“The Last Of The Gentleman Adventurers”

Over the course of a 40-year career that started in 1982, the London born and Northampton raised and Oxford educated Pat Fish fronted the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy. The JBC was shortened to the Jazz Butcher and Fish, along with co-conspirator and guitarist Max Eider, had a rotating cast of characters in his band, varying from guys like David J of Bauhaus or Rolo from the Woodentops, The Jazz Butcher put out close to 15 studio albums, several live albums, a handful of compilations, box sets, singles—you get the idea. If you’re a collector—the Jazz Butcher is the band for you. They put our records on Big Time, Creation, Fire and Glass, and they played with R.E.M., Jonathan Richman and the list goes on and on. "She’s on Drugs" was the closest they came to a mainstream hit and by the late 90s, things had slowed down a bit for the band. Pat owned a bookshop, played locally a great deal, hosted the Masters of Budvar live series, and kind of just chilled out after nearly two decades of frantic touring, late night drinking, hotel staying and rock and roll mayhem. He was adored and never far from those who did all that adoring. He loved his cat, he loved to read, he loved to drink, he loved to smoke and he loved to play music. Recorded in 2009 as the Jazz Butcher’s The Last Of The Gentleman Adventurers album hit shelvers, this interview finds Fish in fine form, talking about the new record, Roddy Frame, The Blue Nile, his long-standing relationship with Eider and why it’s so hard to age in rock and roll….

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0241: Pat Fish (The Jazz Butcher)

"Hard To Find"

Okay, so if you're a regular listener to the podcast, you've heard me talk endlessly about Starclub. The song you just heard Hard To Get is, in my opinion, the best pop song of the '90s, and the band's self-titled debut album from 1994 is just perfect and it seemed the band was positioned for a long and decorated career. But that career never happened and although they signed the biggest contract for a debut album in Island Records history, the label lost interest after the album didn't scale the heights they expected and they dropped the band from their roster.I've been obsessed with the Starclub story for years--I never got how a band this good, a band shot through with so much talent and promise, could just fade away with only one record under their belts. We've done several episodes with the band--the singer Owen Vyse was on, then Owen and bassist Julian Taylor did an episode, and then guitarist Steve French did one as well and slowly the picture of the band's demise started to really come into focus. Now, Owen is a friend of mine and has been for years. We used to talk all the time and he's one of the smartest, funniest and sweetest guys around. And he's what a lead singer should be: confident, brash, charismatic and absurdly talented. But about a year ago, he kind of vanished. Social media went dark, calls and texts were never returned and the silence was not only deafening, but troubling as well. I still don't know where he is or if he's okay. Several people have contacted me to see if I've heard from him and the fact is, I haven't. This episode serves several purposes: for starters, Starclub is an unfairly undocumented band--I can't find any live footage, there are barely any photos and almost no additional audio, with the exception for what's on the record. So this episode serves as a way to document them further and to remind people about how great they were. Secondly, Owen told me he had nothing from the band's time together and not only that,he hadn't thought about their tenure in years and was thinking there was so much he had forgotten. Remember, Starclub got together when they were in school and they were 12 and 13 years old, so it was a while ago. He wanted to have a series of conversations where his memory would get toggled and in chatting he'd dust off memories that hadn't occurred to him for a while. These guys were signed to the same label as U2and Bob Marley, they toured the country, and they had a video on MTV and VH-1: they were in it and when you're in it, things happen and those things are fun to hear about.And finally, this is just a great chat with a great friend about a life that very few of us get to live. After Starclub, Owen played guitar for years with Echo and the Bunnymen, so he covers that as well....

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0343: Owen Vyse (Starclub)

"My Good Friends"

The Ohio-born David Wilcox is one of our great treasures. Over the course of his career the singer/songwriter has put out nearly 25 perfect albums, including 1989's How Did You Find Me Here, 1991's Home Again, 2003's Into The Mystery and his brand new one, My Good Friends.Bringing to mind Nick Drake, John Gorka, Milo Binder and Joni Mitchell, Wilcox is one of those rare singer/songwriters whose body of work has no dip in quality. My Good Friends is a perfect example of how Wilcox just keeps crushing it. From the retrospective romp of the title track, to the stirring Just A Trace Of Light to the deeply moving album closer This Is How It Ends, Wilcox has never sounded better. Observational, compelling, and wise, Wilcox's work is always punctuated by an artful blend of delicacy and strength. His resume' is a long one, but some highlights include playing Carnegie Hall, opening for the Indigo Girls, and being on the cover of Acoustic Guitar magazine.

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0344: David Wilcox

"Paradise Blue"

The Seattle-based singer/songwriter Steven Cristol has had quite a career. Well, to be more specific, he's had several careers, but today we're going to talk about the musical one. We'll let him tell you his story
but a little background is important before we get to the chat. The Georgia-born Cristol's adventure with music and the music industry found him with incredible highs, like getting a phone call from Harry
Belafonte about recording one of his songs to some tough lows that he'll explain, but here's the thing about those lows--what made them so hard was that they came disguised as highs. In other words, it looked like smooth sailing, but then the ship capsized. The emotional whiplash an artist gets was detailed perfectly in our chat with actor Michael Charles Roman a few months back when he talked about booking a sitcom only to have his and everyone else's part recast. Well, this is the music side of that story and it's series of suckerpunches. But this chat is about more than that--it's about self belief, self preservation, and never putting art on the backburner for good. I love the story you're about to hear because it demonstrates the power of creativity and the beauty of art. Steven is a fabulous singer/songwriter whose compositions summon everyone from Jackson Browne to James Taylor. He wrote songs for Starship, Little River Band and Belafonte and for good reason--his precision and lyrical agility are effortless skills that should have made him millions and nearly did. Business strategy consultant, career coach, singer/songwriter and former Fortune 50 executive whose previous business books have been published in 11 languages. His latest book is an unorthodox guide to self-employment, written after more than three decades of successfully sustaining independent work. He also writes about solutions to environmental issues for leading media outlets focused on sustainable business practices.

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0345: Steven Cristol

"Leisureland"

Although he was born Eric Goulden in East Sussex, my guest today on the program is perhaps best known in the music industry as Wreckless Eric. Under that moniker he first garnered attention with his song The Whole Wide World, a shambolic blast of joyful punk that landed him
a deal with Stiff Records. At the time, Stiff was just getting going and they had Ian Dury Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe on their roster. Not too shabby. The art school graduate was more than just one killer song--since the '70s he's cranked out almost ten perfect solo albums
of scruffy pop magic that demonstrate Wreckless Eric is a singular and very special talent. His new album Leisureland is the perfect album to play while you're saying goodbye to summer. Wistful, nostalgic and equal parts ferocious and elegant, Leisureland is filled with ragtag pop, garage stomp, and percussive muscle augmented by beats and loops. And it's fabulous. Over the years he's played with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Damned, John Wesley Harding, The Proclaimers, and his wife Amy Rigby. His work has been covered by everyone from Cage the Elephant, to Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong. He's also been in a lot of bands like The Len Bright Combo, The Hitsville House Band, and The Donovan of Trash and the fact is, everything he does is wonderful and brilliant and infectious. The guy is the real deal.




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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0347: Wreckless Eric

"The King Of Good Intentions III"

John Andrew Fredrick is the author of several books, including one on the early films of Wes Anderson, but he also happens to be the braintrust of the beloved band the black watch, whose extensive body of work is an endless orchard of sonic joy. If you know their work, you know the deal. If you don't, jump in and grab anything they've ever done and work your way forwards and backwards through their nearly 30 album discography--you will not be disappointed. As for John's The King of Good Intentions trilogy, in Part 3, which is the final volume of the series,Fredrick continues to chronicles the misadventures of the '90s indie rock outfit The Weird Sisters and there's a great deal to chronicle: love, love triangles, misunderstandings, madcap episodes and utter rock and roll chaos. The Virginia-born, but Southern California dwelling Fredrick writes with undeniable narrative velocity, comedic charm and a big, big heart. His sentences are fresh and vibrant and it's hard to think of anyone who can craft a better paragraph--the language here is elastic, joyful and commanding and every page sparks with literary momentum.

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0348: John Andrew Fredrick (the black watch)

"Face To Face"

Although she got her start behind the drum kit playing for her dad's band, the Detroit-born Suzi Quatro taught herself how to play bass so she could be in her sister's band, The Pleasure Seekers. She moved
to England at 21 and released a string of rather massive albums like her 1973 self-titled debut and the searing Your Mamma Won't Like Me in 1975. A pioneering presence in the pop world, Quatro influenced
everyone from Joan Jett to Chrissie Hynde to the Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth. A global superstar with over 50 million albums sold, Quatro's CV is a wealth of riches. Here are just a few of her
highlights: She toured with Slade and Thin Lizzy, headlined the 'Girls Night Out' at the Isle of Wight Festival, won a handful of Bravo Otto awards, appeared on Happy Days as rocker Leather Tuscadero, was awarded the Icon Award by the Women's International Music Network, was inducted to the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame, received an honorary doctorate in music from Anglia Ruskin University and appeared as Annie Oakley in a London production of Annie Get Your Gun and friends. The singer/songwriter is a stone cold legend and her music is filled with melodic muscle and harmonic smarts. Her new album, a joint effort with Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall is an instant classic. Titled Face To Face, it's a stirring song cycle that's reflective, confessional, tough and tender and catchy as hell. It's a perfect album that's an end to end delight.

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0349: Suzi Quatro

"Entelechy"

The work of the Ohio-born Sandy Bell is pure magic. I guess by now, you're getting the feeling I'm a big admirer of what she does. But the work that we're talking about which is so effortless and beautiful, was hard-fought and the journey to get where we are today with Sandy's songs, was fraught with some pretty heavy stuff. We'll let her tell you all about that, but along the way, she went West as many do, and along the way found herself writing songs with Jeff Buckley, which many....don't. She also fronted a band that was on the cusp of some potential '90s glory before she ghosted them, and as she dug her heels into L.A. life, she was also battling deeply serious addiction issues and for a while slipped way off the grid and was living off Hollywood Blvd and grappling with demons that were in a full-time flex of trying to destroy her. But they didn't. Moving to New York with her partner and producer Jeff Lipstein, Bell was revived, rejuvenated and ready to be the artist she was meant to. Her first album When I Leave Ohio is a stone cold stunner--it has the stillness of a Hopper painting and all the raw loneliness of Nick Drake. The follow up, Entelechy, which is a phrase borrowed from Aristotle, which refers to ‘’That which realizes or makes actual what is otherwise merely potential," is, quite simply, one of the best records you'll ever hear. Atmospheric, mesmeric and emotive, Entelechy is a textured song cycle that explores devastation and darkness with the probing eye of a philosopher and the atmospheric lens of a filmmaker. In other words, think David Lynch collaborating with Plato on music that sounds like Karen Dalton fronting the Bad Seeds. It's regenerative, restorative, terrifying, comforting and powered by an enormous heart that beats with hope. Sandy has collaborated with everyone from Rachel Yamagata to Bat For Lashes and now, she's collaborating with us.

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0350: Sandy Bell

"Messages To God"

The New Zealand-born Sarah Mary Chadwick fronted the deliciously feral post-Grunge outfit Batrider in the early 2000s. She made
her first solo foray with the riveting 2012 album Eating For Two and from there she’s moved from strength to strength with records like Please Daddy and Me And Ennui are Friends, Baby. Her new one Messages To God is nothing short of stunning. An aching blend of Jonathan Richman, Mark E. Smith of The Fall and Rid Of Me-era PJ Harvey, Chadwick has never sounded better. The album is spare and savagely beautiful featuring brilliant songs like Shitty Town and I Felt Things In New Zealand. Chadwick’s raw emotional precision is singular and stunning and she’s one of our favorite musicians ever.

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0351: Sarah Mary Chadwick

“Forwards”

For more than 40 years the Welsh band the Alarm have been one of the most consistent acts on the planet, playing songs with conviction, heart and belief. With almost 20 studio albums under their belts, along with a discography that includes live albums, box sets and EPs, The Alarm are one of those bands where you pretty much want everything they put out. From albums like Declaration to Strength to their brand new one Forwards, The Alarm are a completist’s band. Speaking of Forwards, it’s a remarkable record—singer/songwriter Mike Peters has never sounded better, his voice alive with muscle and belief. The Welsh band have had a remarkable career that’s filled with endless highlights-- they toured with U2 and Bob Dylan, played at Queen’s Live at Wembley concert in 1986, been on IRS’s the Cutting Edge and American Bandstand, had hit singles all over the world even cracking the Billboard Top 50 here in the States, and wrote a song that became the official Welsh anthem
for Euro 2020. This is a band that’s all about community, support and they remain as vital as ever.

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0363: Mike Peters (The Alarm)

Somewhere In My Heart

Hosted by Alex Green, Stereo Embers: The Podcast is a weekly podcast airing exclusively on Bombshell Radio (www.bombshellradio.com) that features interviews with musicians, authors, artists and actors talking about the current creative moment in their lives. 

A professor at St. Mary's College of California, Alex is the Editor-In-Chief of Stereo Embers Magazine (www.stereoembersmagazine.com), the author of five books and has served as a Speaker/Moderator for LitQuake, Yahoo!, The Bay Area Book Festival, A Great Good Place For Books, Green Apple Books, and The St. Mary's College Of California MFA Reading Series. 

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Stereo Embers The Podcast 0241: Pat Fish (The Jazz Butcher)

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