Stereo Embers: The Podcast

"Crayon Shades" Formed out of the ashes of the late great Australian band Soap Star Joe, the Moderate Lovers are a three-piece outfit from Sydney whose debut EP Crayon Shades is refreshing and swoonworthy blast of indie pop. Fronted by Mick Wilson and rounded out by Saul Foster and Adam Taylor, the Moderate Lovers got going sometime in 2024 and since then, they've been moving from strength to strength, releasing winning singles like "Lucy's Gardening Again" and "Lost City." Filled with guitars that jangle and buzz, and falling somewhere between New Zealand's Garageland and You Am I, Moderate Lovers' compositions are filled with wonder and observational smarts. A hook-laden burst of melodic majesty, Crayon Shades heralds the arrival of one of the most exciting new bands around. https://moderatelovers.bandcamp.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com Stereo Embers The Podcast IG +BLUESKY: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Earthly Delights" The earthly pleasures of the temporal world are fine food, expensive wine, monetary wealth, a long list of friends and raves that last for days. The Miami-born David Archuleta is no stranger to earthly delights--with almost ten albums to his name that have yielded millions of sales and countless multi-platinum hits all over the globe, Archuleta is back with a new six-song EP called Earthly Delights. A smooth platter of pop, R&B and disco, set against percolating beats and synth pop grooves, Earthly Delights finds Archuletla's vocal finesse paired with infectious, textured arrangements. It's lovely work. So why did I open with raves? Well, because David has recently discovered them and along with the freedom, social liberation, acceptance and joy of rave culture, it's also awakened him musically and it really shows on this EP. www.davidarchuleta.com (https://davidarchuleta.com/music/) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) Stereo Embers: IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"OCD" The Ohio-bornTamar Berk first showed up on my radar in the mid-90s when she sang for the iChicago outfit Starball. Starball were a really great band and they worked with everyone from Material Issue to Steve Albini and their Holstein Park record remains one of my favorite records of the '90s. Tamar's solo output now numbers five fabulous albums like The Restless Dreams Of Youth, Good Times For A Change her new one, OCD,. Weaned on everyone from Liz Phair to the Small Faces, Berk's new album is scruffy blast of melodic indie rock that's doused in reverb put together with vulnerability and honest and coated with some of the most unforgettable choruses you'll hear all year. Now based in San Diego, Berk is on a creative tear, which actuall ties into her new album's title. The compulsive need to create--and this is something I think most artists understand--can bring on a version of OCD that can inform the work, sure, but it can also be a nagging voice that relies on patterns to be silenced. We talk about all of that, and so much more; she's real and honest and funny and sharp and you're going to love her. www.tamarberkmusic.com https://tamarberk.bandcamp.com/merch www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoem) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) www.bombshellradio.com

"Hangover Terrace" The Ontario-born Ron Sexsmith is one of the great musical treasures on this weird and troubled planet. And we need him now more than ever. Over the course of his decorated career, the three-time Juno award-winning singer/songwriter has put out close to twenty winning albums and here's a quick note about that--his discography is perfect with not even a trace of a dip of quality. In fact, every album seems to top the last one, which is saying a lot because every album is absolutely brilliant. If this sounds like hyperbole, it's not. From his self-titled album to Cobblestone Runway to Retriever to Blue Boy to Carousel One to his brand new record Hangover Terrace, which is one of the greatest album titles ever, by the way, Ron Sexsmith always delivers the goods. It's hard to think of a musician who sings with such elegant precision and poetic finesse. Like Sinatra or Costello, his phrasing is unique and distinct--all it takes is a syllable of a song and you know instantly know it's him. He's toured with John Hiatt, Squeeze, Coldplay and Nick Lowe and his songs have been covered by folks like Rod Stewart, Nick Lowe, Emmy Lou Harris, Feist, Michael Buble, and Stevie Nicks. His 2017 novel Deer Life, A Fairy Tale is just wonderful and this year he made his theatrical composer debut with the internationally renowned Stratford Festival production of ‘As You Like It’ in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. But back to Hangover Terrace. A moving and deeply stirring 14-track song cycle, Hangover Terrace is filled with dark whimsy, wistful ballads and mid-tempo magic. Sexsmith's fluid and free flowing voice is untouched by time, his delivery as free flowing and and as a result this is an album of emotional exactitude and pure indie soul. And this conversation is a real joy. www.ronsexmith.com (http://www.ronsexmith.com) www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) https://podcast.feedspot.com/california_music_podcasts/ https://podcast.feedspot.com/california_art_podcasts/ IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"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) https://podcast.feedspot.com/california_music_podcasts/ https://podcast.feedspot.com/california_art_podcasts/ 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