Van Zandt: New label for garage rockLarry Mcshane | the Associated Press
Posted January 13, 2007 NEW YORK -- It's not as if Steven Van Zandt doesn't have enough to keep him busy.
There's his job as host of his nationally syndicated Underground Garage radio program, with more than 1 million listeners in 200 markets. And his position as head of his own channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. And his role as consigliere Silvio Dante on The Sopranos.
Oh, and he's a guitarist with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
Yet last month, Van Zandt added another line to his rapidly expanding resume: head of his own record label. In a deal with Best Buy stores, he rolled out the first six records on his rocking new label.
"I'm getting a little bored, you know?" 56-year-old Van Zandt deadpans in the Manhattan office that is home to his Wicked Cool Records.
Despite his relentless schedule, Van Zandt says, his involvement with the new label was total.
"Right now, it's 100 percent," says Van Zandt. "It's a very personal thing. It's my own taste, my own personality, and we're not pretending otherwise. We're not doing any marketing surveys.
"If I dig it, I'm going to try and support it."
Van Zandt sits in a sixth-floor loft, decorated with vintage movie posters (Barbarella) and pop-culture memorabilia (a Ramones lunch box). He's wearing a purple scarf around his head, well-worn jeans, and a shirt undone to mid-chest.
He's quick to laugh, but quite serious about this latest effort to resurrect old-school rock 'n' roll. Since starting his nationally syndicated radio show nearly five years ago, Van Zandt has become the Johnny Appleseed of garage rock, spreading his musical seeds from coast to coast.
It has worked, too.
Van Zandt estimates his program has introduced 150 new bands since then. Two of the newer groups are featured in the first half-dozen releases: Strange Magic, by the Charms, and Mastermind, by an Oslo, Norway-based all-female band, The Cocktail Slippers. The Chesterfield Kings, another show favorite, is also among the first releasing an album on Wicked Cool.
One of the label's staples is a plan to release four compilation albums per year under the title, The Coolest Songs in the World. Not surprisingly, the concept is a fixture on Van Zandt's weekly program.
"The label did evolve out of the radio show," Van Zandt explains. "There's a lot of bands these days. A lot of the bands came to us and said they needed a little help."
Van Zandt laughs when asked about comments Springsteen has made, indicating that he already has written half of a new album for the E Street Band.
"He's lying," Van Zandt says of his longtime friend. "He always has two albums in his pocket, OK? Always. If he's got a jacket on, he's got three albums. I wouldn't be surprised if we get that phone call soon. I don't know if it will be '07, but we will certainly make a new record."Perpetually busy, Van Zandt is also shooting the final three episodes of The Sopranos.
"There's surprises," he says of the final season. "Oh, there's surprises. Leave it at that."
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