Stereo Embers: The Podcast

"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 albums including Heavenly vs. Satan and The Decline And Fall of Heavenly but they called it a day in 1996 after the death of their drummer Matthew Fletcher. The core unit of Heavenly resumed under the moniker Marine Research and they put out one lone marvelous album and that was that for a while. Did the members of Heavenly stay busy in the interim? That would be a resounding yes but let's also add accomplished. These are the broadstrokes, but you'll get the idea: Singer Amelia Fletcher, who, by the way, has been in The Wedding Present and the Pooh Sticks and guested on tracks by the Candyskins and the 6ths,

is a Professor of Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia and in addition to being a Non-Executive Director on the boards of the Financial Conduct Authority, Fletcher was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire and Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to the economy. As for bassist Rob Pursey, who, by the way, is married to Fletcher, he's a screenwriter and he ran the Touchpaper TV production company. He now co-runs the awesome indie label Skep Wax with Fletcher. An educational neuroscientist, Cathy Rogers was the presenter of the British reality competition series Scrapheap Challenge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapheap_Challenge) and Junkyard Wars, and she has worked as a producer for the BBC, ran an olive farm in Italy and worked as Creative Director for RDF Media. Meanwhile, guitarist Peter Monchiloff played in the Would Be Goods, Scarlet's Well (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet%27s_Well), Les Clochards, and Hot Hooves and he was Commissioning Editor for Philosophy at Oxford University Press and is currently Associate Publication Consultant at Lex Academic. As for drummer Ian Button, the former member of The Thrashing Doves has been a university lecturer in music production, he worked with everyone from Robert Forster to Dot Allison, was a member of Death In Vegas and is an in-demand mixer and masterer. Again, this is an abbreviated list, but you can see the members of Heavenly have been busy. But somehow, between all that busy-ness and other bands like Tender Trap and Swansea Sound, Heavenly are back. Not sounding diminished by time, the band's first long player in 30 years Highway to Heavenly is a spry collection of janglepop that's effortlessly melodic and unreasonably catchy. It's lovely work that ranks among the years best. And this is a great chat with three members, then five members, then two members. And we pulled it off without any dropping of the baton--this is a great chat with the charming, gregarious and lovely personnel of Heavenly.

www.heavenlyindie.bandcamp.com

www.skepwax.com

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Stereo Embers:

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"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, Amy Helm, and Joan Baez. As for singer/guitarist Cole, his CV was pretty full as well, thanks to his tenure in Lava Baby, long-serving the New York jazz scene and working as a professional audio engineer. Cole and Isaacs have been pals since the late '90s, playing in bands like Slink and Lowdowners in Stereom, but Lost Leaders is where the two musicians really hit their artistic stride. With a handful of winning albums under their belts like Hungry Ghosts, Promises Promises and their self-titled debut album, Lost Leaders' work is redolent with harmonic dexterity, melodic muscle and rootsy bliss. Their latest effort is producing the full soundtrack and composing the original score for the indie film RUN, which stars Sarah Levy, Adam Palley and Chris Redd. By the way, the soundtrack features Amy Helm and Samantha Fish and it's just wonderful

Lost Leaders are about to hit the road opening for The Wallflowers, but before they do, they had a chat with us. And here it is...

https://byronisaacs.com

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"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 Dark, The Claudettes' music is informed as much by Junior Wells as it is The Minutemen. Are they a piano punk band? Sure. Are they a punk piano blues band? Yes. They're all of that. The band's new album Garage Glamour, which features the soulful Rachel Williams, is exhilarating, and life-affirming. It's a sweaty sonic reminder that when the world is falling apart, like it is now, it's music that keeps alive. As for Mr. Iguana, that's the nom de plume of one Brian Berkowitz, the New Jersey-born, Chicago-based braintrust of The Claudettes. Iguana has played with Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, Eddie Shaw, Carey Bell and Oh My God, which is the band where our paths first crossed. You'll hear about that in the chat, but a few more things to know about Johnny Iguana: he's a brilliant piano player who plays with the perfect blend of muscle and finesse. He played on the Grammy-nominated album Junior Wells: Live at Buddy Guy's Legends, played the Montreaux Jazz Festival, toured for three years as part of Junior Wells' band and co-composed the score for season one of The Bear. He's a great guy to chat with and this conversation was really fun.

www.theclaudettes.com (http://www.theclaudettes.com)

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"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 band manager, a travel writer and a creative writing teacher. A writer of tremendous depth, focus and sensitivity, much like Paul Simon or Nick Drake, Berkeley has the uncanny ability to slow the world down and hold it still. Informed by actual geography as well as the geography of loss and emotional reconstruction, Berkeley's songbook is a wondrous collection of compositions that gaze out at the map of the human heart with effortless poeticism and grace. He's toured with Billy Bragg, Ben Lee and Gary Jules, appeared on This American Life and played South By Southwest and he's one of the most consistently critically-acclaimed musicians around. He's also one half of the aforementioned transatlantic folk duo Sons Of Town Hall. Along with singer/songwriter Ben Parker, Sons Of Town Hall are hard to describe, but I'm going to try. Under the guises of Parker's George Ulysses Brown and Berkeley's Josiah Chester Jones, Sons Of Town Hall are fictitious 19th Century Victorian-era vagabonds who sing about their travels by way of a kind of magical hand-built raft. Falling somewhere between Coleridge, Lord Byron by way of Simon and Garfunkel's Wednesday Morning, 3AM, Sons Of Town Hall's new album Of Ghosts and Gods is a stirring collection of songs about travel, friendship, following your heart and staying afloat while doing it.

www.davidberkeley.com (http://www.davidberkeley.com)

www.sonsoftownhall.com (http://www.sonsoftownhall.com)

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Stereo Embers The Podcast:

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"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 rock into some of the most compelling, dramatic and altogether moving compositions you're likely to hear. Wolf's music is literary, emotionally precise and sonically arresting. I know a lot of people say his music is baroque and that's not too far off the mark, but an easier way to think of it is Tricky by way of Scott Walker. A multi-instrumentalist, a model, a producer, a playwright a label owner, a poet, and a student at Trinity College, Wolf has played with Arcade Fire, Patti Smith and The Hidden Cameras. He's the recipient of The Edmund Burke Medal from Trinity College Historical Society, Dublin for his Outstanding Contribution to Discourse through the Arts and he's on tour this summer.

www.patrickwolf.com

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Stereo Embers:

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Patrick Wolf Tour Dates:

June 5 in Washington, DC at DC9

June 7 in Raleigh, NC at The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop

June 10 in Nashville, TN at 3rd & Lindsley

June 11 in Atlanta, GA at Smith’s Olde Bar

June 13 in Miami, FL at Churchills Pub

June 18 in New Orleans, LA at Gasa Gasa

June 20 in Houston, TX at The Secret Group

June 21 in Denton, TX at Rubber Gloves

June 23 in Austin, TX at Long Center For The Performing Arts

June 26 in Tucson, AZ at Hotel Congress

June 28 in Phoenix, AZ at Valley Bar

June 30 in Los Angeles, CA at Lodge Room

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 Blowfish and have toured all over the world. The band's new album Porto is the perfect addition to their fabulous discography. Filled with melodic crunch, introspective lyrics and some of the catchiest songs of the year, Porto reinforces the power and enduring quality of this legendary band. The partnership and friendship of singer Neil Osborne and bassist Brad Merrit is the secret to what makes 5440 tick and this chat addresses that and a lot more. This is a great chat and Brad couldn't be a nicer guy, so enjoy this conversation.

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Stereo Embers:

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"But What Time Is It Really?"

Because their legacy is so vast, their musical output so singular and their influence so far-reaching, telling you a little bit about Cabaret Voltaire is like telling you a little bit about outer space. A long tine ago, say 1973, in a galaxy far, far away, say Sheffield, England, Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson got together to, in their words, make music without musical instruments. What did that mean? Well, it meant innovation because this was not a three-piece banging away in a garage, it was three guys experimenting with tape loops, custom-built kit oscillators, keyboards and wind instruments. Although traditional instruments were included, Cabaret Voltaire were anything but a traditional band. Falling somewhere between performance art and industrial music, Cabaret Voltaire remain one of the most innovative, idiosyncratic and unique bands of all time. Incorporating elements of techno, house, funk, synthpop, electronica and dub, the band's striking soundscapes were massively influential to bands like Depeche Mode, New Order, Skinny Puppy, David J. and Nine Inch Nails. Watson left the band in 1981 but Mallinder and Kirk soldiered on, keeping up Cabaret Voltaire's unbelievable working pace. The band put out fifteen albums in as many years, including classics like Mix-Up, Red Mecca, The Crackdown and Micro-Phonies. Kirk died in 2021 at 65 and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band, Mallinder and Watson started touring, put out a live album and will be on the road until year's end, taking their valedictory bow. A journalist, an academic, a studio owner, a producer and a filmmaker whose videos have been exhibited at MOMA in New York, Mallinder remains a busy man and I'll let him tell you all about that. But let me say this: if you listen to Cabaret Voltaire, it's like listening to the future before it happened. Their work is an astounding blend of multi-media and post-punk that eludes the timeline--their records aren't fixed to any point on the map and instead sound like they come from a universe that is at once both distant and familiar.

www.cabaretvoltaire.bandcamp.com

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"Together Again"

When it comes to the Wisconsin-born John McCutcheon and the Chicago-born Tom Paxton, there's no way to condense their amazing careers into a three-minute introduction, but that's the challenge I have before me, so I'm going to do the best I can. Putting it simply, McCutcheon and Paxton are two of the most towering figures in the history of folk music. Let's start with McCutcheon. He's recorded close to fifty albums, he's got six Grammy nominations, he's written three children's books and he's played shows all over the world. McCutcheon is a master of the hammered dulcimer and he also plays banjo, jaw harp, and the fiddle. As for Mr. Paxton, he's recorded close to seventy albums, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, authored close to 20 books, had one of his songs used in a Monty Python episode and toured around the world. He even played a show with Black Sabbath. More on that in a minute. McCutcheon and Paxton's friendship is a glorious thing and their musical partnership has yielded two albums, including their latest effort, the absolutely marvelous Together Again. I think of Paxton and McCutcheon as the Steve Martin and Martin Short of folk music and here's why. Their creative partnership has ignited them both in new and rejuvenating ways. And Together Again offers great evidence of this--filled with lyrical economy and precision as well as musical finesse played with dexterity and grace, this is an album of tremendous depth and sensitivity. And this conversation is one of my recent favorites--it goes everywhere and yet it comes right back. This was so much fun-

www.tompaxton.com (http://www.tompaxton.com)

https://tompaxton.bandcamp.com/album/together-again

https://www.folkmusic.com/store/p492/Together_Again_-_Digital.html

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Stereo Embers:

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"Homecoming"

Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “I regarded home as a place I left behind in order to come back to it afterward.” That is exactly the sentiment that has fueled Mark Crozer's marvelous new album Homecoming. The Oxford-bred Crozer left home as a young man and in many ways he never looked back because he was always moving forward. And that forward thing worked pretty well. The singer/songwriter and guitarist had been in several bands as a teenager, but his two solo albums 1999's Shining Down On Me and 2002's Unnatural World really put hin on the map. He joined the Jesus and Mary Chain back in 2007 and he's been a member of the band ever since. And he's quietly been packing his CV with other highlights like collaborating with Consequence, working with Mitch Easter playing in Mark Crozer and the Rels and the International Jetsetters with Loz Colbert of Ride and his song "Broken out in Love" was bought the WWE, renamed "Live In Fear" and used as an entrance theme. His new album, the aformentioned Homecoming, is a stirring and deeply atmospheric song cycle that confronts getting older, the quality of love, the devastation of loss and the definition of what home really is. Filled with undulating rhythms, sneaky grooves and ghostly jangle, Homecoming is a subtle and moving melodic wonder.

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Stereo Embers The Podcast:

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Email: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

"Illegal Hit"

The Swedish-born Björn Yttling is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and record label owner. And you thought you were busy. Yttling is the Björn in the indie pop band Peter Bjorn and John and his resume' is so vast when I give you just a partial glimpse of what he's done, you'll realize you really haven't been busy. At all. Among other instruments, Yttling plays electric bass, celeste, acoustic and electric guitar, mellotron, organ, percussion, piano, and synthesizer. He's produced and written songs with Robyn, The Pretenders, Primal Scream, Franz Ferdinand, Sparks, Shout Out Louds, Lykke Li, Sahara Hotnights, he's a member of the indie rock supergroup LIV, he's co-founder of the artist collective and record label INGRID and his other band, the free-form jazz combo Yttling Jazz is an ongoing proposition, with two albums under their belts, including their latest effort Illegal Hit. A schooled jazz musician, Yttling's music with Yttling Jazz is textured, atmospheric, dark and stirring. And this conversation begins by addressing that darkness and it ends with tennis. How about that for an arc?

IG: @yttlingjazz

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Email: [email protected]