 |
"It's an abomination," he says sadly over the phone from Vienna, Austria, where he's touring with Bruce Springsteen. "Everyone knows that The Beatles recorded in mono. The mix is all wrong."
It's that passion, erudition and zany personality that Van Zandt brings to his syndicated radio program, Little Steven's Underground Garage.
The two-hour show, which airs on classic rocker CHEZ every Monday from 9-11 p.m., is everything corporate radio isn't. The music is the hits and misses from the '50s, '60s and '70s, much of it only available on vinyl, some of it mono, fer Pete's sake.
But that's the show's character -- rough around the edges while host Van Zandt sounds unscripted and off-the-cuff, even if he isn't.
"I'm not comfortable that mainstream radio's turned its back on classic rock," he says. "How radio could ignore the Stones' first 10 albums, which I consider the greatest body of work by any artist, is beyond me."
Every week the E Street Band guitarist and recurring Sopranos character (Silvio Dante) spins tunes 25 cuts from Eddie Cochrane and the British Invasion to the classic punk music of the 1970s.
But the program isn't just living in the past. The show samples the latest garage bands such as The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes and even Montreal's The High Dials.
"We need to encourage new music, we discovered 50 new bands last year," he says proudly.
"The Ramones are the centrepiece of our show, the bands that influenced them and the bands they influenced," he adds. "We'll go outside the format, but only if it suits classic rock. The common thread to the music is the energy, from early British Invasion like The Kinks and The Who to classic punk like The Clash and The Ramones."
Van Zandt and his producer Dan Neer came up with the idea for the show last year after he realized no station would ever play the classic roots rock he wanted to hear unless he played it himself.
The pair, who record the show every week in Neer's New Jersey basement, launched Little Steven's Underground Garage on 25 American stations last year, mostly on the marketing strength of Van Zandt's celebrity status.
The show has since taken off and it's not just because of the music. Van Zandt's proven to be a charismatic host with the thickest Joisey accent since Joey Ramone and an outgoing hoodlum personality that's both funny and informed. He peppers the program with personal anecdotes about the music, the era and the personalities, many of whom he's on a first-name basis with. In fact, MTV has dubbed him "the coolest DJ in the country."
"It's a perfect fit for CHEZ-FM, one that expands on the classic rock format," said Steve Colwill, the station's music director. "Van Zandt plays stuff that never made the charts. It's not a passive listening experience."