Wednesday, September 17, 2008

#9 - Signs of Life, Signs of Life and Signs of Life

In this edition of the Casey Stratton Podcast I answer a few questions and then talk about the new album, Signs of Life before performing both Looks Like Rain and Now It's Gone from said record. Music recommendation is Kate Bush's Aerial.

It's the second disc--a suite called A Sky of Honey--on which Bush really comes into her own. Using metaphors of the turning of the day and the flight of birds, she orchestrates a meditation on the cycles of life. Musically expansive, she weaves her compositions out of birdsong, subtle orchestrations, and jazz trios, showing herself at her experimental best. Embracing her relatively new motherhood, as well as the death of her mother, Aerial is a deeply personal album, and a welcome return from one of pop music's true icons and vocal wonders. --John Diliberto

Listen to Podcast #9

Thursday, September 04, 2008

#8 - More Whirlwind, Doris Lessing, Industry Woes and such.

In this edition of the Casey Stratton Podcast I answer questions about the influence of the seasons on my work and the influence of author Doris Lessing's work on my own. I then discuss more about the Whirlwind Medusa period including my first dealings with the Sony Corporation which leads to more discussions about the record industry and masculinity, or lack thereof, in male solo artists. I then play a cassette recording of a song called Home recorded during the Whirlwind Medusa sessions that was never burned to CD. Music Recommendation this week is The Sundays 1992 album Blind.


Building on the jangly guitar pop of the Smiths and the trance-like dream pop of bands like the Cocteau Twins, the Sundays cultivated a dedicated following in indie rock circles, both in their native England and in America, in the early '90s. Although the sales of their first two albums were strong, the band never crossed over into the mainstream, as so many observers and critics predicted they would.




Listen to Podcast #8