Stereo Embers: The Podcast Alex Green Online

"One Hand Up"

Karen Haglof has had many lives--and she's lived them with creative poise and artistic grace. The Minnesota-born musician put herself on the musical map with Steve Almaas in the band The Crackers before joining the indie rock orchestra Rhys Chatham’s Ensemble. From there, and by the way, this is a clumsy expurgate list of Hagloff's accomplishments, she joined the Band of Susans with some of the Chatham’s crew. After that, she became chef of the East Village's beloved The Great Jones Cafe' where she created their famous brunch menu and then she went to medical school, knocked out her medical degree and then joined the hematology / oncology department of New York University Hospital from which she retired in May 2023. If this is making you feel like an underachiever, I get it. We're all feeling that way.
The fact is, Karen Hagloff is extraordinary. Her fourth solo album One Hand Up is the winning continuation of a music career she put on hold until 2014. Along with guitarist Mario Viele and CP Roth on drums, it's a startling and bold entry into her fabulous discography. As Stereo Embers Dave Cantrell writes: From the beguiling, personal, damn near avant country romp of the opening title track, rich with sublty applied effects to the snaky phat throb of instrumental “Rte 66 Revisited” that closes this record thirteen tracks later like some kind of funk demon prowling out the door, One Hand Up is an enticement, a gambol, a salmagundi of enchantments mixed with sure-handed production and flat-out ace musicianship. It is, in short, a veritable soundtrack to the love story between joy and intensity."

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"Whitelined"

Formed in Barnum, Colorado in the early oughts by pals Ryan Policky and Erik Jeffries, A Shoreline Dream wasted no time in establishing themselves as a band to be reckoned with. No scruffy apprentice years here--albums like Avoiding The Consequences and Losing Them All To This Time were fully formed blasts of bruising guitars drenched in pure sonic muscle. Not only that, but lurking behind the sheets of fuzz was an undeniable pop center that, nearly twenty years later has never sounded more assured. The follow-up to their brilliant 2022 Loveblind album is called Whitelined and not only is it a masterpiece of musical architecture, and swerving beauty, it's got a little backstory. The fellas in A Shoreline Dream happened to meet Ride's Mark Gardener at a Denver gig and a friendship turned into a working relationship as well and the ideas started whipping back and forth and this album is a perfect blend of their musical union. A Shoreline Dream have opened for Chapterhouse, played South By Southwest, covered Fleetwood Mac and had their music used in a British GQ ad.

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"The Morrison Project"

The London-born guitarist and singer/songwriter Billy Morrison has two main components to his life and for the purposes of this introduction, I'm going to tell you about the musical one. The other one I'll let him tell you about
because he'll tell it far better than I can. So: the musical one. After playing in bands like Into A Circle and Stimulator, Morrison was recruited to play bass with The Cult for their opening slot with Aerosmith in the U.S., Japan and Europe. After his stint with The Cult, Morrison formed Camp Freddy with Dave Navarro, Donovan Leitch, Scott Ford and The Cult's Matt Sorum.
You'll find the through-line in Morrison's life has a lot to do with The Cult. In 2006 Morrison teamed up with Fuel's Brett Scallions, Ricky Warwick of The Almighty, Slunt's Charles Ruggiero, Korn's Rob Patterson and, you guessed it, The Cult's Billy Duffy for the band Circus Diablo. In 2010 he joined Billy Idol's band and he's been with him ever since, playing stadium shows across the world. Camp Freddy morphed into Royal Machines adding Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray and Josh Freese to the lineup. Morrison's new album
is called The Morrison Project and it's got a murderer's row of guests including Al Jourgensen of Ministry, Steve Stevens, Darryl DMC McDaniels of Run DMC, Ozzy Osbourne and Corey Taylor of Slipknot, among others. The album is a big crunchy blast of hard rock bliss with careening guitar riffs and hooks galore. It's not only one of the most satisfying and energizing albums of the year, it's landed Morrison his first number one. Well-deserved. Morrison has acted in movies, become a notable art collector and artist and he co-hosts a show with Ozzy on Sirius. Busy fellow. Billy is the real deal and one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.

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“4th of July Special: What's The Point Of A Strawberry?”

Well, not counting the fact that they lower your blood pressure, are high in fiber, rich in antioxidants and guard you from cancer, strawberries are pretty much useless. In this wildly discursive 4th of July chat with singer-songwriter Shannon McArdle, the Brooklyn musician talks to Alex about why she’s not into strawberries (or fruit for that matter), why she got on a subway in the middle of a pandemic and how she lost the tip of her finger. Look, this is our perennial and evergreen 4th of July Shannon Spectacular and this conversation not only covers all the bases, it will make you forget that there’s no (legal) firework celebrations this year. This chat covers the genius of the new Dylan album, the durability of Soda Stream machines and the 20th anniversary reissue of Shannon’s old band The Mendoza Line’s We’re All In This Alone. Oh, and Alex worries Shannon might get scurvy. And Shannon doesn’t seem worried about this at all. An hour and a half of comedy, antics and dogs. Enjoy!
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"Fantastic Day"

Formed in 1980 in London, the new wave funk outfit Haircut 100 are one of those bands that tore right out of the gates. A top four single Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) before even having a record out was a pretty propelling start. That record came in the form of 1982's platinum seller Pelican West, which
not only went to #2 on the UK albums chart, it spawned more Top 10 singles like Love Plus One, Fantastic Day and Nobody's Fool. Singer Nick Heyward, left the band after their debut and embarked on a brilliant solo career, which yielded hit singles like Whistle Down The Wind and Blue Hat For A Blue Day, along with flawless albums like North Of A Miracle, From Monday To Sunday and The Apple Bed. And now Haircut 100 are back, playing shows across the U.K. including Glastonbury and North America in August and you should see them if you can because they've never sounded better. And I believe new music is on the way, which is very exciting. For my money, Nick Heyward is one of the most brilliant songwriters of all time. It's hard to think of someone who writes with such elegance, finesse and melodic muscle. He's a master craftsman, a writer with poetic poise and harmonic genius. I think this guy's practically peerless and his work has meant so much to me for a very long time.

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"A Master Class In Songwriting"

Jad Fair is probably best known as one half of Half Japanese. Formed with his brother David in 1974, the Maryland by way of Michigan outift remain one of the more curious entires into the pantheon of rock and roll. Their songs are jagged and battered mini-anthems about broken hearts, monsters and...broken hearts and monsters. As Jad Fair once said, their songs are either love songs or monster songs. And there are a lot of songs. For example: the band's sophomore effort was a triple album, some records have 45 songs all under two minutes. Some of the tracks are barely one...Half Japanese have quite a discography, including classics like Music To Strip By, Charmed Life and The Band Who Would Be King. Over the course of their idiosyncratic, non-traditional career, they've counted the Velvet Underground's Moe Tucker as a member, put out albums on Penn Jillette's record label, opened for NIrvana, and collaborated with Daniel Johnston, Kramer, Steve Fisk, Thurston Moore, Fred Frith Teenage Fanclub, Yo La Tengo, The Pastels, Jason Willett and John Zorn, and were chosen by Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum to play the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he was curating. Half Japanese are underground heroes, who broke every rule of modern music and then broke the rules they broke. They remain a dynamic, artistic and powerful creative endeavor. As for Jad Fair, he's done anything but slow down. Aside from putting out a handful of solo albums, as a visual artist Fair's artwork has yielded several books and museum shows across the world. His papercut style is singular and charming, but also rife with a simple complexity. It's really staggering stuff. Also staggering: his new album 100 Songs (A Master Class In Songwriting). It consists of, you guessed it: 100 songs. Impressed? Well, his other new album Film Music has 150. Filled with swerving low-fi bliss, there's not a false note to be found on these records. But of course there isn't: it's Jad Fair. And Jad Fair operates from a cosmos of creative impulse. And that impulse is as pure and driving as it gets.

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