Stereo Embers: The Podcast

• Stereo Embers The Podcast 0448: Dave Wolfenden (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Rose Of Avalanche)

  "Strange Kind Of Paradise" Formed in Leeds at the dawn of the '80s, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry were weaned on the MC5 and Wire, but their brooding melodies and dark and churning instrumentation got them lumped in with the Goth scene. Their 1985 debut Talk About The Weather went to #3 on the NME indie chart and to this day remains an undisputed classic. With John Peel a huge fan and their own fans affectionately referring to them as the Lorries, they quickly followed that up with fabulous albums like Paint Your Wagon, Nothing Wrong, Blow and Blasting Off. Ironically, 1992's Blasting Off sounded like a band taking flight, but at that point they were a band breaking up. Well, not really breaking up, but heading into a deep hiatus. The band's braintrust Chris Reed surfaced in 2004 with a few new tracks and the Lorries did tour that year and into 2005. But aside from the Thunder In A Black Cave live DVD and Reed's acoustic record Minimal Animal, the Lorries were silent for more than twenty more years. Until now. Long considered to be a holy grail of sorts for Lorries fans, Strange Kind Of Paradise is the band's sixth and final album. Brewing for two decades, the band completed work on the album and it'll be the last word for the Lorries. A wicked blast of angular beauty, dark melodicism and grinding intensity, Strange Kind Of Paradise is a brilliant final chapter that ends with an artful and deeply satisfying crescendo. I hope you'll feel the same way about this chat--it's a good one. https://www.red-lorry-yellow-lorry.com https://redlorryyellowlorry.bandcamp.com/album/strange-kind-of-paradise www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: [email protected]

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• Stereo Embers The Podcast 0447: Willie Aron (Thee Holy Brothers, The Balancing Act)

  "High In My Balloon" When it comes to the Grammy-nominated musician and composer Willie Aron, he's worked with so many people, it might be faster just to list the people he hasn't worked with. Born in Southern California, Aron studied classical piano before falling in love with the Beatles and new wave and teaching himself guitar. He co-founded The Balancing Act who signed to I.R.S., put out three excellent albums, toured with 10,000 Maniacs and They Might Be Giants before calling it a day in 1989. After the band broke up, Aron became an in-demand session musician and over the years he's collaborated with Leonard Cohen, The Dream Syndicate, Rickie Lee Jones, Milo Binder, Susanna Hoffs, Brian Wilson, Michael Penn and Peter Himmelman. Speaking of Brian Wilson, yes, that's Wilie in Love & Mercy and he was also a consultant for the Beatles doc Eight Days A Week. Willie also has worked as a film and television composer, a producer of children's music and a composer for commercials and music libraries. Additionally, he helped develop the curriculum and write original songs for a Los Angeles-based children’s music space and company called Play Music (play-losangeles.com) and he also earned a a Master’s Degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University in Los Angeles. As for the bands he plays in currently, the list is long, but let's just start with Moremen/Bonebrake with Matthew Sweet guitarist John Moremen and X drummer DJ Bonebrake, an improvisation outfit called Mushroom, The Vince Melouney Sect featuring original Bee Gees guitarist Vince Melouney, and the all-star musical collective known as The Wild Honey Orchestra that raises money for autism. All of which brings us to Thee Holy Brothers, which finds Willie teaming up with his pal Marvin Etzioni who you might remember from Lone Justice and his appearance on this podcast. The duo's new album "High In My Balloon" is a sterling platter of rootsy stomp and jangling pop that's pure melodic joy. And this conversation is equally joyful and it's also a reminder that being a nice person like Willie Aron leads to lasting friendships and as we all know, without lasting friendships, none of us would last. www.theeholybrothers.com (http://www.theeholybrothers.com) www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast [email protected]

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• Stereo Embers The Podcast 0446: BC Camplight

  "A Sober Conversation" Although BC Camplight is the brainchild of the New Jersey born Brian Christinzio, don't be mistaken in thinking his onstage persona is a protective way of distancing himself emotionally from who he is offstage because it's the exact opposit. BC Camplight is actually a way of amplifying those emotions and as a result, it's hard to think of a more emotionally open and accesible artist working in music today. If you're getting the impression that BC Camplight is an open book, that's exactly what he is. With almost ten critically-acclaimed albums to his name like How To Die In The North, Deportation Blues, The Last Rotation Of Earth and his new one A Sober Conversation, Camplight's compositions are sprawling and discursive blasts of unflinching honesty, confessional narratives and unvarnished self-examination. Falling somewhere between The Waterboys' This Is The Sea and Leif Vollebekk's North Americana, over the years, Camplight's music has moved from strength to strength and his new album is perhaps his best yet, which with a body of work like he has, is saying a lot. A captivating blend of sweeping ballads, poignant rockers and ruminating piano-fueled stomp, A Sober Conversation is a stirring song cycle that's filled with anthems for survival. Although the songs are informed by trauma, loss and self-doubt, Camplight's poetic muscle in a peerless flex that makes every number rip through the darkness with the intention of finding a new brand of light. And that's exactly what this album does--more than illuminating the bleakness, it blasts it apart. It's stunning work. BC has toured all over the world, played on Later With Jools Holland, collaborated with members of the War On Drugs, The Last Dinner Party and Sharon Von Etten. And today, he's here with us.... https://bc-camplight.bandcamp.com/album/a-sober-conversation www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: [email protected]

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• Stereo Embers The Podcast 0445: Miles Zuniga (Fastball)

  "Sonic Ranch" Licking his wounds from the breakup of his band Big Car, the Texas-born singer/songwriter Miles Zuniga found himself out west--and when I say out west I mean about ten minutes from where we record this podcast. Miles got a job working at Chez Panisse and hanging out on Telegraph Avenue at Cody's Books and Amoeba Music. The Big Car experience hadn't been great, so Miles was plotting out his next moves while he worked in Alice Waters' restaurant and I'll let him tell you how that all played out, so let's just fast forward to when he moved back to Texas and joined forces with bassist/singer Tony Scalzo and drummer Joe Shuffield to form Fastball. The trio's debut Make Your Mama Proud evinced their penchant for punchy pop genius but it was their sophomore record All The Pain That Money Can Buy that put them on the map. The album's first single "The Way" was pretty much a pop sensation, hitting the number one slot of charts for seven weeks. The next two singles "Out Of My Head" and "Fire Escape" helped fuel the album's Platinum status and Zuniga, a long way now from his Chez Panisse days, found his band with two Grammy nominations. Over the course of their career, Fastball have collaborated with Billy Preston, Steve Berlin, Adam Schlesinger and Charlie Sexton. From Keep Your Wig On to The Help Machine to their latest album Sonic Ranch, their discography is an endless supply of pop riches. Miles is a great guy and this is a very cool chat so let's meet himm www.fastballtheband.com (http://www.fastballtheband.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast EMAIL: [email protected]

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• Stereo Embers The Podcast 0444: Tom Hollister (Cardinal Black)

  "Midnight At The Valencia" Before all this rock and roll stuff, Tom Hollister was a highly touted Rugby player from Wales. I'll let him tell you how his career as an athlete was derailed as a young man in Canada, but let me just say this: when he got back to Wales, he channeled all that athletic energy into another sport entirely: the making of music. In 2010, of all the emerging buzzbands, Cardinal Black was one of the buzziest. Guns N' Roses' longtime manager Alan Niven was overseeing the band's activity and let's just say this: it was active. They were invited by Steve Winwood to record at his studio, they played a killer set at Sonisphere and they flew to the U.S. to record an album. But things didn't go as planned and the band hit pause on a career that was about to kick into overdrive. I'll let Tom tell you about that dark time as well, but, and I don't think this is a spoiler, the dark times are over and Cardinal Black 2.0 are in fighting shape and adding brilliant achievements to their resume' with each passing day. They've hit #1 on the iTunes Rock Singles Chart, they've played sold-out headline shows in all over the world, supported Myles Kennedy, The Struts and Peter Frampton thanks to a personal invitation from the man himself, and played Joe Bonamassa's Keeping The Blues Alive rock cruise. The band's new long player Midnight At The Valencia is a smooth blend of simmering soul, bluesy ballads and shimmering, rootsy genius. Hollister's stirring vocals are drenched with heart and with the brilliant guitar playing of Chris Buck weaving throughout the band's compositions, Midnight At The Valencia is one of those records that evades the timeline. When you put it on it could be 1971 or 1993 or now. Or all of it. I love this record and I love this band and Tom is a humble, thoughtful and kind soul. www.thecardinalblack.com (http://www.thecardinalblack.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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