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Episode 736: Bruce Driscoll and Andy Chase on Stroik
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A brute force approach helped Drew Stroik land a record deal. The unknown musician sent demo after demo to his favorite musicians, until one -- Andy Chase – responded positively. Chase pulled in frequent collaborator (and current Ivy bandmate) Bruce Driscoll to produce an album full of Stroik’s off-kilter bedroom pop. 65th and York finally saw the light of day last month – 15 years after its initial recording and three years after the musician’s life was tragically cut short. Driscoll and Chase join us to discuss the album’s creation, the intervening decade and a half, and why you can finally hear the songs for yourself.
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Episode 754: Björn Yttling (Peter, Björn and John; Yttling Jazz)
43:58|What's two decades between releases? Yttling Jazz returned this year, with a new lineup and album, Illegal Hit. Björn Yttling wears his jazz influences on his sleeve, paying tribute to the greats of the form, and enjoying every moment of the process.
Episode 753: Adele Bertei
42:34|No New York picks up where Peter and the Wolves, with young Cleveland transplant Adele Bertei landing in New York amid a burgeoning new scene. No wave -- a an avant-garde musical and visual art moment -- was harder to classify than its contemporaries, punk and new wave. Bertei participated in all aspects of the movement, as a member of the Contortions and the Bloods, starring in Lizzie Borden's Born In Flames, and even serving as Brian Eno's assistant as the legendary musician produced one of the genre's defining documents. The new book is a celebration of a movement, and more so, the women who made it.
Episode 752: Ben Easton (Deary)
38:59|Born during the pandemic, Deary proudly wear their influences on their sleeve. Most immediate is a love of the Cocteau Twins, which first connected guitarist Ben Easton and singer Dottie Cockram. The latter's vocals soar ethereally on "Sea Bird," happily evoking the legendary Liz Fraser. The track marks the first single from Deaty's forthcoming debut LP, Birding, which finds the trio embracing life's challenges.
Episode 751: Bette A
52:36|Slow Stories took its time. Author Bette A(driaanse) revisited the work decades after initially committing it to print, this time with a new motivating force.An ambient soundtrack marks the second collaboration between Adriaanse and music pioneer, Brian Eno, following closely on the heels of last year’s delightful What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory. Adriaanse can now add narrator to an expanding list of jobs that already includes novelist, artist, and teacher.She also cofounded the non-profit artist network, TRQSE, through which she and Eno first crossed paths.
Episode 750: Beatrice Deer
48:32|Upon reflection, Beatrice Deer suggests that Inuit Legend may ultimately be her least personal record to date. That's not to say the musician doesn't connect deeply with the work, only that she's opted to draw on the stories of others -- both historical and folkloric. Deer has long approached her own life with a thorough candidness, as she discusses family, sobriety, and the struggles of the Inuit people. The latter form the focus of her latest work, as she finds echoes in her own family's story.
Episode 749: Nils Edenloff (Rural Alberta Advantage)
49:06|The Rise & The Fall marked The Rural Alberta Advantage's return to a trio. Multi-instrumentalist Amy Cole's return was a homecoming, serving to reinvigorate longtime members, Nils Edenloff and Paul Banwatt. The Toronto band is readying a followup -- its sixth LP, overall -- preceded by a handful of singles. The most recent, “The Hunt In Edson," contemplates life through the near death experience of a mouse that took refuge in Edenloff's home.
Episode 748: Mirah
56:24|The pandemic wasn't a creatively fruitful time for Mirah. Life as a new parent no doubt played a major role in any such blockage, coupled, with a loss of the rituals attached to tour dates and album releases. Seven years would ultimately pass between records. When the time came to step outside her life for a moment, however, the deluge of Dedication came pouring out. The musician's seventh album is a celebration of the life that happened in between.
Episode 747: idk
42:30|Had he served all 15 years of his sentence, Jason Mills would have re-entered the world last year -- almost exactly half his life to that point. The gravity of that fact hasn't escaped him. As idk, the rapper has seemingly squeezed a few lifetimes in that space, including five albums, seven mixtapes, a lecturing gig at Harvard, and, recently, a Tiny Mix Tapes set. His latest single, "LiFE 4 A LiFE" finds him reflecting on lessons learned along the way.
Episode 746: Adam Goldberg
01:02:40|The Goldbergs' 2021 move was meant to be temporary, a relocation from Los Angeles to his wife's hometown while the new network television gig did its thing. And then something happened -- The Equalizer stayed on the air for five seasons. There are, of course, far worse fates than a successful TV show, and there are far worse places to see them out than New York's Hudson Valley -- especially when one has a young family to raise. The new home also saw Adam Goldberg revisit his passion for songwriting, channeling the complexities of relocation into tight pop harmonies on When the Ships of My Dreams Return.