Stereo Embers: The Podcast

“Violent Desires" The Manhattan-born Blake Morgan is a musician, singer, executive, music producer, writer, record label owner, and activist. Raised by activist parents who were also writers—his mother is the poet Robin Morgan and his father is the poet Kenneth Pitchford--Morgan was immersed early on in the arts. By five he was at the piano playing Mozart and writing his own songs and the classical pianist path was being forged. But then he heard the Beatles and that path forked a different way. Educated at the United Nations International School in New York City and later Berkelee College of Music, Morgan graduated and hit the ground running, playing in bands and living the rock and roll lifestyle. He signed a seven-record deal with Phil Ramone’s fledgling label in '96, his debut album featured Lenny Kravitz singing back up, he toured the U.S. opening for Joan Jett and received tons of attention and critical acclaim. Morgan was crushing it, but he was mistrustful of the corporate label life and he got himself out of his contract. In 2002 he decided to form Engine Company Records, which became ECR Music in 2012. ECR has an associate publishing company and the music the label has released has ranged from punk to classical and in 2005, they had five albums in the Top 20. Meanwhile, Morgan kept cranking out great critically acclaimed solo albums. From Burning Daylight to Silencer to Diamonds in the Dark to his new one Violent Delights, Morgan’s music is a crunchy blend of melodic pop, introspective ballads and hook-laden numbers that are played with equal parts muscle and heart. And speaking of heart, Morgan’s is with artists and his political activism is specifically on their behalf. His Pandora takedown alone cost the company’s stock to fall 130 million in less than a day and signaled a major victory for musicians. He’s spent hours with Congress fighting for the rights of musicians which are always being marginalized especially in the digital age. Just Google his Art and Music Are Professions Worth Fighting For essay and you’ll get a sense of who this guy is. He’s one of the good ones. And this is a great chat. www.ecrmusicgroup.com www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenonline.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“All Going Out Together” It makes sense that the Massachusetts-born Steve Michener was in three seminal Boston bands: The Volcano Suns, Dumptruck and Big Dipper. The Volcano Suns were an outfit that Michener formed along with former Mission of Burma drummer Peter Prescott, he stepped in on bass with Dumptruck after their first album and he co-founded Big Dipper who were on the Homestead label before signing a big major deal with Epic. I’ve always loved Steve’s playing—he’s steady and strong and his baselines roll with power and groove. And the story today that he’s going to tell is about how he jumped into music and very slowly inched his way out. And I think the inching out is what’s the most fascinating thing here—sometimes people have the ability to look ahead and actually ask: What do I want and is this the best way to get it? Steve did that and he realized the things he wanted could not be attained while playing in a band. And so he stopped. Sort of. Then he really stopped. I’ll let him tell you his story—that seems fair, right? Anyway, Steve is a lovely guy and a voracious listener to music of all kinds—he may have inched his way out of rock and roll, but he’s kept a foot firmly in it on his own terms. www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenonline.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“Black Leather On The Inside” Victor DeLorenzo rose to global prominence as the drummer for the Violent Femmes—but he did really cool stuff before that and really cool stuff after. An actor since the age of five, after college DeLorenzo was a member of Theatre X, a pretty punk rock and way ahead of its time improv theatre group, who performed all over the world. He formed the Violent Femmes with Brian Ritchie in 1980 and although the group toured and recorded pretty exhaustively, DeLorenzo still stayed involved with Theater X. A minimalist drummer who comes armed with a spare kit and steel brushes, DeLorenzo is one of the most innovative players in modern music. His rhythms roll and swing with precision and finesse and his flourishes are infectious, powerful and stirring. After parting ways with the Femmes, DeLorenzo toured with the Velvet Underground’s Moe Tucker, put out a handful of marvelous solo albums, opened a recording studio, and formed a chamber rock duo called Nineteen Thirteen with cellist Janet Schiff. But that’s not all. DeLorenzo writes the Showoff column for Milwaukee.com, co-hosts the Frail Pagans radio show on WSUM with Mr. G and his new project is the Night Crickets with David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. Their debut A Free Society is filled with dark, percussive beauty and lyrical invention and t’s buoyed by sneaky rhythms and brilliant melodic touches. www.victordelorenzo.weebly.com www.facebook.com/DougSeymourPhotography @dougseymourphoto www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenonline.com Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

"Bleeding Audio And The Life Of A Match" I’m a Bay Area guy, so I remember in the late '90s when this group of kids from Bishop O’Dowd high school in Oakland got things going and started generating a buzz in this community as The Matches. And community is the key word here. The Matches found a way to connect with their audience in the most grass roots of ways—they were super accessible to their fans and were even known for playing acoustically before or after shows in the streets outside the clubs. Their music was hard to define—if one was feeling lazy, they would say they were pop punk, but they were way more than that. They were operatic, idiosyncratic, artistic and sonically adventurous in ways that were way ahead of their time. And they were nice people. And that means something. And the Matches meant everything to their fans. They still do. But the Matches' story is the perfect example of what happens when a rising career—and they were rising fast, signing with Epitaph, playing the Warped tour, touring with BIffy Clyro—gets derailed by an industry that got destroyed by the sudden accessibility of digital music. It started with Napster and it ended with record stores closing—and the in between? Well, it wasn’t pretty. And that’s where Chelsea Christer’s winning documentary Bleeding Audio comes in. A loving and intimate look at The Matches' march towards the mainstream and how that march ended up being a near miss at widespread success, Bleeding Audio redefines what it means to be a success in the music industry and it examines how a legacy—what bands leave for their fans—is something that has nothing to do with a price tag. Bleeding Audio is a very singular music documentary—there’s no fistfights, or tension or scandal—it’s just four really nice dudes playing music until playing music plays itself out. Why it played itself out is something the movie handles beautifully and you’ll have to see it to see what I mean, but spoiler alert: it has to do with money. Or, more specifically, not making it. And that’s the weird thing—they should have been making it. But there’s a series of reasons why they weren’t and the movie is a fascinating study of how a band that should have been financially solvent, weren’t, and at the dawn of their 30s, they were physically tired of living the way they were at the dawn of their 20s. This chat with Chelsea along with the Matches’ bassist Justin San Souci is a revealing and personal conversation about friendship, music, success and the unbreakable bond between anyone who knows what it means to bleed audio. www.bleeding-audio.com www.thematches.com www.bombshellradio.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“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, Sam Cooke and ska and reggae music and you can hear those influences coursing through his songbook. His compositions swing and shake and sway and groove with some of the most infectious pop hooks you’ll ever hear. Parker’s early life could be a series of novels—he hung out in the Channel Islands and Paris, hitchhiked thourhg Spain and Morocco and worked on the docks in Gibraltar. And you and I both know, there are stories in between those docks and roads and islands. Graham Parker has lived a life. And his life in music is equally as staggering as his adventures. With his band the Rumor he was produced by Nick Lowe, opened for Dylan, played on Top Of The Pops, had Top 40 hits and albums, toured Australia, been on labels as varied as RCA, Arista and Bloodshot and collaborated with folks like Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom, The Smithereens and Kate Pierson of the B-52s. And he’s stilt at it. His two new singles (“Humans Are The Mutant Virus” and '3-D Printer”) are all the proof you need that Parker is still at the top of his game. He’s practically peerless. www.grahamparker.net www.100-percent.co.uk www.alexgreenonline.com www.bombshellradio.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“Alan White Remembered: You’ve Got To Be Spot-On” In memory of Alan White (1949-2022), we're re-airing our chat with him from 2020. Being spot-on is what drummer Alan White says you have to be when it comes to being behind the kit for a band like Yes. One of the most technically proficient outfits in rock and roll history, Yes are musically precise and that’s why White has been behind the kit with them since 1973. One of the most formidable drummers in rock and roll for the last 50 years, the British born White started playing in bands when he was 13. And over the course of his career he played on records by George Harrison, Ginger Baker, Joe Cocker, Terry Reid and John Lennon. He played live with Lennon as part of the Plastic Ono Band at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival in 1969 and he also had a stint playing live with Steve Linwood. When he joined Yes he also had two other job offers at the same time with Jethro Tull and America. But White said no to them and yes to Yes. Pretty good move. He played on 17 Yes records, and established himself as one of the most innovative, intuitive and muscular drummers around. His playing is a deft combo of finesse and power, that’s as athletic as it is stylistic. Recorded live at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel, back in July of 2019, Yes’s newest effort is called THE ROYAL AFFAIR TOUR, LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS and it’s a beast. A sterling collection that showcases not only the depth and scope of the band’s winning songbook, it features Mr. White tearing it up. In this chat he talks about the magic of Charlie Watts, whether or not you can master the drums and why you’ve got to be spot-on to be onstage with Yes.

"Cathal Coughlan Remembered: Somewhere Between Joe Gould And Lee Mavers" “The supreme question about a work of art,” James Joyce once wrote, "is out of how deep a life does it spring.” If you tried to plumb the fathoms for a measurable reading of the life of Cathal Coughlan—well, the depth finder would crack right in half. Coughaln’s life has been a rich and textured affair and his talent is vast and incomprehensibly majestic. With his band Microdisney, The Cork -born musician put out several of the most affecting albums ever made. Efforts like The Clock Comes Down the Stairs in 1985 or the following year’s Crooked Mile, are front to back classics. After he and his bandmate Sean O-Hagan dissolved Microdisney and O-Hagan went on to form the High Llamas, Coughlan fired up the Fatima Mansions—an aggressive, fiery and angular outfit, that played synth-laced alternative rock that churned away with grinding and brutal beauty. Viva Dead Ponies and Lost In The Former West are two personal favorites, but the fact is, I love every album in their discography. Over the course of his career Coughlan put out a series of brilliant solo albums, collaborated with the likes of comic Sean Hughes and British singer/songwriter Luke Haines, scored movies like The Last Bus Home and The Mapmaker, toured with U2, appeared onstage in a contemporary opera, and reformed Microdisney for a brief series of triumphant shows. His new album Song of Co-Aklan is a work of startling beauty and precision. Imbued with poetic invention and finesse, haunting melodies, riveting ballads and an unmistakable wisdom and pop grace, Coughlan has never sounded better. This is a deep and focused conversation that can’t be encapsulated in a sentence or two—you just have to listen. But we do touch on Lee Mavers, friendship, Sting, the legend of Joe Gould, the vulnerability of solo shows and staying prolific during lockdown. Digital pre-order orcd.co/songofcoaklan CD / Vinyl pre-order (USA) amzn.to/3jcx8CM CD / Vinyl pre-order (UK) ffm.to/songofcoaklanalbum

“Courageous” Róisín O's 2012 debut The Secret Life of Blue was a stirring and sonorous collection that announced her arrival in a big way. Over the course of her career she’s played on bills with everyone from Bryan Ferry to Lionel Richie, opened for her mom on her U.S. tour, formed the band Thanks Breother with John Broe and she’s been known to post YouTube clips of her covering tracks by Selena Gomez and Sia. Her new album Courageous is a powerful an evocative collection, filled with some of the most captivating vocals you’ll hear all year—or any year, Courageous is a bold and artistic step forward. It’s beautiful work. www.roisino.com www.alexgreenonline.com www.bombshellradio.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“For The Country” By the time Seth Tiven formed Dumptruck in 1983, he’d already had a few bands under his belt, including Saucers, a band he was in with fellow Connecticut pal Mark Mulcahy who would go on to form Miracle Legion. Tiven had relocated to Boston after graduating from Wesleyan and the supporting cast of Dumptruck had a few personnel changes, but changes aside. their first two albums D is For Dumptruck and Positively Dumptruck--both issued on Big Time--were two very strong entries to begin a career. Moody, dark and filled with jangle and melodic smarts, the band were lumped in with folks like R.E.M. and the Connells and rightfully so, as they were all kind of in the same sonic pocket. But it was 1987’s For The Country, which featured new guitarist Kevin Salem who replaced singer/guitarist Kirk Swan, that really was their apotheosis. A stirring and angry collection that explored isolation and the geography of loneliness, For The Country bristled with confidence and indie rock grace. Tracks like Going Nowhere and Carefree demonstrated that Dumptruck were one of the most vital and stinging outfits out there. They played with the Replacements and Husker Du, had a growing fan base and were poised to take the next big step forward to the big time. And then the big time took that step forward and pushed it ten steps back. Not the big time, as in THE big time, but the big time as in Big Time Records. Dumptruck were crushing it but Big Time was getting crushed and were in tons of financial trouble. The label was free falling so the band’s lawyer tried to sell their contract to Phonogram, Big Time got pissed and decided to sue Dumptruck for 5 million. This became a protracted legal battle and all the momentum Dumptuck had going for them was devoured. The resolution took years and a lot of money and in the end, Dumptruck prevailed. If you think most bands would have had a hard time recapturing the momentum that sidelined them after a thing like this went down, you would be right. And Dumptruck fell into that category. They never really found their swing again and broke up in 1991. Tracks they recorded during the legal battle were released as the Days of Fear album in '94, they put out Terminal in ’98, Lemmings Travel to the Sea in 2001 and Wrecked in 2018. All great records, but it’s hard not to think about what would have happened if Dumptruck had been allowed to maintain the momentum they’d managed. One never knows, but one thing I do know is that Seth Tiven is a truly nice guy and I’m so happy he answered the indie rock bat signal and came out for a chat. www.dumptruck-music.com www.bombshellradio.com www.alexgreenonline.com Stereo Embers The Podcast Twitter: @emberseditor IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

“Long Live King Kobe” Sherman Chambers’ 21 year old son Tyler Kobe Nichols was murdered in a random knife attack in Brooklyn two days before Christmas in 2020. Nichols, who was with his brother, had just gotten a haircut when the incident occurred. As author Paul Auster writes: “It was a weird and senseless crime…a sudden, unprovoked burst of violence, on a tranquil street in a tranquil Brooklyn neighborhood on the eve of Christmas Eve.” That incident not only disrupted the tranquility of the holiday of season, it permanently capsized the tranquility of a family who no longer had their son. But they had each other. And while the void Tyler left was a gaping absence that could never be filled, his family guarded that space by gathering together. And after they found strength in each other, they reached out to their community and anyone else who had suffered a similar loss. And the unvarnished realization that emerged was that we can’t heal without each other. Tyler’s mother Sherma’s chance meeting with photographer Spencer Ostrander who was working on a book with novelist Paul Auster, formed an instant connection and gave birth to the book Long Live King Kobe: Following the Murder Of Tyler Nichols. A powerful book whose connective narrative tissue is made up of interviews with Tyler’s family along with stirring photographic portraits and spartan prose from Auster, Long Live King Kobe is a compelling document of the geometry of loss and the calculus of healing. It’s a eulogy, it’s a celebration and it’s a testament to the fact that trauma can dissolve and turn into healing. I’ll let Sherma and Tyler’s cousin Kareem Eusebe and Spencer tell you about the book and the Long Live King Kobe Foundation and the peaceful initiatives that have been enacted through the foundation to help support families who have suffered losses. But let me just say this before we begin: this is a heavy conversation but it’s also a beautiful one. And if you’re a person on this planet you’re going to experience loss and nothing can prepare you for it—even if you think you are. And this is a very important reminder that all we have is each other and if we stick together we can get through anything. www.longlivekingkobe.org www.bombshellradio.com Stereo Embers: Twitter: @emberseditor Instagram: @emberspodcast