Rock’n’Roll explosion
from across the Pond
click link please
At the centre of the new retro storm blazing out of the North American conurbations, is Little Steven’s Underground Garage, a weekly radio show pushing real rock n roll sounds from the 50’s till today. Little Steven, guitarist with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and actor in the TV series The Sopranos (Silvio Dante) has decided to kick rock n roll back into action on commercial radio.
Many great freeform radio programmes, such as Bill Kelly’s Teenage Wasteland at WFMU, Mike Murray’s Whole Lotta Shakin’ at WITR Rochester NY and a whole array of superb college radio shows, have been blasting out the real tunes for years. These are the true antecedents of this burgeoning happening. Little Steven's "Underground Garage" was inspired by his love of Bill Kelly’s Teenage Wasteland show on WFMU.
Little Steven encouraged by these maverick radio believers, decided it was time real rock n roll was back on mainstream radio. His masterstroke was to get his new show syndicated all over the USA, and some regions of Canada, through the help of some heavy weight corporate sponsorship. With the simple plug of putting real rock n roll back on the map, the big business hitters went for it, thus great tunes are once again getting the airtime they deserve.
You’re likely to hear Little Steven playing many of the classics from Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, The Beatles, The Ronettes, The Kinks, The Seeds, The Standells, The Ramones, The Clash, The New York Dolls and many many more great rock n roll acts. But as well as the classic tracks, Little Steven is also giving the modern day rebels (be it garage, beat, mod, power pop, punk pop, folk rock, sunshine pop, hammond rnb) a spin.
Through his support, he has started to raise the profile of many of these ‘retro’ style outfits. Distinct labels in the USA, such as Get Hip and Telstar with 60s style garage bands or Rainbow Quartz with chiming power pop bands or indie label Sympathy for the Record Industry with garage rock, have been pushing cool acts for a while, but Little Stevens radio show has opened it all up to a wider audience.
Unfortunately, except for the Detroit garage rock contingent doing well all over the globe, a lot of these fine bands go underneath the radar of folks here in the UK.
This little piece is a like a rough guide to the bands shaping the resurgence of stripped down rock n roll emanating from that huge North American continent. I’ll also include some of the recently defunct bands that deserve a mention, as their coverage in the UK was limited and a few of the maverick DJs and ‘characters’ that have helped shape the resurgence.
So here goes, welcome to the revival of rock n roll from across the pond.
http://www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com/
http://home.rochester.rr.com/wls1/wls.htm...