Stereo Embers: The Podcast

"The Blood Of Others" If you're job is to tell your audience a little bit about a titan like Bruce Cockburn, then you're job is not an easy one. But let's give it a shot. The Ottawa-born Bruce Cockburn is one of the most celebrated, revered, and beloved musicians on the planet. Let's just start there and work our way around. With just under 40 albums to his name, including High Winds, White Sky, D...

"Absence And Her Sister" Tim Eriksen and Peter Irvine first came onto my radar in the late eighties when I was a college radio DJ and I was super into their band Cordelia's Dad. Formed while the two friends were studying at Amherst, Cordelia's Dad's raucous mixture of folk and punk showed up weekly on my radio show in between the Pogues and The Replacements. Because they were such an unategorizabl...

"One Last Heist" A singer/songwriter, a Professor, an author and the creator of the beloved cabaret-style multi artist extravaganza Cabinet Of Wonders which has featured everyone from novelist Rick Moody to Kristin Hersh to Steven Page, Wesley Stace is a man who, as the expression goes, wears many hats. The British-born, Cambridge educated Stace first came onto my college radio radar in 1989 under...

"One Last Heist" A singer/songwriter, a Professor, an author and the creator of the beloved cabaret-style multi artist extravaganza Cabinet Of Wonders which has featured everyone from novelist Rick Moody to Kristin Hersh to Steven Page, Wesley Stace is a man who, as the expression goes, wears many hats. The British-born, Cambridge educated Stace first came onto my college radio radar in 1989 under...

"Don't You Push" If Coleridge was right and friendship is a sheltering tree, then Julie Christensen lives in a very big forest. It's true. She knows a lot of people and she has a lot of friends. When you listen to us chat you'll hear organically how this Iowa native has moved through the world making friends everywhere she goes. Let's back up. Julie first landed on my radar when I was a high schoo...

"Draw The Outline" The Irish-born singer/songwriter Sorcha Richardson keeps moving from strength to strength. Her debut First Prize Bravery was nominated for the Choice Music Prize, her second album Smiling Like An Idiot went top five in Ireland and her new one Draw The Outline is already being touted as one of 2026's very best. And for good reason. From Fake Venice to Illinois Again, Draw The Out...

"Lift Me Up" Over the course of a series of critically-acclaimed and best-selling albums like I Bificus, Superbeautifulmonster and 2024's Champion, Bif Naked has established herself as one of the most dynamic and arresting artists you're likely to run into. The Canadian singer/songwriter's refusal to be categorized has been the secret to her being able to move through genres like EDM and Pop-Punk...

"Welcome Back Love" The San Francisco-born Martin Luther McCoy is a straight up quadruple threat. An actor, guitarist, singer/songwriter, and producer, McCoy is one of those guys who does a lot of things really well. He's released a handful of brilliant solo albums like The Calling, Rebel Soul Music and his brand new one, Welcome Back Love, which we'll get to in a minute, he's collaborated with th...

"Automated Paradise" The Bristol-born Jon Klein got his start with the late-seventies post-punk outfit Europeans. After their break-up he formed the porto-goth band Specimen, who put out a handful of winning singles, but splintered before an album could be released. In 1987 Klein joined Siouxsie and the Banshees and went on to record three records with them: Peepshow, Superstition and The Rapture....

"All The Beauty" With close to 15 albums under his musical belt, the New Jersey-born Pete Yorn is one of the most arresting and compelling singer/songwriters on the planet. Ever since his auspicious Gold-selling 2001 debut musicforthemorningafter, Yorn has moved from strength to strength, with albums like Day I Forgot, Nightcrawler, Hawaii and his marvelous new one, All The Beauty. More on that la...

"Boxing The Compass" Haircut 100 have always been one of my all-time favorite bands. The only tricky thing with having them as a favorite for all these years is there's only one album, 1982's Pelican West, which is a flawless platter of beachside new wave that effortlessly veers into pop, jazz, and funk. There is a second album Paint by Paint and there's nothing wrong with what's on it, the proble...

"Battle For The Yellow" The Six-Foot-Six John Tesh cuts an imposing figure, but consider the numbers of his CV. He's got six Emmys, four Gold Albums, one Associated Press Award, two Grammy nominations, close to fifty albums to his name, including Live At Red Rocks, Music In The Key Of Love, Monterey Nights and Sports, close to ten million albums sold and his live shows have raised 7 million for PB...

"Remembering The Trashcan Sinatras' John Douglas" We've devastated to hear the news of the passing of the Trashcan Sinatras' John Douglas. We're so grateful that we had a chance to sit down with him last year for a chat. The Scottish-born singer/songwriter/guitarist was a lovely guy and this conversation is a generous glimpse into his creative process. Our thoughts are with his friends, his family...

"We Were Made For These Times" It's been 40 years since the Grammy-Award winning band the Klezmatics formed in the East Villag. In the same way the Pogues fused Irish folk with punk rock, the New York klezmer outfit have grafted centuries-old Yiddish music with iterations of contemporary music including jazz, gospel, punk, classical, Latin, and Balkan styles. With nearly twenty albums under their...

"Parallel Universe" When I was working in college radio it seemed like Hypnolovewheel was putting out a record every year. And it felt that way because they pretty much were. Although they'd put out two records in the eighties, in the '90s the Long Island outfit released a trilogy of albums in an indie rock whirlwind: there was 1991's Space Mountain, 1992's Angel Food and 1993's Altered States. An...

"On 2 U" It's hard to imagine a band working today that captures the grit and the glamor of Los Angeles better than Starcrawler. Formed in 2015 by teenage classmates, the young band tore out of the gates with an aggressive blend of crunchy punk and deliciously sleazy hard rock. Led by singer Arrow De Wilde, Starcrawler are one of those rare out of the box bands that knew who they were early on--wh...

"Real Life Evolution" With close to ten brilliant albums under her belt, including Real Life, To Survive and The Classic, it's hard to think of a more critically-acclaimed artist in recent memory than singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joan As Police Woman. After studying music as a violinist at the College of Fine Arts at Boston University with her lifelong friend Mary Timony of Helium,...

"Beach Bongo Bloodbath" Bob Bert's Beach Bongo Bloodbath might be the most alliterative album title of the year, but it also happens to also be one of the year's very best. Before we get to Beach Bongo Bloodbath, let me give you a little Bob Bert Backstory. The alliteration with Bob is seemingly unavoidable. Influenced by the Beatles, the Stones, Andy Warhol and the band's that packed CBGB's, the...

"Notes To Self" For the past 11 years, the Ohio-born Jon Lampley was on your television four nights a week as part of the house band on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert. A versatile brass player who is accomplished on the trumpet and sousaphone, Lampley is also a singer-songwriter, a composer and now a bandleader himself who effortlessly presides over his own cocktail of soul, R&B, gospel and ro...

"Highway To Heavenly" The Oxford indie-pop outfit Heavenly formed out of the ashes of another Oxford outfit, the beloved indiepop band Talulah Gosh. With the addition of singer/keyboardist Cathy Rogers, by the time the band's second album Le Jardin De Heavenly hit shelves, their low-fi jangle became augmented by lush and spellbinding harmonies. Throughout the '90s put out a handful of winning albu...

"Maybe It's Just Me" The indie rock outfit Lost Leaders were formed in 2011 by pals Byron Isaacs and Peter Cole. Isaacs' resume was already pretty full at the time, thanks to his work as the bassist for the Lumineers and playing with the Levon Helm Band and Ollabelle. If that doesn't sound busy enough, Isaacs has also recorded and performed with Bruce Springsteen, Roseanne Cash, Jackson Browne, Am...

"Garage Glamour" It's hard to think of a more dynamic and exciting band as the Claudettes. The Chicago-based rock/blues/pop outfit have been at it since 2010 and with six albums under their belts, including their riveting new one Garage Glamour, The Claudettes have established themselves as one of the most singular outfits on the planet. From Dance Scandal In The Gymnasium to High Times In The Dar...

"Of Ghosts And Gods" The New Jersey-born, Harvard educated David Berkeley is one of modern music's true renaissance men. Now, people throw that term out a tad lazily but in the case of Berkeley, it truly fits. Aside from releasing close to ten perfect albums, including The Confluence, Some Kind Of Cure and Oh Quiet World, Berkeley is an author, a label owner, and he's been a river rafting guide, a...

"Crying The Neck" With seven marvelous albums under his musical belt, including 2003's Lycanthropy, 2005's Wind In The Wires and his latest album Crying The Neck, which broke a nearly fifteen-year hiatus from recorded music, Patrick Wolf is a wondrous talent. The London-born musician is one of the most arresting artists on the planet--his songs effortlessly meld trip-hop, electronica and indie roc...

Porto" Over their nearly twenty-album history, the Canadian outfit 5440 have proven themselves to be one of the most enduring rock and roll bands of all time. Their career highlights are numerous, so bear with this partial list of their achievements. They've been nominated for 8 Juno Awards, have had #1 singles and Gold albums in Canada, had their song "I Go Blind" covered by Hootie and the Blowfi...