Under the Radar is proud to present Brooklyn trio Hawk and Dove to Indianapolis May 31 at Fletcher Place Arts and Books.  Hawk and Dove has been described as “the loudest quiet band you have ever heard.” The band released their debut album last year entitled This Yesterday Will Never End.

Steven and the Savvy is a collective of musicians based out of Bloomington with an eclectic style of indie rock.

Ryan Puett is a local Indianapolis singer-songwriter that does a variety of folk-inspired music.

The show is $5 at the door.  Doors will be at 8 with music starting at 9.

Check out the Facebook event page to RSVP.

Swimm, formerly Le Blorr, is releasing their debut EP under their new moniker tomorrow.  The Florida band is touching on all the elements that they have utilized in their past work as Le Blorr on this EP.  It’s eclectic, its fun, and it’s a great listen.  SWIMM nicely interweaves various elements of the rock world into a great psychedelic exploration in their EP Feel.  You can definitely hear a maturation of their sound on this effort compared with their Le Blorr work.  It’s a more polished and crisp sound.  We’re featuring two tracks off the new EP below.  Give it a listen.

We’re very eager and excited for our show with Seryn at Birdy’s tomorrow night.  Under the Radar is proud to present the Denton, Texas folk band.  Seryn is currently on a nationwide tour, and Indy is the third stop on the tour.  Under the Radar has seen Seryn before, and they are a fantastic example of folk meets world meets roots music.  If you’re planning on going, you can still buy tickets online until midnight tonight at Brown Paper Tickets.  If not, we’d still love you to come out.  It’s $15 at the door.  The doors open at 8 with music at 9.  Caleb McCoach will be the first opener at 9 with Silver Tongues playing around 9:45.  Seryn will take the stage around 11.  We hope to see you guys at the show.

Here are a couple videos from Seryn as well as their full-length album, courtesy of Spotify.

SWIMM, formerly Le Blorr, has been a favorite of Under the Radar for quite awhile.  They have a new EP due out April 23 called Feel.  Even though the band has changed names, they haven’t changed their musical style in any noticeable way.  It’s still garage rock meets psychedelia.  One of the songs off the new EP titled “Tisk Tisk” is a great example of the band’s style, hopefully offers up a good indication of what’s to come on the EP.  Enjoy the track below.

The Growl’s LP What Would Christ Do?? came out yesterday, and I was not in any way disappointed.  This is an album that completely had me engaged from the first track “Eleven” to the conclusion “Sailor’s Son.”  It’s an eclectic album that provides the listener with a ton to digest after delving into the album’s eleven tracks.

There are great dirty distorted blues tracks such as “Cleaver Lever” and “John the Revelator.”  There are experimental tracks like the otherworldly Orwellian “Niywtwloe.”  There are also stripped down tracks that bring the simplicity of the songwriting to the forefront in the tracks “In the Belly of the Beast” and “Sailor’s Son.”  There is an overriding old-school blues influence present throughout the entire album, but The Growl have managed to make a sound that developed in the 1930′s and 40′s sound as fresh and exciting as it ever has.  Their experimentation with the sound through distortion and other effects is one of the most interesting and unique interpretations of blues rock that I’ve ever heard.

The stand out track of the album for me is “Douse the Lamps.”  It’s a rip-roaring rock song that is beautiful in its grit and grime.  You can really feel the passion and emotion behind the lyrics and the music in that track.  That is also apparent throughout the album: emotion.  Cam Avery’s voice makes you feel the struggle, strain, joy, and pain in every note that he sings.

The other unique and amazing element of The Growl is their reliance on a stand-up bass and double drums.  It really emphasizes the bass sound throughout the heavier tracks on the album.  I was reminded of the amazing bass drum work on Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” on a number of the tracks on What Would Christ Do??  That’s high praise from someone who is obsessed with Led Zeppelin and John Bonham in particular.

This album will be very, very difficult to dismount from the top album of 2013 mantle that I’m currently placing it on.  What Would Christ Do?? is one of the best albums I’ve heard over the course of the last 5-10 years.  Tame Impala and Pond have been my favorite bands the last couple years, but yet another Perth band has replaced their fellow brethren.  I love blues music, and the Growl has managed to make me reimagine what blues music can become in the modern world.

It’s fantastic, it’s amazing, it’s a must listen and a must buy.  Give it a listen below, and then buy this one.

The Growl has a penchant for taking old-school blues, throwing them in a blender, stomping on them with a muddy boot, tossing in some experimentation with noise and craziness, and coming up with some sort of amazing amalgamation of sound that leaves the listener craving more.  The lead singer, Cam Avery, has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard for a lead singer for a rock band, which just caps off the amazing music that these guys are producing.  Double drums, an amazing singer, and a love of the blues makes What Would Christ Do?? one of the most anticipated albums of the year.  Give a listen to a few of the tracks that will be featured on the album below.  ”Douse the Lamps” is a live stripped down version of the song recorded in Toronto on their recent jaunt across America opening for Tame Impala.  There is also an amazing cover from the same recording in Toronto of the classic Blind Willie Johnson song “John the Revelator.”

White Fence

The Black Angels

Suuns

Kurt Vile

We’ve got quite an eclectic mix for you in our April broadcast.  Excited for a lot of underground artists from all over the world.  WHILE YOU’RE LISTENING, ALSO PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT KICKSTARTER HERE TO HELP US RAISE MONEY FOR OUR PA SYSTEM SO WE CAN CONTINUE TO PUT ON GREAT LIVE SHOWS IN INDY.  ANY DONATION HELPS.  DEADLINE APRIL 26 @ 5 AM FOR ALL DONATIONS.  Check out the show below:

Playlist

• White Fence – “Pink Gorilla”
• Guuns – “Green Sky Tangerine”
• Devendra Banhart  - “Hatch Wound”
• Lee Noble – “Born Mistake”
• Palma Violets – “Best of Friends”
• Jake Bugg – “Two Fingers”
• The Peach Kings – “Like a Stone”
• Vamos – “Stones”
• The Black Angels – “Evil Things”
• Sigur Ros – “Brennisteinn”
• Suuns – “Powers of Ten”
• The Besnard Lakes – “46 Satires”
• Port St. Willow – “Tourist”
• Kurt Vile – “Wakin’ on a Pretty Day”

Palma Violets

Sigur Ros

Suuns

One of my favorite band’s leadman is back after a long hiatus with an upcoming EP release due out later this month.  The first song off the EP has been released entitled “Long Way to Go.”  It’s not quite as good as many other Wolfmother tracks but it’s got the all the hallmarks of Wolfmother.  Heavy guitar riffs, great solo work, and classic 70′s rock done its proper justice.  Wolfmother will be opening for Aerosmith later this month as well in Australia.  That is a great pairing because Wolfmother reminds me very much of early Toys in the Attic Aerosmith (back when they were good).

If you didn’t know also Wolfmother and Stockdale are from Australia (my musical mecca).  I really believe that they helped to usher in this great era of rock ‘n roll streaming out of the continent Down Under.

Here’s the video for “Long Way to Go.”  I also included a couple videos from some video sessions Stockdale did with some of his new music.

The Brits have always produced my favorite bands throughout the years.  They have better taste in music generally than us Americans, in my humble opinion.  Another great British band that has received a ton of hype in the UK over the last 8-10 months has been Palma Violets.  NME along with most of the rest of the UK music press has been in love with these guys pretty much from the get go (and for good reason).

They’re refreshing, exciting, raw, real, and many other adjectives.  They have an old-school feel to them that seems to resonate much more with the British music press than the American music press.

They recently released their first debut full-length album entitled 180.  I love it.  It hits all the right notes for an excellent album.  For all of their hype in the press, it was going to be difficult to completely live up to that sort of pressure, but they have produced a fantastic trip down music’s memory road touching on influences throughout England’s amazing musical history.  Even their album cover looks like something that Joe Strummer and the Clash would have dreamed up in the late 70′s.

Give a listen to the new album yourself below.  I think you may just fall in love like myself.

One of the world’s biggest and best known music festivals, Glastonbury, has announced their 2013 lineup.  They took 2012 off, but boy have they come back with a bang with this year’s lineup.  It’s almost overwhelming to see the incredible list of artists playing the three day festival in the UK.  First of all, the Rolling Stones are headlining.  That pretty much is enough in and of itself, but they have over 100 stages (yes I said that correctly).  Other headliners include the Arctic Monkeys and Mumford and Sons.

The list of great artists is almost endless including: Of Monsters and Men, Alabama Shakes, Jake Bugg, First Aid Kit, Foals, Two Door Cinema Club, Tame Impala, The Lumineers, Cat Power, Palma Violets, Michael Kiwanuka, Melody’s Echo Chamber, Phoenix, Nas, Glen Hansard, Gary Clark Jr., Vintage Trouble, and endless more.

It’s too bad that it’s sold out, but I feel like traveling to England just to try to get into the festival.  It’s that worth it.