My favorite album of 2009! Mt. Eerie's Phil Elverum Mount Eerie, Wind's Poem. I love everything about this record. I think Phil Elverum is a genius songwriter and producer. He's Spector, he's Eno, he's Rodger Bain; he's his own daring and inventi...

It's interesting how the music that was "alternative" during the '90s has become the classic rock of today. This phenomenon is most apparent with Pearl Jam, their songs now seeming almost as much a staple of classic rock radio as, say, Led Zeppelin. However, in terms of sound and sentiment, one of the bands whose true ethos seems closest to that of classic rock fare is Foo Fighters.

Under the Radar's Best of the Decade Issue will be hitting stores in a couple of weeks. The cover features five notable indie musicians from different bands all photographed together. Every day this week we will be revealing a different cover artist until the final cover is revealed this Friday.

I have actually grown to appreciate year-end reviews. In grade school and high school, I was on different occasions both a yearbook guy and a newspaper guy (when not focusing energies on how to be as profoundly uncool as possible). There was a tension between the people who did the work of covering the information of the moment and the stuff you were supposed to save and cherish.