So I signed up for a subscription to Under The Radar magazine last night, as per my post yesterday, and I mentioned to them that I talked about them on the blog and here's what Mark Redfern (Publisher/Senior Editor) had to say: "Thanks for subscribing to Under the Radar and thanks for the kind words about the magazine on your blog. Clearly you have great taste in music and music magazines! We put a lot of work into Under the Radar and it’s always encouraging when someone recognizes that work, so thanks again." Ain't that sweet? Please, check out the magazine, and tell them I sent you.

[beginning of gratuitous use of the word 'plan']
The latest edition of Under The Radar has a very comprehensive interview with Death Cab For Cutie about the making of their latest album, Plans. I had planned on purchasing Plans at my local Beat Goes On outlet, but my plans this afternoon were undermined when the staff told me that their planned delivery of Plans hadn't arrived. So when I got home tonight I logged into the iTunes store and downloaded my copy of Plans, which comes with a bonus track, digital booklet, and a movie for single "Soul Meets Body". My plans for the rest of the night were put on hold: I fell in love right away. How can you not when the first lyrics you hear are: "If I could open my arms and span the length of the isle of Manhattan/I'd bring it to where you are, making a lake of the East River and Hudson/If I could open my mouth wide enough for a marching band to march out/They would make your name sing and bend through the alleys and bounce off all the buildings"? Doesn't it just make you want to cry?
The Under The Radar article discusses this very issue in some detail: Plans is DCFC's first major label release, and probably their most accessible album. Does that mean they've sold out? Not a chance--this is the album they were destined to make, major label or not. As far as I'm concerned, the band have not comprised their sound or vision by following a diabolical record company plan to make the record buying public rush out to buy this record (Ben Gibbard says the title Plans actually has a tongue-in-cheek connection to their move to a major label).
Stand-outs so far are the above-quoted opener "Marching Bands of Manhattan", single "Soul Meets Body", and the quiet, yet heartbreakingly gorgeous "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" (sample lyric: "If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks/Then I'll follow you into the dark")--a song as much about life and love, as death and loss. Buy Plans and planned to be amazed.
[end of gratuitous use of the word 'plan']

I've only recently discovered Under The Radar, but I find that it is an excellent resource for anyone into music that's off the beaten path (I won't use "the A-word"). Under The Radar is less smug, less judgmental, and less stuck-up about music then some of the more popular magazines available today. It really reminds me of the early days of SPIN, where the focus was on the music and the artist, not on the marketplace. Does anyone know anything about this magazine? This is the second issue I've purchased, and I'm about to surf over to the website and purchase a subscription (which comes with a jazzy new CD of your choice. I think I'll be requesting the self-titled Engineers album, or possibly Gimme Fiction by Spoon--again any comments or suggestions?)

Sometimes I think I take it for granted that when I come home from a weekend away, or come home at night from work for that matter, that my house will still be where I left it. I was watching CNN earlier this evening, and listening to a woman from Bilouxi describe what it was like going back to her apartment building from the shelter she was staying in and finding that all she had left to call home was a shoe. (I could make a snide comment about old women and living in a shoe right now, but somehow I think that would belittle the seriousness of this situation). My brother-in-law's sister and her family live in New Orleans, and we know that they did evacuate the area on Sunday; I hope that when they return, they still have a place to call home.
I wish that this much attention could be paid to all the disasters (natural, man-made, or otherwise) that occur on a daily (nay, hourly!) basis. It might make us all stop and consider our own situations more often.

A great riddle of the world has been solved: why spaghetti breaks into more than two pieces when you bend it. It appears that the first break sends ripples through the rest of the strand causing multiple breaks by these shockwaves. Shocking! See it all by clicking here. This is science at its best.

Like a parent, I've been working on this baby for the last month or so, making sure that it was presentable, and didn't say or do the wrong thing when I take it out into the public. There's only so much you can do, though, and only so long you can hold it back before you want to share it with the world. So... World meet website. Website meet world. (Now place nice together.)

It's 2005, and everyone needs a place from which to voice what it is that makes them. So here's what makes me. I'm not sure just how much of an explanation you need, so let me just say this: come in, look around, feel free to touch, but if you break it, you buy it. If you have any questions or concerns, comments, or condolences, please let me know. If you like what you see, tell your friends, enemies, lovers, and ex-lovers. Open twenty-four hours (just not in a row). Please don't let the cat out (her name is Trixie, by the way).
-J.
27-Aug-2005