Happy Valentine’s Day from Mark and Wendy at Under the Radar. Yes, we know it’s a bit of a Hallmark holiday and can be a tough day for some, but it’s still nice to pause and acknowledge the people you care about. We don’t even remember what we did on our first Valentine’s Day 25 years ago—we’d only been dating about two and a half months, and the first issue of Under the Radarwas still more than nine months away.
Over the past two and a half decades, it hasn’t always been easy balancing our work life with our romantic life (and eventually co-parenting), but we’ve made it work through love, mutual support, and a fair amount of stubbornness about keeping a print magazine alive when the world keeps telling us to move on.
This Valentine’s Day, we’re putting the finishing touches on our 75th issue. Wendy is tweaking the layout on one of the two cover stories, and Mark is giving the other one a final read-through. Not exactly candlelit-dinner energy, but very on-brand for us.
It’s still not easy to keep a fully independent print music magazine going, but we’re committed to staying the course for as long as we can.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, or if your subscription has lapsed, we’d love for you to join us. Subscriptions are still 50% off.
(And for those of you who’ve subscribed recently: we’re almost done with the new issue and truly appreciate your patience.)
Subscribe for 50% off here.
Or here (50% off with promo code BLACKFRIDAY2025).
Below are promo codes and more info on the sale.
Subscribe
We’re offering 50% off print subscriptions—as low as $2.49 per issue—with the code BLACKFRIDAY2025 (valid worldwide on both four-issue and eight-issue subscriptions).
Back Issues
All back issues are 50% off with the code UTRBACK50.
Covers of Covers CD
Also 50% off: Covers of Covers, our 20th anniversary 2-CD set featuring exclusive tracks by Piroshka, Peter Bjorn and John, Cassandra Jenkins, Grandaddy, Water From Your Eyes, Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), James Yorkston, and more. Grab the CD here, or get the CD + 20th Anniversary Issue bundle here. Use the promo code UTRCD50 for the CD.
Our current issue (Issue 74) is 50% off here.
Issue 73 is 50% off here.
Issue 72, The '90s Issue, is 50% here.
Issue 71 is 50% off here.
Issue 70 (the My Favorite Movie Issue) is 50% off here.
Issue 69 (the 20th Anniversary Issue) is 50% off here.
Issue 68 (The Protest Issue) is 50% off here.
Issue 66 (the My Favorite Album Issue) is 50% off here.
All our other back issues are available here (use promo code UTRBACK50).
If you want a deeper look at how Under the Radar survived the last 20+ years—through births, deaths, cross-country moves, and a rapidly changing media landscape—read our behind-the-scenes secret origin story, written for our 20th Anniversary Issue in 2021.
New subscriptions start with Issue 75, The ‘90s Issue Part 2, with new conversations with Pulp, Suede, Garbage, Air, De La Soul, Slint, the cast and creators of the acclaimed TV show Homicide: Life on the Street, and Clueless’ director Amy Heckerling, and more. It also features our first ever list of the best albums of the 1990s. This year we also plan to put out a special 25th Anniversary Issue, which you’ll receive if you subscribe now.
New subscribers will be sent an email with complimentary codes to access the digital versions of the last two issues of Under the Radar to read while you wait for the next print issue to arrive in the mail.
Below is a look inside the magazine, with some spreads from previous issues, as well as some of our original photography and some of our previous magazine covers. We’ve always shot our own covers with our own photographers since Issue 1. Plus there are some behind-the-scenes photos.
Mark and Wendy in the hallway of their Los Angeles, CA apartment building where they started Under the Radar, early 2000s. (Self-Portrait)
Elliott Smith in Los Angeles, CA in 2003. (Photo by Wendy Lynch Redfern)
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