Stereo Embers: The Podcast

“Bergen Street” The Brooklyn-born Chapin Sisters’s new single—which is their first new material since 2017’s Ferry Boat—is called "Bergen Street" and it’s about moving. And because it’s about moving from Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley, The Chapin sisters have had to have a lot of conversations about that move and what it means. Leaving Brooklyn really is kind of a big deal for sisters Abigail and Lily because they have pretty deep familial roots there.The Chapins are a Brooklyn family and their father Tom and his five brothers put their stamp on the city with their sixties folk band The Chapin Brothers. Two of those brothers you might recognize immediately--Tom Chapin is a well-known folk legend, whose albums for kids are absolute staples and their late uncle Harry, whose "Cats In The Cradle" is a staple on AM radio, was a beloved singer/songwriter as well. Reaching back further, their grandfather Jim Chapin was a well-known and respected jazz drummer. So music and Brooklyn run deep and moving away was a big deal and "Bergen Street" effortlessly chronicles what it feels like to have familiar geography in your rear view mirror. It’s a wrenching, aching and utterly gorgeous song that’s filled with poetic precision, melodic finesse and otherworldly harmonic bliss.In other words, the Chapin Sisters have stayed right on brand. Since 2004 they’ve put out a handful of marvelous albums, including The Chapin Sisters Sing The Chapin Brothers, A Date With The Everly Brothers and Lake Bottom. They’ve also recorded with Cass McCombs and She and Him, and collaborated with Michael Fitzpatrick of Fitz and the Tantrums as well as Louie Stephens of Rooney. Pick any of their albums or EPs and prepare to swoon. Their voices braid effortlessly together and rise and fall with heartbreaking immediacy. Their phrasing is precise, their delivery is heavenly and the way every syllable soars is nothing short of spellbinding. www.thechapinsisters.com www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.embersarts.com www.alexgreenonline.com Twitter: @emberseditor IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“Doctor Moan” Ever since he landed in San Francisco at 19, the Buffalo-born Peter Case pretty much hasn’t stopped making music. He hit the Bay as a busker and from there joined pals Jack Lee and Paul Collins to form the punk band the Nerves. After the Nerves called it a day, Case formed The Plimsouls, who put out a handful of albums that were instant classics. When the Plimsouls broke up, Case stripped things back and put out his first solo album. The self-titled record was a critical favorite, and it kick-started a solo career that has found the singer/songwriter releasing close to 20 albums, including The Man With The Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo Traditionalist Guitar, Sings Like Hell and his new one Doctor Moan. The Grammy-nominated Case is a true troubadour whose life has been devoted to song. He’s put out several books, including As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport, had his songs covered by everyone from Blondie to Joe Ely to John Prine, opened for the Ramones and John Lee Hooker, collaborated with Los Lobos, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds and Ry Cooder and you know what? The list goes on and on. This is just a fragment of what Peter Case has done—his CV has a lot of pages. His new album Doctor Moan is a stirring song cycle that’s powered by Case behind the keys of an acoustic piano. And it’s riveting work--The songs are heartfelt, arresting and filled with raw finesse that makes every moment immediate and engaging. www.petercase.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.embersarts.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.bombshellradio.com Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Foreground Music" With a handful of winning solo albums under his belt including Stardust Birthday Party, Heavy Meta and his fabulous new one Foreground Music, Ron Gallo is, for my money, one of the most exciting guys around. The New Jersey-born singer/songwriter who got his start fronting bands like Toy Soldiers, is a self-possessed engine of a talent who fills every track with nerve, velocity and heart. He’s played Coachella, Bonnaroo, and SXSW and toured with everyone from Spoon to Wilco. What does his music sound like? Good question. It’s a fiery blend of garage rock, post-punk swerve and pure warehouse stomp. It’s percussive, it’s groovy and it’s got a killer one-two knockout combination. It’s smart, it’s soulful and it’s wild—it’s a feral blast of shaking indie rock that’s immediate, real and infectious. www.rongallomusic.com AND: Ron Gallo's SOCIAL METEOR book pre-order: https://rongallo.bandcamp.com/merch/social-meteor Ron Gallo's "Before the Building Goes Up" Concert Film Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYB4AitzSsQ www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.embersarts.com www.alexgreenonline.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“Dark Island” Inspired by poetry, traditional celtic music, indie rock and the terrain of their beloved home of Cape Breton, the members of Villages have the island in their bones. And that makes sense—because they come from five generations of Cape Bretonians. So it’s safe to say it’s in their bones, their hearts, their minds and their souls. And it shows. The band’s new long player Dark Island is a moving meditation on ancestry, roots and Cape Breton itself, the latter being the spiritual connective tissue that links the album’s eleven tracks. From songs like the buoyant Love Will Live On to the moving Celtic groove of Play The Fiddle All Night, which you just heard, Dark Island is filled with pure sonic joy. Produced Juno-award winning composer and producer Joshua Van Tassel, who has worked with the Great Lake Swimmers and Fortunate Ones, this album is nothing short of revelatory. Inspired by the dramatic terrain of Cape Breton and the nature that inhabits it, Dark Island creates a moving landscape of sonorous melodies, lifting harmonies and poetic finesse. www.thevillagesband.net www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.embersarts.com www.alexgreenonline.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“The Hypnogogue” With close to 30 albums to their credit, including classics like Heyday, Starfish, The Blurred Crusade and their fabulous new one The Hypnogogue, The Church are one of the most enduring bands of all time. Led by the British-born but Australian raised Steve Kilbey, the Sydney-based outfit continue to put out music that’s mesmeric, melodic and meditative.Inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2010 and with gold records and hit singles under their musical belts, the Church are not ones to rest on their laurels. In fact, what makes this band so alluring is that they continue to challenge themselves and their listeners. Their new album is a perfect example of this—it’s a dense and textured collection of dreamlike jams, textured instrumentation, graceful hooks and churning elegance. It’s the kind of album that rewards you with each repeated listen. As for Mr. Kilbey, he remains one of the most prolific artists in rock and roll, delivering not only high quality work with his band, but also adding to that oeuvre fabulous solo albums, books, and paintings. This is Steve’s second visit to the podcast and we pick up where we left off…. www.thechurchband.net www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.embersarts.com www.alexgreenonline.com Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“Down Rounder” Cat Clyde is crushing it. The Canadian singer/songwriter’s just-released new album Down Rounder hit the #1 spot in the most added Americana Radio Album charts and her single "Mystic Light” was the #2 most added single on the same chart. Produced by Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, Paul McCartney), Clyde’s third album is a wondrous and poetic collection of indie folk and breezy roots music. Filled with spare acoustic numbers, jangling pop, and heartfelt ballads, the album has flourishes of piano, surf guitar, chiming bells, and unreasonably beautiful vocals that tug and yearn and long and ache. Using the natural world as a philosophical guide, Clyde’s third album is a moving mediation about home and love and our ever shifting philosophical and spiritual selves It’s an album about rediscovery, persona, self-expression, and realizing that feeling lost is the only way to be found. www.catyclydemusic.com www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com wwww.embersarts.com Stereo Embers: Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“Grandfather Courage” Fantastic Negrito may have been born in Massachusetts, but he’s a Bay Area guy through and through. The 8th of 15 kids, he moved to Oakland as a twelve year old and immediately immersed himself in the sounds of the 510 and the 415. He was no stranger to punk rock clubs like Berkeley’s Gillman or the underground hip hop clubs of Oakland. He liked it all—metal, indie rock, soul, punk and jazz and the legend goes that he learned to play by sneaking into the music classrooms at Cal, even though he wasn’t a student. Using his birth name of Xavier, in 1993 he signed a deal with Prince’s former Manager’s Lexington House Records who had a distribution deal with Interscope. Three years later he put out his debut album, simply titled Xavier. A horrifying car crash in 1999 nearly killed him but after waking up from a three week coma, he started to see his career in a totally different way. That new angle wouldn’t take hold until 2014, seven years after a self-imposed exile of not making music anymore. He emerged in his 40s as Fantastic Negrito, a personae that made what he called Black roots music for everyone. And, it turns out, everyone was into it. Fantastic Negrito pulled off an improbable hat trick, winning the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2016 for The Last Days Of Oakland, repeating that feat for 2019’s Please Don’t Be Dead and doing it again for 2020’s Have You Lost Your Mind? His new album Grandfather Courage is the acoustic reimagining of his 2022 album White Jesus Black Problems and it’s nothing short of brilliant. It's indie rock soul, it’s low-fi blues, it’s big, it’s grand, it’s ambitious and it’s one of the richer musical experiences you’ll have all year. www.fantasticnegrito.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.embersarts.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“When The Storm Has Passed” With ten albums or so under their indie folk belts, The Great Lake Swimmers have consistently been one of the most arresting affecting and spellbinding bands around. The Canadian outfit introduced themselves to the world with their self-titled 2003 effort and since then have put out classics like New Wild Everywhere, The Waves, The Wake and the Juno-nominated Lost Channels, which was also shortlisted for the Polaris Prize. Sonically, the band bring to mind everyone from R.E.M to Teenage Fanclub to Miracle Legion. And throughout their songbook, singer Tony Dekker’s poetic lyrics form a literate blend of ecology, environmentalism and good old fashioned romanticism. He’s a potent triple threat. The band have also put out four live albums, four EPs and a covers album that features takes on numbers by The Rolling Stones, Tom Waits and NeIl Young and John Cale. Oh, and Dekker also has a marvelous solo album called Prayer of The Woods. The point here is that there’s a healthy crop of Great Lakes Swimmers material for you to plunge into. But the music you’re hearing on the program today is the band's first new music since 2019. It’s been a while. But they're back and they’ve never sounded better. Their two new tracks—“When The Storm Has Passed” and “Moonlight, Stay Above”—feature Dekker’s trademark poetic finesse and penchant for writing some of the catchiest and heartfelt songs on the planet. We’re glad they’re back! www.greatlakeswimmers.com www.greatlakeswimmers.bandcamp.com www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.embersarts.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“No Warning Shots Fired” Fang got their start in the early '80s in the East Bay. The Berkeley hardcore band’s early start was a little less hardcore and more experimental but that lineup, which featured future Glass Eye bassist Brian Beattie, only lasted under two years. The new lineup, with newly minted singer Sam McBride on vocals, became the punk rock powerhouse that blasted their way across the Bay Area with shows that were feral, wild and filled with rabid intensity and hardcore muscle. But feral as they were, Fang’s fans felt a part of a discernible community. As a friend of mine who never missed a Fang show once said to me: "Being at Fang concert was like being at a fistfight where everyone’s winning.” The band’s first two efforts—Landshark and Where The Wild Things Are—remain undisputed punk rock classics and although that lineup dissolved in ’85, McBride soldiered on with new personnel and as a result, Fangs’ legacy became firmly cemented in punk rock lore, with their songs being covered over the years by Nirvana, Green Day and the Butthole Surfers. Fang pretty much tore through the ‘80s on a pretty big winning streak, and although that streak came to an end when McBride ended up in prison, the band’s second act is a feral as their first and their new album No Warning Shot Fired is a raw and nervy blast of classic hardcore. www.fangofficialmerch.bigcartel.com www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.emberarts.com Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“I’m Not Sure At All” Bringing to mind a low-fi Kate Bush mixed with Cat Power and Beth Orton, the Kent-born Marlody is a revelation. Her debut album I’m Not Sure At All is a rich and lustrous affair, filled with confident songwriting about feeling unconfident. And that’s the beautiful thing about Marlody—her music is a delicious cauldron of contrasts that’s redolent with vulnerability and strength. The songs on I’m Not Sure At All ache with longing and uncertainty, yet then ring out with bursts of sure-footed courage, poise and tenacity. A trained classical pianist with an orchestral future set out before her, Marlody tossed traditionalism aside and immersed herself in indie noise rock like Shellac and Slint and found a through-line that linked the classical with the cacophonous. I’m Not Sure At All is one of 2023's great finds and Marlody’s music is a riveting and spellbinding listen. Bandcamp: https://skepwax.bandcamp.com www.marlody.bandcamp.com MARLODY: Instagram/Twitter: @_marlody_ SKEP WAX: Instagram/Twitter/Facebook: @skepwax Contact: info@skepwax.com www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.embersarts.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com