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  • Stereo Embers The Podcast 0440: Cat Ridgeway
    2025/05/14
    Stereo Embers The Podcast 0440: Cat Ridgeway by Alex Green Online
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    1 時間 4 分
  • Stereo Embers The Podcast 0438: Jess Robbins (Course)
    2025/05/07
    "Hue Mirror" In Illness as Metaphor, Susan Sontag once wrote: “Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.” Well, my guest today on the program has recently been grappling with the use of the other passport Sontag is referring to and that grappling has yielded a song cycle that no matter what kingdom you find yourself dwelling in, will be moving, inspiring and transcendent." The Chicago born singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jess Robbins was diagnosed with AS, which is more specifically known as anklosing spondylitis, an aggressive autoimmune disease that can cause debilitating chronic pain as well as spinal inflammation and the fusing of the vertebrae. It's scary stuff, but part of Robbins' emotional healing was finally getting a name to go with the symptoms she'd been having for years. The other part of that healing? Making art. Robbins fronts the band Course and their new album Hue Mirror is an effecting song-cycle about navigating the complex and uncertain terrain of chronic pain, physical vulnerability and the uncertainty of the changes AS could bring. Hue Mirror is an unflinching and meditative look at how human frailty translates into art and that translation is where the beauty of this album really lives. Dark, probing, and unflinching, Hue Mirror is a stirring song-cycle that's punctuated by shadowy rhythms, vaporous percussion and and heavenly vocals. It's moving and powerful work but you don't have to be diagnosed with an illness to relate to it--you just have to be a human being with a big beating heart. After all, we're all facing an uncertain future and Hue Mirror is a way of facing it together. IG: @coursesounds www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com Stereo Embers The Podcast IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com
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    55 分
  • Stereo Embers The Podcast 0438: Jared And Jennifer Adams (Annagail, Route 3)
    2025/04/30
    "Dance With Me" The married Michigan duo of Annagail are hard to categorize because of their startling musical range. With The Smiths, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and The Foo Fighters, Annagail's running through their musical DNA, Jared and Jennifer aren't afraid of a folk song or a pop song or a blues song or a roots song. It's fair to say that they're not afraid of anything. More on that in a minute. Filled with aching harmonies, wistful ballads, tender country and infectious hooks, Annagail, who used to operate under the moniker Route Three, may be tough to pin down in terms of genre, so it's easier to simply say they're brilliant at what they do and they do all of it. Jared and Jennifer have a musical symbiosis that's undeniable and profound and a tenth of their personal challenges would be enough to keep someone on the sidelines forever, but not these two. They've not only survived a list of hardships--and I'll let the interview cover that material, but just so you get an idea of how long and serious that list is, we didn't even cover the fire that destroyed their home and and studio--they've emerged from the darkness bursting with light. I'm not joking. But that word joking might be the key here; they have a sense of humor that has allowed them to navigate the trials they've encountered with perspective and wisdom and grace. I love this band. And not only is this a cool chat because they're open and lovely people, it's cool because we've caught them emerging from yet another scary moment with a renewed commitment to their craft. In many ways, this might be the most prolific period in the band's history. In fact, they have so many new albums, I'm not even sure what their latest one is. All I know is their music smolders with soulful resolve, sweeping momentum and harmonic and narrative poise. This is a wonderful chat with truly wonderful people. www.annagail.net (http://www.a) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Stereo Embers IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com
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    1 時間 34 分
  • Stereo Embers The Podcast 0437: Mark Stewart (The Pop Group)
    2025/04/25
    "Remembering Mark Stewart: Throwing Curveballs At The Moon" That's how The Pop Group's Mark Stewart describes the creative process and it might also very well be the perfect description of the Pop Group's career. Unconventional, ferociously innovative, and delightfully idiosyncratic, The Pop Group have never cared about what's happening in the mainstream and instead adhered to the rhythms and sounds that they wanted to make. In this whirlwind of an interview, the Bristol-born Stewart talks to Alex about UFO's, having tea with Sun Ra, The Sex Pistols, and how music bridged the racial divide in his town in the late 70s. He also talks about why he likes to hang out with oddballs, the avant-garde New York scene and a fight he once had with Allen Ginsberg.
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    1 時間
  • Stereo Embers The Podcast: Lisa Crawley
    2025/04/23
    “New Girl Syndrome” The New Zealand-born Lisa Crawley has fearlessly created art and then just as fearlessly followed that art all over the world. From a small town in Japan to a cruise ship to Los Angeles, Crawley is not afraid of the hard miles and she’s bravely traversed the globe performing wherever she can. Armed with a luminescent voice and melodic muscle, Crawley’s work suggests a dreamy mix of Amy Winehouse and Bic Runga. Over the years she appeared in the Tony-Award winning musical Once, opened for Paul Weller, Simply Red and Suzanne Vega, she’s performed with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra and she’s had her work appear in everything from The Last Days Of Capitalism to Nancy Drew to Good Trouble. Her new EP New Girl Syndrome is an infectious and stirring song cycle that’s contemplative, probing and unreasonably catchy. Lisa’s a really funny person and her humor is deadpan and sly and it’s a fascinating counterpoint to her emotive and affecting songbook. www.lisacrawley.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenbooks.com IG + Bluesky: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com
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    1 時間 6 分
  • Stereo Embers The Podcast: Peter Holsapple (The d.B.'s, R.E.M., Continental Drifters)
    2025/04/16
    "Face Of 68" The Connecticut-born Peter Holsapple isn't hiding his age--his new album Face Of 68 proudly blares it in its title and though the 68 is representative of his current chronology, like our old friend Billy Bragg, he knows that number is a temporary thing and another waits in front of it. So, to honor this moment in his life, Holsapple's third solo album is a celebration of a year in a man's life and it couldn't sound more life-affirming. The d.B.'s frontman, whose output with that beloved outfit include classics like Stand For Decibels and Like This remain timeless classics, is one of music's busiest characters. Here's a quick and partial glance at his rock and roll resume': In the late-'80s, he was a full-time fifth member of R.E.M., He was an auxillary member of Hootie and the Blowfish for nearly 30 years, he was in the indie pop supergroup the Continental Drifters with members of The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate and The Cowsills, and he's currently playing with The Paranoid Style, the reformed d.B.'s and solo shows on his own. Holsapple's Face Of 68 is one of 2025's very best; a smoldering batch of songs that are filled with jangle, shimmer and stomp, Holsapple and his power trio of Robert Sledge of the Ben Folds Five and Rob Ladd of The Connells, play with confidence and nerve. This is a dynamic album with heavy grooves, pop hooks and melodic muscle and the fact of the matter is The Face Of 68 has never sounded better. www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) Stereo Embers: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com) IG + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast
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    1 時間 23 分
  • Stereo Embers The Podcast 0434: Josh Joplin (The Josh Joplin Group)
    2025/04/01
    "GPYR" I'm admittedly a bit fixated on a 16 year old Josh Joplin getting in the van and driving away from his family, his friends and high school in order to blaze his own musical trail out there in the American wild, but I think I'm mostly fixated on that for both its ambition and its bravery. For starters, it's cool that Josh had the belief the world would find him--and it did. But to know that or believe that at 16 is remarkable--when I was 16 I was staying up late watching Letterman and making mix tapes for girls and had no ambition that would get me in a van by myself and head down the highway peddling my wares. But Josh Joplin did. And we talk about that a great deal because I'm in awe of him doing something most 16 year olds couldn't have done. All these years later, the DC born Joplin has almost fifteen albums under his belt, and each one further proves his uncanny genius. From his first album A Present For Hitler--which is maybe one of the best debut album titles ever--to his new one GPYR, Joplin has demonstrated he's a songwriter of tremendous poeticism and unreasonable melodic smarts. I'll get to GPYR in a second--but before I do, let me give you a few biographical bits; he's toured all over the U.S. as well as Europe and Australia, been on Conan and Letterman, had his albums produced by Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads and the Modern Lovers, had his music appear in shows like Scrubs, Dawsons Creek, Party of Five and Roswell, was neighbors with Dan Zanes of the Del Fuegos, he's put out several fabulous albums with Garrison Starr under the name Among The Oak And Ash and In 2015, Joplin founded the award-winning film production company NarrowMoat. Reuniting with his trusty pals in the Josh Joplin Group, GPYR finds Joplin sounding better than ever. Bringing to mind Reckoning-era R.E.M. and the later work of Tommy Keene, GPYR is a thoughtful blend of jangling indie rock and stirring folk both of which are augmented by sweeping musical architecture that heightens the emotional quality of this powerful, dramatic and altogether thrilling album. www.joshjoplingroup.com (http://www.joshjoplingroup.com) www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooksonline.com Instagram + Bluesky: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com
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    1 時間 27 分
  • Stereo Embers The Podcast: Mike Delevante (The Delevantes)
    2025/04/02
    Stereo Embers The Podcast: Mike Delevante (The Delevantes) by Alex Green Online
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    1 時間 27 分