Stereo Embers: The Podcast

"House Of Steam" Putting it simply the L.A.-born Nels Cline's resume' is so deep, to quote Mark Eitzel, it "would make the ocean proud." The guitarist and composer is one of the most respected names in the business and though he's perhaps best known these days for being the guitarist of Wilco, let's not single story Mr. Cline, because his body of work is varied and extensive. Aside from his early...

"Anything At All" Since the late '90s, the Pennsylvania-born musician Denison Witmer has been quietly producing one of the most stirring and affecting bodies of work in modern music. That body of work is also one of the most consistent. With close to fifteen albums under his belt, including Of Joy And Sorrow, Philadelphia Songs and The Ones Who Wait, Witmer's music brings to mind the work of every...

“Forwards” For more than 40 years the Welsh band the Alarm have been one of the most consistent acts on the planet, playing songs with conviction, heart and belief. With almost 20 studio albums under their belts, along with a discography that includes live albums, box sets and EPs, The Alarm are one of those bands where you pretty much want everything they put out. From albums like Declaration to...

"Drop The Man" Persona is easy if you're an artist that doesn't perform under your own name. The separation there is pretty simple and it's easy to keep the character's life out of yours. But what if the character has the same name? I'm talking today or course, about Zoe Ko, whose Zoe Ko persona happens to share the name with the real Zoe Ko. You can see how this can lead to some confusion for the...

"23" If I hadn't received an email from Oregon way back in 2010, this episode would never have happened. Out of nowhere, 15 years ago, I got a letter from Dave Cantrell who wrote a very kind email about my 33 1/3 book on The Stone Roses. The lovely things he said were...lovely and deeply appreciated, but what really stood out to me where a couple of things. First of all, Dave and I both grew up in...

"What I Deserve" Over the course of almost fifteen albums, Kelly Willis has made a pretty good case that she's one of the greats. The Oklahoma-born singer/songwriter is not only a beautiful and affecting singer, her phrasing is filled with purring vowels, consonants fearlessly taking sharp corners and delicious diction which powers each number with authority, vulnerability and grace. Willis' caree...

"Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom" Led by Willy Vlautin, Richmond Fontaine's nearly fifteen album discography is a delicious blend of ramshackle post-punk and rootsy bliss. Meanwhile, Vlautin's books bring to mind Steinbeck, Hemingway and Carver and they traverse the American landscape and find that hope and despair are oftentimes shacked up in the same hotel room, trying to figure out who makes it out alive....

"Lookaftering" Well, we talked about doing the thing and the fact of the matter is, the British-born Vashti Bunyan started doing the thing pretty early. In the 1960s, while studying at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford, Bunyan was expelled for focussing more on making music than on drawing. So she went home and started making music. When her mother's hip actress friend got the 19...

"Run With Me" The Ontario-born Bry Webb formed the underground outfit The Constantines out of the ashes of the emo band Shoulder in 1999. With their jagged guitars, tribal drums, snarling bass lines and Webb's ferocious vocals along with his poetic lyrics, The Guelph-based Constantines were one of those rare bands that seemed to arrive fully formed. From 2004 to 2008, the Juno-award nominated Cons...

"If I Was" Midge Ure is a one-man highlight machine. The Scottish born Ivor Novello Award winning musician was in the pop band Silk, the post-punk outfit Rich Kids with Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols, the synth band Visage, the rock band Think Lizzy and the new wave band Ultravox. If you were wondering if Ure has range, the answer is: yes. Aside from co-writing Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christ...

"I Still Want To Share" The London-based singer/songwriter Sophie Jamieson's sophomore album I Still Want To Share is a stunner. The follow-up to her 2022 debut Choosing, which, I'd like to add, was my album of the year, I Still Want To Share is a deft and moving collection of indie folk that's stark and sweeping and textured and spare. I know textured and spare seem to be opposites, and in many w...

"High Tide" Comprised of three classically-trained musicians and friends from Boise, Idaho, Blood Lemon is an energetic power trio that was formed in 2018. Their new EP Petit Deaths finds the band sounding as confident as ever. Recorded in Joshua Tree, the mysteries of the desert proved to be an inspiring environment and as a result, Petit Deaths races away with feral grooves, undulating rhythms a...

"Midwinter Swimmers" Since 1986 the Pennsylvania outfit The Innocence Mission have quietly been crafting one of the most affecting songbooks in modern music. The nearly fifteen albums in their discography, including Birds Of My Neighborhood, Glow, We Walked In Song and their new one, Mid-Winter Swimmers, have found The Innocence Mission elegantly asserting themselves as a truly singular band. At t...

“Merry Christmas, Emily” David Lowery does so many things, his CV needs a sequel. He's a professor, a mathematician, a writer, a musician, a producer and an entrepreneur. He's also the singer of two of my all-time favorite bands: Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. Let's start with the former. Lowery formed Camper Van Beethoven when he was a student at UC Santa Cruz in the early '80s. I was so obses...

"Swept Away" Is this an emergency episode of the podcast? Kind of. And by kind of, I mean...yes. It is. It's actually quite urgent because art is at stake and without art, we have nothing. This show is about the current creative moment in an artist's life and on that front, this episode couldn't be more on the nose. My guest today on the show is currently starring in a Broadway production that, in...

"Shelters" If you think you recognize the name Josh Lovelace, you probably do. Lovelace's full-time job is the keyboardist of the South Carolina outfit NEEDTOBREATHE, a band he's been with since 2011. Lovelace is a busy dude, but the Tennessee-born musician has found time to not only play with NEEDTOBREATHE, but he's also put out a handful of spirited and charming albums for kids under the moniker...

“Shapes & Forms" There’s nothing Sandra Bernhard can’t do: she’s an actor, a singer, a comic, a radio host, an author and a pioneer of the one-woman show and the list goes on. I was going to say that in many ways, Sandra Bernhard is the Shohei Ohtani of entertainment, but that’s not totally accurate because she’s been around longer, so the right way to say it is Shoehei Ohtani is the Sandra Bernha...

“Here And Now” Letters To Cleo may seemed to have suddenly shown up on the pop culture landscape in 1994, but the fact is, the Boston outfit had been grinding it out on the club since 1990. Their single “Here and Now” was an instant classic—a melodic dose of perfect pop stomp that showcased singer Hanley’s powerful vocal delivery. The band tore through the ‘90s, releasing three perfect albums (Aur...

"Thanksgiving Day Special" There's a lot of things I miss about being a kid--somebody else driving, somebody else making dinner, not having to pay bills, not having to shave or get gas or pay rent--I was just going mention one or two things, but apparently I'm not pleased about being an adult. The reason why I brought this up is because the one thing I really miss about being a kid are the holiday...

“Who We Are” The London-born pianist, singer, composer and bandleader Ashley Henry is one of the most inventive, fascinating and altogether thrilling musicians out there. Educated at the Royal Academy of Music, Henry’s work is informed by a love of classical music sure, but also a love of jazz, trip-hop, reggae soul, dub and hip-hop. Imagine if Mozart was a big fan of Digital Underground. It’s kin...

"Unbreakable Heart" The Texas-born Amber Martin has no regrets. The singer/songwriter has lived quite a life and it's one that found her moving coast to coast in the name of art. But geography aside, Martin moves relentlessly forward and doesn't look back with revisionist repentance. She'll tell you all about that, so let me fill you in on the other stuff. A brilliant and powerful singer with prec...

"Shot Of Blue" Well, if the name Tom DiCillo sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen the movies he’s directed, like Living In Oblivion, Box Of Moonlight, The Real Blonde and the Grammy Award-winning documentary on the Doors When You’re Strange, which was narrated by Johnny Depp. Over the course of his winning career, DiCillo has directed Brad Pitt, John Turturro, Dave Chapelle, Catherin...

"What About You?" With time running out on 2024, Spooky Mansion are checking in with one of the best albums of the year. The California outfit's new long player What About You? is a rousing blast of scruffy surf and west coast soul. Led by braintrust Grayson Converse, Spooky Mansion are one of the most inventive and exciting bands around. Filled with winning tracks like "Weather," "Long Time Ago,"...

"Para Llevar" You might know Johnny Delaware from the South Carolina alt-country outfit SUSTO, but the singer/songwriter's new solo album Paro Llevar reminds us that he's a musical force even when he's away from the band he co-founded with Justin Osborne. SUSTO's five albums, including Ever Since I Lost My Mind and 2023's My Entire Life are roots rock classics and the band has a pretty rabid globa...

"Underwater Detection Method" I always knew the San Francisco-born musician Greg Lisher as a guitar player. As a member of Camper Van Beethoven and the Monks of Doom, Lisher's imaginitive and distinct playing remains instatnly recogniziable. But for his new solo album Underwater Detection Method, Lisher decided to make a left turn and make the keyboard the central instrument on the album. A riveti...