Stereo Embers: The Podcast

"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

"Sonic Ranch" Licking his wounds from the breakup of his band Big Car, the Texas-born singer/songwriter Miles Zuniga found himself out west--and when I say out west I mean about ten minutes from where we record this podcast. Miles got a job working at Chez Panisse and hanging out on Telegraph Avenue at Cody's Books and Amoeba Music. The Big Car experience hadn't been great, so Miles was plotting out his next moves while he worked in Alice Waters' restaurant and I'll let him tell you how that all played out, so let's just fast forward to when he moved back to Texas and joined forces with bassist/singer Tony Scalzo and drummer Joe Shuffield to form Fastball. The trio's debut Make Your Mama Proud evinced their penchant for punchy pop genius but it was their sophomore record All The Pain That Money Can Buy that put them on the map. The album's first single "The Way" was pretty much a pop sensation, hitting the number one slot of charts for seven weeks. The next two singles "Out Of My Head" and "Fire Escape" helped fuel the album's Platinum status and Zuniga, a long way now from his Chez Panisse days, found his band with two Grammy nominations. Over the course of their career, Fastball have collaborated with Billy Preston, Steve Berlin, Adam Schlesinger and Charlie Sexton. From Keep Your Wig On to The Help Machine to their latest album Sonic Ranch, their discography is an endless supply of pop riches. Miles is a great guy and this is a very cool chat so let's meet himm www.fastballtheband.com (http://www.fastballtheband.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast EMAIL: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Midnight At The Valencia" Before all this rock and roll stuff, Tom Hollister was a highly touted Rugby player from Wales. I'll let him tell you how his career as an athlete was derailed as a young man in Canada, but let me just say this: when he got back to Wales, he channeled all that athletic energy into another sport entirely: the making of music. In 2010, of all the emerging buzzbands, Cardinal Black was one of the buzziest. Guns N' Roses' longtime manager Alan Niven was overseeing the band's activity and let's just say this: it was active. They were invited by Steve Winwood to record at his studio, they played a killer set at Sonisphere and they flew to the U.S. to record an album. But things didn't go as planned and the band hit pause on a career that was about to kick into overdrive. I'll let Tom tell you about that dark time as well, but, and I don't think this is a spoiler, the dark times are over and Cardinal Black 2.0 are in fighting shape and adding brilliant achievements to their resume' with each passing day. They've hit #1 on the iTunes Rock Singles Chart, they've played sold-out headline shows in all over the world, supported Myles Kennedy, The Struts and Peter Frampton thanks to a personal invitation from the man himself, and played Joe Bonamassa's Keeping The Blues Alive rock cruise. The band's new long player Midnight At The Valencia is a smooth blend of simmering soul, bluesy ballads and shimmering, rootsy genius. Hollister's stirring vocals are drenched with heart and with the brilliant guitar playing of Chris Buck weaving throughout the band's compositions, Midnight At The Valencia is one of those records that evades the timeline. When you put it on it could be 1971 or 1993 or now. Or all of it. I love this record and I love this band and Tom is a humble, thoughtful and kind soul. www.thecardinalblack.com (http://www.thecardinalblack.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com)

"Feel Good Now" Alright, let's get the spicy stuff out of the way; yes, the Loft split up onstage in front of 3,000 people while opening for the Colorfield at the Hammersmith Palais. That happened. But a lot happened before and a lot has happened after, so let me catch you up. Formed in 1980, The Loft were one of the first bands signed to Alan McGee's Creation Records. Their wistful pop had jangle and nerve and they tore out of the gates cramming their resume with notable achievements for McGee's lable like being the first Creation band to appear on television, the first top the indie singles chart, the first to be invited on to a major UK tour and the first to record a Janice Long BBC radio session. The Loft were poised to be a huge band, but the public split came before their first album was ever released and so fans could only be left to wonder what might have been had they been able to just get a record on the shelves. Compilations like Magpie Eyes and Once Around The Fair were released over the years, but as we know, great as they may be, it's not the same thing. Singer Pete Astor and drummer Dave Morgan went on the form the Weather Prophets, while guitarist Andy Strickland formed The Caretaker Race and bassist Bill Prince formed The Wishing Stones. Happily, the ice that forms after an argument started to thaw and the Loft slowly drifted back to each other. I'll let Andy and Pete tell you that story, but let me just say this. We're so lucky that it did because the band's debut album is one we finally get to hear and it was well worth the wait. The ten songs on Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same are perfectly crafted pop gems with spry rhythms, jangling beauty and melodic mastery. I love this record. Pete's been on the show before, and he's a lovely guy to chat with, but having him back with Andy was a real treat. www.tapeterecords.de (https://www.tapeterecords.de) www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com)

"Choking On Fuel" The Australian-born singer/songwriter Imogen Clark is one of our favorite guests here at the podcast. Aside from being one of the most genial people you'll ever meet, Clark is also honest and analytical about herself and her approach to music. In fact, Clark's authenticity as a person is mirrored perfectly in her art. Clark's songwriting is observational and wise and her compositions are assured, rich and melodic. Clark was trained as an opera singer as a young girl, and even though she left Western Classical music for the guitar and piano, her sheer power as a singer is undeniable and fills every composition with grit and nerve. Over the years she's toured with Shania Twain, Robyn Hitchcock and Steve Poltz, collaborated with members of Bright Eyes, Gang of Youths, Dawes, Colin Hay of Men at Work and Jim Lauderdale and she's established herself in the process as an artist who's not afraid to put in the hard work to get her music out into the world. Her new acoustic album Choking On Fuel features Ella Hooper, Tommy Emmanuel, Kezia Gill and My Morning Jacket's Bo Koster. Raw, unvarnished and brimming with urgency, Choking On Fuel is compelling and intimate work. www.imogenclarkmusic.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 BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com