Stereo Embers: The Podcast

"Continuance" Don't feel bad if Joey Alexander's resume' makes you feel inferior about your childhood achievements. We all feel that way. The Indonesian born pianist taught himself to play at age 6 and was flawlessly covering Thelonious Monk before he was in 1st grade. Because of the paucity of jazz opportunities at home, Alexander sat in with the top jazz players in Bali and Jakarta. At 8 he play...

"Ozark Symphony" Born in Memphis into a musical family, Kelly Hunt grew up listening to classical, folk and Delta Blues. She sang in the choir and played the piano, but it was the five-string banjo that stole her heart. Hunt was both a traditionalist and a modernist, blending old-time picking with her own brand of improvisation. After graduating from college she explored farming, the visual arts a...

"Get Me To A Nunnery" The Hawaii-born, Wisconsin-raised Heather Lynne Horton has a lot of stories to tell and because she's a born storyteller, she does so with the perfect blend of humor, hi-jinx and self-deprecation. We'll let her tell you those stories, but in the meantime, we'll offer this quick version of who she is. After college she hit Minneapolis in search of the mythical Prince and then...

"Heart Like Thunder" The Colorado-born, Brooklyn-based Hallie Spoor is a true artist. And she's a true athlete. And she knows that to be either one of those things, you've got to put in the reps. Trust me when I tell you, Spoor has put in the reps. The trained opera singer and former collegiate soccer player is well aware of the hard work that's needed to hit a note that carries to the clouds or k...

"Summer of No Light" The Philadelphia-raised Kip Berman had a musical life before he was the Natvral and that life could be found in his band The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. The beloved New York outfit was around for a little over a decade, calling it a day in 2019 after four perfect albums of indie pop that brought to mind everyone from Aztec Camera to Belle and Sebastian. Berman's 2021 debut a...

"Messages To God" The New Zealand-born Sarah Mary Chadwick fronted the deliciously feral post-Grunge outfit Batrider in the early 2000s. She made her first solo foray with the riveting 2012 album Eating For Two and from there she’s moved from strength to strength with records like Please Daddy and Me And Ennui are Friends, Baby. Her new one Messages To God is nothing short of stunning. An aching b...

"Entelechy" The work of the Ohio-born Sandy Bell is pure magic. I guess by now, you're getting the feeling I'm a big admirer of what she does. But the work that we're talking about which is so effortless and beautiful, was hard-fought and the journey to get where we are today with Sandy's songs, was fraught with some pretty heavy stuff. We'll let her tell you all about that, but along the way, she...

"Face To Face" Although she got her start behind the drum kit playing for her dad's band, the Detroit-born Suzi Quatro taught herself how to play bass so she could be in her sister's band, The Pleasure Seekers. She moved to England at 21 and released a string of rather massive albums like her 1973 self-titled debut and the searing Your Mamma Won't Like Me in 1975. A pioneering presence in the pop...

"The King Of Good Intentions III" John Andrew Fredrick is the author of several books, including one on the early films of Wes Anderson, but he also happens to be the braintrust of the beloved band the black watch, whose extensive body of work is an endless orchard of sonic joy. If you know their work, you know the deal. If you don't, jump in and grab anything they've ever done and work your way f...

"Leisureland" Although he was born Eric Goulden in East Sussex, my guest today on the program is perhaps best known in the music industry as Wreckless Eric. Under that moniker he first garnered attention with his song The Whole Wide World, a shambolic blast of joyful punk that landed him a deal with Stiff Records. At the time, Stiff was just getting going and they had Ian Dury Elvis Costello and N...

"The Long Goodbye" With close to ten fabulous albums under their musical belts, Candlebox have had quite a career. The Seattle outfit has sold millions of records, played Letterman and Woodstock, toured the world with the likes of everyone from Rush, Metallica, Foo Fighters and Our Lady Peace, and over the years counted among their personnel folks from bands like Pearl Jam, Dig and Ugly Kid Joe. A...

"Paradise Blue" The Seattle-based singer/songwriter Steven Cristol has had quite a career. Well, to be more specific, he's had several careers, but today we're going to talk about the musical one. We'll let him tell you his story but a little background is important before we get to the chat. The Georgia-born Cristol's adventure with music and the music industry found him with incredible highs, li...

"My Good Friends" The Ohio-born David Wilcox is one of our great treasures. Over the course of his career the singer/songwriter has put out nearly 25 perfect albums, including 1989's How Did You Find Me Here, 1991's Home Again, 2003's Into The Mystery and his brand new one, My Good Friends. Bringing to mind Nick Drake, John Gorka, Milo Binder and Joni Mitchell, Wilcox is one of those rare singer/s...

"Hard To Find" Okay, so if you're a regular listener to the podcast, you've heard me talk endlessly about Starclub. The song you just heard Hard To Get is, in my opinion, the best pop song of the '90s, and the band's self-titled debut album from 1994 is just perfect and it seemed the band was positioned for a long and decorated career. But that career never happened and although they signed the bi...

“The Songs Between The Docks and the Roads” Over the course of his career, the east London-born singer/songwriter Graham Parker has put out close to thirty albums and they’re all great. All of them—Whether its Howlin' Wind or Squeezing out Sparks or Another Grey Area or Deepcut To Nowhere or Cloud Symbols, every single GP album is a winner. Parker grew up a huge fan of the Beatles, Otis Redding, S...

“Dynamic, Kinetic and Unexpected” So a quick introduction to the principal members of the 3 Clubmen will give you a foundational understanding of what this band is all about. Or will it? It won’t, because their sound is so unexpected and fresh and inventive, that a little background can’t prepare you for what they sound like, but introductions are part of our job, so let’s get that out of the way....

“The Unspeakable Milo Binder” Milo Binder put out one brilliant album in 1991 and then, that was that. He was gone. Alias Records was an indie rock label that had folks like Too Much Joy and The Sneetches and when they put out Milo’s album was a huge departure from their roster. A eleven song folk album, Binder’s self-titled release was one of those rare instances where the artist arrived fully fo...

“Born To Archive" Alright, so imagine this: The thing you do really well as a kid becomes your career. In the case of my guest today on the program, that’s exactly what happened. Jackie Clary is a born archivist. As a young girl growing up, she was a huge fan of Wham! and George Michael, and she started collecting ephemera that was related to them and their music. But it wasn’t just that—Jackie ha...

“4th of July Special: What's The Point Of A Strawberry?” Well, not counting the fact that they lower your blood pressure, are high in fiber, rich in antioxidants and guard you from cancer, strawberries are pretty much useless. In this wildly discursive 4th of July chat with singer-songwriter Shannon McArdle, the Brooklyn musician talks to Alex about why she’s not into strawberries (or fruit for th...

“An Crann” Damian O’Neill is best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the legendary band The Undertones. One of Northern Ireland’s most successful bands, the Derry outfit got their start in 1974 and featured Damian’s brother John on rhythm guitar. The band pretty much tore things up, releasing nearly 15 singles and four classic albums and which still sound as vital today as they ever hav...

“How To Love” The London-born and Scottish based singer/songwriter Dan Willson is truly one of the best we’ve got. Over the course of three albums with his band Withered Hand, Willson has asserted himself as a songwriter of tremendous sensitivity, poetic smarts and lyrical grace. A little history: Willson had played in bands but with art school behind him, when he picked up a guitar at 30 and foun...

“Never Say Never” Formed by classmates at the Art Institute in San Francisco at the sunset of the 70s, Romeo Void were one of the most dynamic, inventive and singular outfits around. Fronted by singer Debora Iyall, the classic Romeo Void lineup was Iyall on vocals, Peter Woods on guitar, bassist Frank Zincavage, saxophonist Benjamin Bossi and drummer Aaron Smith. They toured nationally, had fans t...

“Andy Rourke Remembered” Well, he may have been in a band with the greats, but let’s face it, Andy Rourke was one of them as well. The Manchester born Rourke joined his childhood pal Johnny Marr’s band The Smiths in 1982 and he played with them until their demise in 1987. That’s Rourke you hear on every Smiths record, including The Queen Is Dead, Strangeways Here We Come and Louder Than Bombs. Aft...

“Introducing Billy Bradley" A veteran of commercials, movies and television while still only in his 30s, Michael Charles Roman is one of those timeless actors. He’s got the punchline prowess of everyone from Michael J. Fox to Jason Bateman, the comedic instincts of Martin Short and the theatrical range that could find him doing period pieces to contemporary dramas. Roman was in films like Keeping...

“Sea Swallow Me” In the dark, harrowing, and gripping memoir Sea Swallow Me, which details a drug addiction that almost killed her, the Bay Area author Suki Jones writes with a raw immediacy and refreshing candor about not only being dependent on drugs, but keeping that dependency a secret from her family and friends. Set against the backdrop of the Bay Area in the early '90s, Jones balances mothe...