Stereo Embers: The Podcast

"The Song Forlorn" Perhaps best known as the Peter portion of the Swedish outfit Peter Bjorn and John, Peter Morén and his band have put out close to ten albums of catchy indie rock that's yielded worldwide hits like "Young Folks," tours around the globe, international television ads and TV and movie placements in everything from Gossip Girl to Bandslam. Raised in the Swedish countryside, Morén grew up listening to Ride, Depeche Mode, The Housemartins and the Stone Roses and his sonorous and melodic body of work reflects his love of well-crafted pop songs. With four fabulous solo albums under his belt, a side project with members of The Shout Out Louds and The Concretes and handling producer duties for Robert Forster's wonderful new album Strawberries, Morén is a busy guy. And I'm leaving things out, I'm sure. But what I'm not leaving out is his second album under the moniker SunYears. The follow up to the dazzling Come Fetch My Soul, The Song Forlorn is a stirring and rousing song-cycle filled with wistful pop, affecting ballads, fuzzed out psych jams and rootsy instrumentals. Featuring guests like Lisa Hannigan, Sam Genders, Nicole Atkins, and Madison Cunningham, The Song Forlorn is an album that's filled with tremendous stylistic range. There's touches of Aztec Camera and Prefab Sprout, Beatle-esque jangle and spare indie folk. It's percussive, melodic and magical work. https://www.roughtrade.com/en-us/product/sunyears/the-song-forlorn IG: @sunyearssongs www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers IG + Bluesky: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Boys Talking" Yes, it's true that Will Dailey's seventh album, Boys Talking is not technically out. I mean, it is and it isn't. Hold that thought because we're going to circle back to it. The Boston-born Will Dailey is one of the most affecting, soulful and moving singers you'll ever hear. His back catalog, which features records like Goodbye Red Bullet, National Throat, Golden Walker and his new one Boys Talking, is a perfect discography that filled with rootsy soul, road-kissed Americana and wrenching ballads that make you miss everyone you ever lost. Will's resume' is a winning read: he's signed to a major label, played with Juliana Hatfield, Peter Buck and Eddie Vedder, opened for The Wallflowers, received endless critical acclaim and played the Folk, Americana, and Roots Hall of Fame induction ceremony, paying tribute to the late Richie Havens. Will Dailey is the real deal--a singer with tremendous range and poetic prowess and if you want to classify him as one of the best kept secrets in music, that's fine, but he's one secret that shouldn't be kept. So what's the story with Boys Talking? Is it out? Yes and no. You can't find it on any streaming service, but you can buy it from Will at his website. And as he innovates further against the current digital model, another move he's made is to record a song that only you will hear--give him ten bucks and you get a song you can only listen to once. Art is valuable and Will Dailey's creativity in how to distribute art is reminding us of its joy, its dynamism and that it's not something to be thrown around or thrown away. www.willdailey.com www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com) IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast

"Deck" Over the course of their nearly-fifteen album career, Hallelujah The Hills have established themselves as one of the most unpredictable, inventive and fascinating bands on the planet. Hard to pick favorites in their discography because every album is unbelievable--there's 2012's No One Knows What Happens Next or 2013's Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Trashcan or 2016's A Band Is Something To Figure Out--pick any one you like and you can't go wrong. Speaking of picking the Boston outfit's new effort Deck requires you to do just that. Or, asks you to do just that. Or, if you don't want to, you kind of are because not making a choice is a choice. A sprawling, thrilling and altogether deliciously ambitious project, Deck is arranged into four loosely thematic elements that correspond to the suits of a deck of cards. Each suit has its own musical style; introspective spare numbers, orchestrally arranged compositions, indie rock stomp and idiosyncratic tracks that wind and loop and twist and rattle and diverge tunefully away. Along the way you'll run into Craig Finn of the Hold Steady, Ezra Furman, Mission of Burma's Clint Conley and Will Dailey. There's a song for every card in a deck and this fifty-two track effort is filled with surprises, detours, hard lefts into the darkness and jet-powered pulls into whipping storms and sunny wide open fields where a lone guitar angles under the sunlight then bursts into flames. It's hard to explain but it's easy to experience so I urge you to pick up Deck and toss it into the air and follow it wherever it goes. Ryan Walsh is the band's braintrust and visionary and he's the perfect frontman and musical director--his compositions are literate and unexpected and his voice filled with presence and urgency. Walsh's book Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 is genius by the way, so get that if you have a chance. But for now, let's let Mr. Walsh cut the deck and walk us through what's happening with his marvelous band. www.hallelujahthehills.com www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers: BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Bonus Episode" Okay, so this was recorded before Ilan Rubin was named as the new drummer for the Foo Fighters, but this is a cool chat and if you aren't familiar with his work with Nine Inch Nails and Angels and Airwaves and The New Regime, this is a great catch-up on his career. He's a really nice guy and a great drummer and in case you missed this episode, we've got you.

"Can You Fly" Yes, Freedy Johnston did his California Thing and it was immortalized on his 1992 album Can You Fly. When you're an artist you can go one of two ways: east or west and he Kansas-born singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston went east, landing in New York after college. Firmly planted in the 212, Johnston worked odd jobs and wrote songs and after keeping at it, he signed with the fledgling indie label Bar/None and that kicked off a career that has yielded classic albums like This Perfect World, Never Home, Back On The Road To You and, of course Can You Fly, which, after almost 30 years is available again in a remastered on CD and clear vinyl pressing. More on that in a second. Johnston has worked with Butch Vig, Aimee Mann, T-Bone Burnett, The Embarrassment and John Dee Graham, he's played all over the world, been praised by everyone from Rolling Stone to The New York Times, had a hit song with "Bad Reputation," played Conan, SXSW and signed to a major label. It's a partial list, but you get the idea: Freedy Johnston has had quite a career. With a new album on the way, Johnston has never sounded better. And Can You Fly has never sounded better either; a storming set of jagged pop like Trying To Tell You I Don't Know and In The New Sunshine along with wistful ballads like Tearing Down This Place and We Will Shine, Can You Fly is a timeless classic that remains dynamic and vital. www.freedyjohnston.com (http://www.freedyjohnston.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast: Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com) BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast

"Xtra Cherries" An aspiring baseball player with a solid fastball, the Illinois-born Chip Znuff put down the glove in favor of the bass and he left home at 17 going west with his punk rock band D-Generation. The D Generation story is told best by Chip himself, so I'll leave that one to him, and I'll cover what happened after that band broke up. Licking his wounds from his first time around on the rock and roll train, Chip formed Enuff Z'Nuff in 1984. Inspired by everyone from The Rasberries to Cheap Trick to Squeeze, Enuff Z'Nuff had pop hearts filled with hooks, but they were marketed as glam metal dudes, which led them into that lane, but it was probably a misrepresentation of the band's real chops. If you listen to the music and and ignore the image, they come across more like a tougher version of Jellyfish. Nevertheless, they made it work; in spite of their image, hits from their debut self-titled album like Fly High Michelle and "New Thing" were catchy blasts of ragged psychedelia that found the band all over MTV. Their follow-up record Strength found them looking decidedly less glam and it garnered rave reviews from Rolling Stone and the Washington Post and they absolutely crushed it on Letterman. Over the course of their career, Enuff Z'Nuff has toured all over the world, been on Howard Stern numerous times, been featured on VH-1, played on the Jenny Jones show, had Little Steven sing their praises as one of the most underrated bands on the planet and have put out close to thirty albums, including greatest hits and live recordings. Although the band has had its share of tragedies, losing members like Derek Frigo and Rickey Parent and its share of personnel changes with singer Donnie Vie stepping away from the band on two separate occasions, Enuff Z'Nuff are survivors. Chip took over vocals in 2014 and the band has never sounded better. Their new album Xtra Cherries has a deep bench, featuring Steve Stevens, Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, Donnie Vie, Gunnar Nelson and Steven Adler, who Chip played with in Adler's Appetite. The album is a refreshing blast of gritty pop that's played with muscle and heart, each track finding the band tearing the cover off the ball. https://enuffznuff.bandcamp.com/album/xtra-cherries https://www.enuffznuff.com/music www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers: Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com) BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast

"Bow To No One" Southern California native Bill See got his start in the pop band The Need, which, by the mid-'80s had morphed into Divine Weeks. With a groundswell of critical acclaim powering their mighty boat, the band put out instant classics like Never Get Used To It and Through And Through, which came out on Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate's label. Although they had a ton of buzz, played legendary shows and their epic sound reached for the same heights that the Waterboys and U2 were shooting for, the band came to a stop the way things will sometimes do. The straight dope as to why can be found in Bill's book 33 Days, which is not just essential reading for anyone in a band, it's essential reading for anyone who's a human being on the planet. It's a brilliant book. Thirty years later, a redemptive pair of albums See Those Landing Lights and We're All We Have put the 'Weeks to rest on their own terms and now, seven years later comes See's first proper solo album. And it's a killer. See was thinking he was done with music but his pal Willie Aron, who was just on this podcast, encouraged him to keep going and See did just that and found out that he had a lot more to give. And we are the richer for it. See's Bow To No One is an instant classic, filled with poignancy and truth. From the lush and stirring opener "The Heart Survives" to the rousing "Rock and Roll Salvation" to the inspiring "Dream New Dreams (Back To The Garden)" Bow To No One is a treasure chest of hooks, sure, but it's also an album that's raw, rich and breathtaking. Falling somewhere between the emotional immediacy of Patty Griffin's Living With Ghosts and R.E.M.s Automatic For The People, Bow To No One is powerful work. www.billsee.bandcamp.com (http://www.billsee.bandcamp.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast EMAIL: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com)

"Strange Kind Of Paradise" Formed in Leeds at the dawn of the '80s, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry were weaned on the MC5 and Wire, but their brooding melodies and dark and churning instrumentation got them lumped in with the Goth scene. Their 1985 debut Talk About The Weather went to #3 on the NME indie chart and to this day remains an undisputed classic. With John Peel a huge fan and their own fans affectionately referring to them as the Lorries, they quickly followed that up with fabulous albums like Paint Your Wagon, Nothing Wrong, Blow and Blasting Off. Ironically, 1992's Blasting Off sounded like a band taking flight, but at that point they were a band breaking up. Well, not really breaking up, but heading into a deep hiatus. The band's braintrust Chris Reed surfaced in 2004 with a few new tracks and the Lorries did tour that year and into 2005. But aside from the Thunder In A Black Cave live DVD and Reed's acoustic record Minimal Animal, the Lorries were silent for more than twenty more years. Until now. Long considered to be a holy grail of sorts for Lorries fans, Strange Kind Of Paradise is the band's sixth and final album. Brewing for two decades, the band completed work on the album and it'll be the last word for the Lorries. A wicked blast of angular beauty, dark melodicism and grinding intensity, Strange Kind Of Paradise is a brilliant final chapter that ends with an artful and deeply satisfying crescendo. I hope you'll feel the same way about this chat--it's a good one. https://www.red-lorry-yellow-lorry.com https://redlorryyellowlorry.bandcamp.com/album/strange-kind-of-paradise www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"High In My Balloon" When it comes to the Grammy-nominated musician and composer Willie Aron, he's worked with so many people, it might be faster just to list the people he hasn't worked with. Born in Southern California, Aron studied classical piano before falling in love with the Beatles and new wave and teaching himself guitar. He co-founded The Balancing Act who signed to I.R.S., put out three excellent albums, toured with 10,000 Maniacs and They Might Be Giants before calling it a day in 1989. After the band broke up, Aron became an in-demand session musician and over the years he's collaborated with Leonard Cohen, The Dream Syndicate, Rickie Lee Jones, Milo Binder, Susanna Hoffs, Brian Wilson, Michael Penn and Peter Himmelman. Speaking of Brian Wilson, yes, that's Wilie in Love & Mercy and he was also a consultant for the Beatles doc Eight Days A Week. Willie also has worked as a film and television composer, a producer of children's music and a composer for commercials and music libraries. Additionally, he helped develop the curriculum and write original songs for a Los Angeles-based children’s music space and company called Play Music (play-losangeles.com) and he also earned a a Master’s Degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University in Los Angeles. As for the bands he plays in currently, the list is long, but let's just start with Moremen/Bonebrake with Matthew Sweet guitarist John Moremen and X drummer DJ Bonebrake, an improvisation outfit called Mushroom, The Vince Melouney Sect featuring original Bee Gees guitarist Vince Melouney, and the all-star musical collective known as The Wild Honey Orchestra that raises money for autism. All of which brings us to Thee Holy Brothers, which finds Willie teaming up with his pal Marvin Etzioni who you might remember from Lone Justice and his appearance on this podcast. The duo's new album "High In My Balloon" is a sterling platter of rootsy stomp and jangling pop that's pure melodic joy. And this conversation is equally joyful and it's also a reminder that being a nice person like Willie Aron leads to lasting friendships and as we all know, without lasting friendships, none of us would last. www.theeholybrothers.com (http://www.theeholybrothers.com) www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"A Sober Conversation" Although BC Camplight is the brainchild of the New Jersey born Brian Christinzio, don't be mistaken in thinking his onstage persona is a protective way of distancing himself emotionally from who he is offstage because it's the exact opposit. BC Camplight is actually a way of amplifying those emotions and as a result, it's hard to think of a more emotionally open and accesible artist working in music today. If you're getting the impression that BC Camplight is an open book, that's exactly what he is. With almost ten critically-acclaimed albums to his name like How To Die In The North, Deportation Blues, The Last Rotation Of Earth and his new one A Sober Conversation, Camplight's compositions are sprawling and discursive blasts of unflinching honesty, confessional narratives and unvarnished self-examination. Falling somewhere between The Waterboys' This Is The Sea and Leif Vollebekk's North Americana, over the years, Camplight's music has moved from strength to strength and his new album is perhaps his best yet, which with a body of work like he has, is saying a lot. A captivating blend of sweeping ballads, poignant rockers and ruminating piano-fueled stomp, A Sober Conversation is a stirring song cycle that's filled with anthems for survival. Although the songs are informed by trauma, loss and self-doubt, Camplight's poetic muscle in a peerless flex that makes every number rip through the darkness with the intention of finding a new brand of light. And that's exactly what this album does--more than illuminating the bleakness, it blasts it apart. It's stunning work. BC has toured all over the world, played on Later With Jools Holland, collaborated with members of the War On Drugs, The Last Dinner Party and Sharon Von Etten. And today, he's here with us.... https://bc-camplight.bandcamp.com/album/a-sober-conversation www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com