the best radio show you've never heard of.

NPR, you can keep This American Life. I'll take Little Steven and his Underground Garage for the win. Being a sucker for both the nostalgic and the kitschy, you can imagine how thoroughly delighted I was to stumble across this crazy New York Italian voice going on about the impact of the beat poets on the post-WWII American consciousness after playing The Ronnettes, Bob Dylan, The Ramones, and Jack White all in the same set. Listening to the Underground Garage is like taking a history class in an opium den while being serenaded by John Lennon and Bo Diddley. Each week has a theme that is reflected in both the playlist and the talk segments, with some of the more recent gems being "Pirate Radio", the 42nd anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, "The Ramones Forever and Ever and Ever", the invention of the 45 vinyl record, and the evolution of film noir. You feel smarter by the end of the show, but you also have about five new bands you want to look up on Google.

If Little Steven looks familiar, it's because, along with being a songwriter, arranger, and producer, he was also a member of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band as well as the character Silvio Dante on The Sopranos. The show would absolutely cease to function without him, as he is a humanoid encyclopedia of knowledge on 20th century music, society, and culture, and is able to relay that information in a way that's fresh and entertaining. I wanted to post this blog because, after almost 3 years of listening to the show, it still shocks me how few other people that I mention if to have heard of it. I promise you, friends--you are missing out! If you live in New Orleans, you can catch The Underground Garage every Sunday night on 95.7 (I think it runs from 7-10PM) OR, if you're absent-minded like me, you can listen to all the archived shows any time you want at wwww.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com.