Little Steven Gets Wicked Cool All Summer

HARP

Kate Leary
June 25, 2007

Wicked Cool Records has announced a spate of releases this summer, including a new garage rock compilation album handpicked by the label’s founder, Steven Van Zandt.

August 7 is the scheduled release date for Coolest Songs in the World Vol. 2, the follow-up to (you guessed it) Coolest Songs In The World Vol. 1. The format of the compilation album, matching that of Little Steven’s Underground Garage radio show, pairs the genre’s current stars alongside lesser-known rock bands.
The Manhattan-based label released its first record in Dec of 2006, but had been in the works for more than two years. Its other upcoming summer releases include Mondo Primo from Sweden’s Hawaii Mud Bombers on July 10, and the English band the Stabilisers’ new album Wanna Do the Wild Plastic Brane Love Thing?, out on Aug 7.
Little Steven has hosted his nationally syndicated rock radio show since 2002, which currently airs on over 200 stations across the country. Van Zandt is also heavily involved in SIRIUS Satellite Radio—he’s the executive producer of The Wiseguy Show and the Outlaw Country Channel 63, the latter of which he also founded, as well as the current program director for Underground Garage Channel 25.
You might recognize Little Steven as the guitarist from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, but if you still don’t know who the guy is, perhaps you’ve seen him on his TV gig—comatose, with tubes sticking out of his body, in a hospital bed, as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos. Ba-da-bing, baby!
Track listing for Coolest Songs in the World Vol. 2: