Stereo Embers: The Podcast

"Obviously Five Believers" Formed in 1980 by the Kentucky-born former roadie for X, Top Jimmy, his band Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs were local L.A. heroes. Playing a wicked blend of American roots music and scrappy R&B, Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs were a band that sizzled with equal parts howl and groove. Top Jimmy was a wildly charismatic frontman once described as an unholy combination of Howlin' Wolf and Shakespeare's Falstaff and he was such a ubiquitous presence in L.A. his outfit was once dubbed the scene's punk house band. The live show, which was a sweaty, frenetic blast of sweaty, rootsy bliss, found everyone from Tom Waits to Stevie Ray Vaughn joining them onstage. By the way, if you're wondering if the Van Halen track "Top Jimmy" is about the Top Jimmy I'm speaking of, let me just say this: there could only be one Top Jimmy. So: yes. The band's only album Pigus Drunkus Maximus which came out in 1987 on Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate's Down There label, was just reissued for the first time ever on CD and on pig pink colored vinyl and it's an essential addition to your record collection. Top Jimmy sang with Maria McKee and Phil Alvin, was seen getting a tattoo from John Doe in the Decline of Western Civilization and hung out with David Lee Roth. The guy was everywhere and remains, to this day, one of the most charismatic characters in rock and roll history. As for his sax player Steve Berlin, well, Mr. Berlin after leaving the band, went on to become one of the greatest rock and roll sax players ever. The Philadelphia born Berlin is a full time member of Los Lobos, and the list of people he's played with and produced is just ridiculous. Let me give you a partial list: The Tragically Hip, R.E.M., Faith No More, the Go-Go's, Great Big Sea, The Replacements, Rickie Lee Jones and the Beat Farmers. And believe me, I could go on. An unbelievable player of steady finesse and power, Steve Berlin is an absolute legend and I wish this conversation could have gone on for hours. www.topjimmyandtherhythmpigs.bandcamp.com (http://www.topjimmyandtherhythmpigs.bandcamp.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Threads + Bluesky + Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Songs of Douglass and Littell" It's hard to think of a more beautiful voice than that of Inara George. Filled with elegance and finesse, the Maryland-born, L.A.-raised George is one of my favorite singers on the planet. She's got this subtle power that glides through each composition with subtlety, nuance and harmonic sophistication and grace. George's body of work, from her time in the Bird and the Bee, the Living Sisters, and Merrick to her winning run of solo albums, Inara George is a continuous melodic wonder. Over the years she's collaborated with Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Jason Mraz, Idlewild, and Flight Of The Concords. Her new album Songs Of Douglas And Littell is a different kind of collaboration and one that hits very close to home for Inara. Comprised of a collection of songs written over thirty years ago by her longtime theatre pals Eliot Douglass and Philip Littlell, this album is a celebration of friendship, profound artistic bonds and creative comradeship. Filled with flourishes of jazz, indie folk and melodic pop, Songs Of Douglass and Littell is a moving and stirring homage to solidarity and artistic kinship. I love Inara George's work and I want to point out that she was an early believer of this program, nearly a decade ago, appearing on episode eight before anyone knew who we were. I've always been grateful for that, but the fact is, I'm just grateful for her. Inara George is a thoughtful, focused and generous artist and this album of songs written by two of her oldest friends is a sonic testament to the power of friendship and art. www.inarageorge.com (http://www.inarageorge.com) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) Stereo Embers: IG + BLUESKY + Threads: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Song Writers On The Run" Perhaps best known as one of the co-founding members of the late great Australian band The Go-Betweens, singer/songwriter Robert Forster has been putting out critically acclaimed solo albums since his 1990 debut Danger In The Past. His new novel Song Writers On The Run has just been released to rave reviews and he talks about the writing process in this chat. As for his music, over the years he added to his solo discography titles like Calling From A Country Phone and I Had A New York Girlfriend, and now the Brisbane-born Forster is checking in with his ninth solo effort Strawberries. The follow-up to 2023's rousing and affecting The Candle And The Flame, Strawberries is startlingly beautiful and emotionally precise. Produced by Peter Moren of Peter Bjorn and John, the eight numbers on Strawberries range from the jangling album opener "Tell It Back To Me" to the stirring blues of "Good To Cry." Elsewhere, the seven minute "Breakfast On The Train" is not only a great song, it also doubles as a great short story; the title track is a brilliant and simple study of the gobbling of strawberries as a metaphor for domestic bliss and the album closing "Diamonds" quite literally reaches new vocal heights for Mr. Forster. This is one of the best albums you'll hear--it's satisfyingly precise, unreasonably melodic and filled with observational wisdom, meditative self-analysis and quietly unforgettable character studies. This is a great chat--I love talking to Robert and I hope you dig listening. www.robertforster.net (www.robertforster.net) www.stereoembersmagazine.com (www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (www.alexgreenbooks.com) www.bombshellradio.com (www.bombshellradio.com) Stereo Embers Bluesky + IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com)

"I Should Be Happy" Singer/keyboardist Anne Richmond Boston showed up on the musical timeline in the late '70s when she joined the Atlanta indie rock outfit The Swimming Pool Q's. Before the goldrush of bands like R.E.M., Soul Asylum, O Positive, Big Dipper and Poi Dog Pondering signing to major labels, The Swimming Pool Q's kind of led the way, inking deals in the mid-'80s with A&M and Capitol Records. They put out five marvelous albums, including Blue Tomorrow and The Deep End, toured with Devo and The Police and garnered a reputation for being a spot-on live act, their brand of idiosyncratic pop filled with jittery rhythms, sterling sax fills, jangling guitars and sonorous vocals. Richmond Boston left the band in 1989 but roared right back with her 1990 debut solo album Big House Of Time. Filled with soaring originals like Dreaming and covers of numbers by Neil Young, John Hiatt and The Lovin' Spoonful, Big House Of Time made a huge splash at college radio. And then? Well, Richmond Boston designed album covers, worked in graphic arts, sang with The Drive By Truckers and Widespread Panic and rejoined the Q's. And that was that. But what about the rumored follow-up to Big House Of Time? Well, it was recorded and sitting on a shelf in a closet in Richmond Boston's house. Titled I Should Be Happy, her sophomore album was worth the wait. A riveting collection that's filled with meditative and melodic numbers, I Should Be Happy is contemplative and moving and finds Richmond Boston tackling the big questions with peerless harmonic grace.  www.annerichmondboston.bandcamp.com www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenbooks.com Threads + BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast editor@stereoembersthepodcast.com

"Louder Than You Think" Like many Gen Xers, I knew Gary Young as the drummer of Pavement, but for anyone from Stockton, he was way more than that. Let me back up. A key figure in the Stockton underground, Young played in a bunch of bands like The Fall of Christianity and he was responsible for bringing Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys to play shows in Stockton. Though almost twenty years older than the guys in Pavement, Young was their original drummer and played on their first few EPs and the seminal Slanted and Enchanted record. Young was one of the great characters of rock and roll and to get a real idea as to how charismatic, magnetic and mercurial he was, the documentary Louder Than You Think traces his life in art and music with unvarnsihed honesty and shambolic joy. The soundtrack, which features The Authorities, Edward Dahl, Pavement, Hot Spit Dancers, and Gary Young's Hospital, among others, is a wonderful tour of the Stockton Underground. Yes, Young got fired from Pavement, but what's cool about his story is that he stayed connected to the band--and that's the secret with all these Stockton kids--they stuck together even when some of them fell apart. As for Kelly Foley, the former singer of The Torn Lords had a career in Forensic Psychology and when he retired, he devoted himself soley to making art. Kelly knew Gary for decades and even had a project called Blue Boy Cometh which featured Young on drums just before his death. Foley is a lovely guy and he's kind of become the forensic archivist of the Stockton underground, making sure the paths of all the artists he knew--from Grant Lee Phillips to Crill--have their work preserved. www.independentprojectrecords.com (http://www.independentprojectrecords.com) www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) wwww.alexgreenbooks.com Stereo Embers: THREADS + BLUESKY + IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"My World Is The Sun" It's true, Dominique Fils-Aime--by the way, my pronounciation of her gorgeous name verifies one thing: I'm from California--Dominique Fils Aime did indeed have a comfortable office and a job she loved and all was well, until she realized something was wrong. It wasn't her office, or her job, it was that something else was calling her. In other words, she found the thing she loved but she didn't love it enough, so she walked away. That's her story to tell so I'll leave that to her. What I can tell you is that the in less than ten years, the Canadian-born Fils Aime has established herself as one of the most accomplished artists on the planet. She's already won two Juno Awards, won the Felix award in her home province of Quebec and was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize twice. Not only that, but Fils-Aime has played the Blue Note New Yor and Los Angeles, as well as the Monterey Jazz Festival. Her new album My World Is The Sun is chapter two of her sophomore trilogy of albums and it's a stone cold stunner. Rife with crashing waves, nylon guitar, haunting hand drums and Fils-Aime's singular voice rising and falling through each composition with stirring soulful perfection, My World Is The Sun is riveting, arresting and melodic. domiofficial.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com IG + BLUESKY + THREADS: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com (mailto:editor@stereoembersmagazine.com)

"Sonic Amadea" Over the course of five perfect albums with Catherine Wheel, including Ferment, Chrome and Adam and Eve, guitarist Brian Futter made his mark as one of the most dynamic players in modern music. Armed with blazing effects and cascading crescendos, Futter's distinguished playing gave the legendary British band their signature sound. After global tours, heavy airplay on MTV, rave reviews and a handful of top ten hits on the U.S. alternative charts, Catherine Wheel hit pause in 2000 and the band's members went their separate ways. Futter was in 50 Foot Monster with Catherine Wheel drummer Neil Sims and he also raised a family and lived his life. Which brings us to Good Day Father. A dream pairing of Futter with Tanya Donnelly of Belly/Throwing Muses and The Breeders, Good Day Father is a legitimate joy. The band's new EP is a sonorous blend of melodic muscle and dreamy rhythms--Donnelly sounds as beguiling as ever while Futter rolls through each number with thrilling intensity. This is just wonderful work. www.gooddayfather.bandcamp.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) www.bombshellradio.com (http://www.bombshellradio.com) IG + BLUESKY + THREADS: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Happy Birthday, Peter Hook" There’s nothing about Peter Hook that I can tell you you don’t already know, so let’s just do a refresher run through his musical CV. In the late '70s Hook formed Joy Division with childhood pal Bernard Sumner after the two friends saw the Sex Pistols play in Manchester. The band only put out two albums and one of those albums, the legendary Closer was put out two months after the band had ceased to b,e due to the suicide of singer Ian Curtis on the eve of Joy Division’s debut US/Canada tour. Rechristened New Order and consisting of the remaining members of Joy Division plus keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, New Order blended jittery post-punk rhythms with dance music. The result? Well, you know the result. They were one of the biggest bands of the '80s, spawning hits like True Faith, The Perfect Kiss, Subculture and Blue Monday, which was the biggest selling 12-inch of all time. It might still be. New Order dominated the '80s, but the '90s weren’t too shabby—they had a #1 UK hit with World In Motion in 1990 and they had their biggest US hit with “Regret” in 1993. They kept crushing it, putting out Get Ready in 2001 and collaborating with Billy Corgan and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. They were given the Godlike Genius award at the 2005 NME awards and got nominated for a Grammy in 2006 for Guilt Is a Useless Emotion. Then things got a bit sour, with Hook leaving the band in 2007 and forming his own outfit Peter Hook and the Light, a band that featured his son Jack and much to his fans delight, revisited the Joy Division and New Order songbooks. Over the course of his career Hook has worked with The Stone Roses, and Perry Farrell, he toured with the Durutti Column, put out albums with Revenge and Monaco and wrote one of the best music books ever: Substance; Inside New Order. This is a partial list, btw. Almost a partial partial list because when it comes to Peter Hook, there’s a lot of ground to cover. But these are the basics. Do a deeper dive after you hear the show—the guy is a titan. As for his split with New Order and his boyhood pal Bernard, we don’t have time to go over the legal end of that dissolution, so let’s just say this. If you’re hoping for a reunion you’re wasting your good hope energy. Not going to happen. As a bassist, he plays with an authoritative blend of prowl and sting and not only is he one of the all time greats, he also happens to be a nice guy. This chat covers his fractured friendship with Sumner, why the New Order/Joy Division songbooks appeal to fans across generations and what Hooky has learned from his old material. www.peterhookandthelight.live www.bombshellradio.com www.embersarts.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenbooks.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Straight From The Hat" The New Jersey born Ben Vaughn has put out close to twenty albums, including personal favorites of mine like Beautiful Thing, Mood Swings and Ben Vaughn Blows Your Mind. Aside from his own records, Vaughn has produced records by Ween, Los Straitjackets, Nancy Sinatra, and Charlie Feathers, had his songs covered by everyone from Marshall Crenshaw to Deer Tick and collaborated with the likes of Alex Chilton, Alan Vega, and Rodney Crowell. Vaughn loves punk and surf and rockabilly and folk and country and the blues, which explains the versatility of his collaborations. And if that wasn’t an impressive enough resume, let’s add these two career highlights: he penned the themes for both Third Rock From The Sun and That 70's Show. Oh, and he hosts the fabulous radio show The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn. Vaughn's discography demonstrates his musical dexterity, it also showcases his brilliance as a songwriter—filled with humor, wisdom and grace, Vaughn’s work is always soulful, introspective and impossible to resist. But here's the thing about Ben Vaughn--he loves music. Whether it's noise rock or doo wop, he just loves taking it all in. And that open mindedness has gotten him in a lot of rooms with a lot of people and it's granted him access to a wealth of experiences. And those experiences can now be heard on Vaughn's bi-coastal, cross-generational music history podcast titled Straight From The Hat With Ben Vaughn. Along with co-host Laura Pochodylo (from Sun Records) on the program Ben shares stories about musicians, producers, and all the various characters from his career, with names drawn directly from a hat. www.benvaughn.org Instagram: @benvaughnmusic www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenbooks.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) Stereo Embers The Podcast: Instagram + BLUESKY: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Fighting Fit" For a little over a delicious decade the London band Gene put out four glorious albums. And since we're here and we have time, let me name them: Olympian, Drawn To The Deep End, Revelations and Libertine. From 1993 to 2004, the band's resume just kept building: They were on the cover of Melody Maker and the NME the latter of who also gave them the inaugural BRAT award for Best New Band, they headlined the Reading Festival, played Glastonbury, toured Europe, Japan and the U.S., logged top twenty singles, put out a killer live album called Rising For Sunset, sold hundreds of thousands of albums and played a legendary sold-out show with a full orchestra at London's Albert Hall. Behind the Welsh- born Martin Rossiter, Gene's crunchy blast of melodic muscle and poetic pounce made them one of the most unforgettable bands around but all good things come to an end and by 2004, the band called it a day. A one-off reunion in 2008 was the only blip on the Gene radar until now. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Olympian, in October of 2025 all four original members of Gene reconvened at the Apolo in London and blew the place apart and sounding positively ageless. What happened next? Well, fans wanted more so more was given in the form of 2026 March dates in Nottingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Dublin and Manchester. www.geneoffical.com (http://www.geneoffical.com) www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com (http://www.stereoembersmagazine.com) www.alexgreenbooks.com (http://www.alexgreenbooks.com) Instagram + Bluesky: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com