Below the Radio

Last updated
Below the Radio
Below the Radio - Grandaddy.jpg
Mixtape by Grandaddy
Released 2004
Genre Indie rock
Label Ultra
Grandaddy chronology
Sumday
(2003)		Below the Radio
(2004)		 Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla
(2005)

Below the Radio is a mixtape put together by Jason Lytle of American indie rock band Grandaddy, released in 2004 by record label Ultra. The album also included a new Grandaddy track, "Nature Anthem".

Mixtape compilation of songs recorded onto any audio format

A mixtape is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette tape, CD, or digital playlist. The songs are either ordered sequentially or made into a continuous program by beatmatching the songs and creating seamless transitions at their beginnings and endings with fades or abrupt edits. Essayist Geoffrey O'Brien described this definition of the mixtape as "perhaps the most widely practiced American art form".

Jason Lytle American musician

Jason Lytle is an American musician best known for his work in the indie rock group Grandaddy. The group split in 2005, and Lytle continued to release music as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians. Grandaddy reformed in 2012.

Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United States and United Kingdom in the 1970s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. As grunge and punk revival bands in the US and Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, some indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

Contents

Background

Ultra Records had approached Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle via his management some time earlier with the idea for him to compile a mixtape, and he decided to include tracks that he considered "sleeper hits", identifying a common theme: "They all seem to have pretty conventional and familiar chord progressions. They all have vivid imagery for me with their words. There also seems to be a bit of sadness, but not necessarily despair." [1]

Grandaddy American indie rock band

Grandaddy is an American indie rock band from Modesto, California. The group was formed in 1992, and featured Jason Lytle, Aaron Burtch, Jim Fairchild, Kevin Garcia and Tim Dryden, until Garcia's death in 2017 following a stroke.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Pitchfork 7.3/10 [3]

AllMusic's Matt Collar stated the album "plays like a K-Tel commercial for Gen X sad-sackism", calling it "pretty cool". [2] Brian Howe of Pitchfork wrote "for the most part, the songs [Lytle] selected sound quite a bit like his own band. Lush yet sleek and slightly sterile is the dominant style of Below the Radio". [3]

AllMusic online music database

AllMusic is an online music database. It catalogs more than 3 million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musical artists and bands. It launched in 1991, predating the World Wide Web.

<i>Pitchfork</i> (website) online music magazine

Pitchfork is an American online magazine launched in 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, based in Chicago, Illinois, and owned by Condé Nast. Being developed during Schreiber's tenure in a record store at the time, the magazine developed a reputation for its extensive focus on independent music, but has since expanded to a variety of coverage on both indie and popular music.

Track listing

  1. Beck – "We Live Again"
  2. Beulah – "Burned by the Sun"
  3. Earlimart – "Color Bars"
  4. Snow Patrol – "Run"
  5. Goldenboy – "Wild Was The Night"
  6. Giant Sand – "Bottom Line Man"
  7. Fruit Bats – "The Little Acorn"
  8. Home – "Comin' Up Empty Again"
  9. Jackpot – "If We Could Go Backwards"
  10. The Handsome Family – "I Fell"
  11. Little Wings – "Sand Canyon"
  12. Pavement – "Motion Suggests"
  13. Blonde Redhead – "For the Damaged"
  14. Virgil Shaw – "Twisted Layer"
  15. Grandaddy – "Nature Anthem"

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References

  1. ↑ "Jason Lytle Made You a Mixtape: Grandaddy | Prefix". Prefix. January 1, 2002. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Collar, Matt. "Artist's Choice: Below the Radio – Grandaddy | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic . Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Howe, Brian (November 1, 2004). "Grandaddy: Below the Radio | Album Reviews | Pitchfork". Pitchfork . Retrieved December 12, 2014.
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