it also isn't totally negative. You might agree or disagree but I think they try and be neutral and don't totally fall for hype and do a good job of mixing high name values with no-recognition names. The forthcoming releases feature (besides She&Him) A Place to Bury Strangers, The Mary Onettes, The Black Angels, Camera Obscura, The Dears and Death Cab for Cutie.
I got a couple things highlighted in their review section--Vampire Weekend which features a song called "Mansard Roof" and songs about architecture will win my affection every time..but I've found this release has been pretty hyped but so far I like it. The other thing that I grabbed that got a decent review is Black Mountain who are very very like the velvet underground and have that trippy drone thing down but the bass is great.
So I give two thumbs up to this issue of the magazine. Under the Radar is published quarterly so I want to pick up another issue before I decide if it is worth my precious and very undisposable income for a subscription. But this issue gets a big rupert righteous cheer.
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