Tag Archives: The Radio Dept.

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Marcus Joons of Korallreven

photo courtesy of Korallreven

Swedish dreamy-electronic-pop duo Korallreven, aka Marcus Joons and Daniel Tjäder (of The Radio Dept) have announced their first US shows ever, with select East and West coast dates supporting their debut album, An Album By Korallreven, available now on Acéphale.

We Love DC’s Alexia Kauffman got the chance to ask singer Marcus Joons a few questions.

Alexia Kauffman: What music inspired you when you were growing up?

Marcus Joons: I remember getting touched real early by Velvet Underground, I must have been like eleven or twelve when I first came across their heroin romantic pop songs. Maybe too early. Apart from that I think that I, free from my mind, got the biggest kicks from Screamadelica, Spiritualized, everything by The Beach Boys and Daft Punk’s Homework. All of this has inspired me more to live and breathe than to make music though. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Radio Dept. @ Rock & Roll Hotel, 2/1/11

Radio Dept.
all photos by Erin McCann.

On Tuesday night, bodies were packed like sweaty sardines into a very sold-out Rock & Roll Hotel to see the Swedish dream-pop trio The Radio Dept. This much anticipated show was an early date on their current U.S. tour in support of their career-spanning retrospective “Passive Aggresive”. But for most of the young audience the show was really the first chance to see The Radio Dept. since they released their excellent 2010 album “Clinging to a Scheme”. This is easily their most mainstream accessible work and it was obvious that a lot of the chatty crowd were only there to hear songs from that album. The set list featured a lot of non-album singles, a few older album tracks, and the highlights from “Clinging to a Scheme”. Unfortunately a combination of the sell-out crowd making the room very uncomfortable, early technical difficulties, audience rudeness, and a complete lack of showmanship from the band made this concert much less than the stellar, atmospheric-pop display that I was expecting.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Hot Ticket: The Radio Dept. @ Rock & Roll Hotel, 2/1/11

The Swedish invasion continues when The Radio Dept. hit Rock & Roll Hotel on Tuesday night. These veterans of the scene emerged from the Swedish underground with their murky guitar pop and shoegazer sensibilities almost a decade ago with their critical darling debut “Lesser Matters”. It has been interesting to see this group change, regroup, and evolve over the last ten years; as they have moved away from guitars and more towards synthesizers and keyboards. Not without hitting a few critical speed-bumps along the way, I might add.

The Radio Dept. sort of stunned people then when they emerged last year with their best album yet. “Clinging to a Scheme” put The Radio Dept. back on everyone’s radar with its masterful mix of guitar and synthesizers. On the heels of their new found critical success, The Radio Dept. have released “Passive Aggressive”, a two-disc career retrospective that illustrates the evolution of their sound perfectly. Comparing any two sonic points in the band’s career shows that dedication to atmosphere and texture has been their main modus operandi all along. Whatever instruments they use, The Radio Dept. are going to make layered, beautiful sounds with them.

Joining The Radio Dept. in this celebration of all things fuzzed and feedback drenched is San Francisco shoegazers Young Prisms. This is concert is going to be one robust feast for the ears.

The Radio Dept.
w/ Young Prisms
@ Rock & Roll Hotel
8pm – 2/1/11
advance $12, door $14