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July 12-18, 2002

music

Under the Radar

PHASE III: Jim Putnam (left) and co. are taking the Radar Brothers to Merge and hoping their third labelâs the charm.

Jim Putnam is not an undercover Brother.

by Paul Burress

“Cult favorite” status is a nice place for an indie band to be. It means they fill a little niche in the scene. It’s comfortable. It’s reassuring. But for The Radar Brothers -- a band always looking to expand their musical horizons -- it was like the kiss of death, and they’re looking to kick the stigma.

After joining forces in 1993, guitarist-singer Jim Putnam (also in Medicine and Maids of Gravity), bassist Senon Williams and drummer Steve Goodfriend (of The For Carnation) released two albums and a handful of EPs on a number of labels. They enjoyed critical acclaim but largely went unnoticed. It seemed the L.A.-based Brothers were destined to follow in the footsteps of many good bands that people just didn't know about.

Then they found North Carolina's Merge Records, an appropriate home -- with decent distribution -- for their latest record, And the Surrounding Mountains.

"A friend in a band called Rilo Kiley was on tour with Superchunk and put in a good word for us," says Putnam. Merge's flagship rock band is led by label heads Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance. "

We also share lawyers with Merge, so this helped.” Retreating to Putnam’s home studio, Phase III, the band wrote and recorded for nine months. “There were no time constraints, and our label does not pressure us. It’s hard not to slip into a timeless void, though. We have to watch out for that.”

The Radar Brothers emerged from the edge of the void with Mountains, an album showcasing Putnam’s love for the majestic sounds of The Beatles and, especially, Pink Floyd. “I love the early stuff, but I’m actually more fond of the post-Syd Barrett period. The Wall is a very nostalgic album for me. My brother and I listened to that record obsessively when it came out.”

Getting involved in music was a natural progression -- his father, M.T. “Bill” Putnam, produced and engineered songs for Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, founded Ocean Way Recording and created a number of technical inventions, like the Limiting Amplifier, which is still being used today. “My dad was very supportive. I took piano and saxophone lessons as a kid, and I was constantly around a lot of jazz musicians and music,” he explains.

Though The Radar Brothers takes up a good portion of his time, Putnam and his brother Bill recently restarted their late father’s company, Universal Audio. The seeds were planted when the two faced the task of selling the family home, which required sorting through their father’s workshop and old design notebooks. Now a few years old, the company is doing well selling authentic and digital reproductions of vintage analog equipment and technology.

While attending the California Institute of the Arts, Jim Putnam often played music with fellow students (and future members of Acetone) Ritchie Lee and Mark Lightcap. “Everyone in my department [fine art] played guitar. We would all get together and have these ridiculous multi-guitar jams for hours.”

And the Surrounding Mountains is an album created by a Floyd fan, but not an obsessive or singled-minded one. Though Putnam shunned the demo process (“Making a demo of a song and then re-recording it does not appeal to me. Something usually gets lost in that process, and the lack of spontaneity can sometimes seem to kill something”), the band was able create a lush and surrealistic musical daydream that stemmed from the vision Putnam had for the disc.

“Yes, I had a specific idea for the album, but, of course, it became something completely different. There is a specific album I’ve wanted to make ever since the beginning of The Radar Brothers, but it just hasn’t happened yet.”

The Radar Brothers will play Tue., July 16, 9 p.m. $8, with AM/FM and Honeychurch, at The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.

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