It's mostly because he goes about promoting music in a half ass fashion and he is too proud to rely on a network of people who actually have knowledge of the genre like Tim Gassen, Mike Stax, Suzie Shaw. Hell, Little Steven even admited that Bruce Springsteen is the one who brought the Hives to his attention. If he actually read Gearhead, he would have heard of the Hives before his first episode ever aired. He dismisses a lot of what has happened for the scene like the actual documenters who took the time to write down or photograph the history. Believe me, I've heard a lot of people who were about to be introduced to him, or actually the staff wanted Steven to meet them, and he says "I don't have time, I got more important things to do". That's not cool. And I said before that the first year didn't have very much in the line of Voxx, Dionysus, Get Hip, or Estrus on the show when things were kind of slim in terms of new releases. And even with the new releases, he's hurry up and promote Jet before he'd mention the Dirt Bombs. I don't think the Reigning Sound got mentioned until after they toured with the Hives. His staff really doesn't do a lot of research either. He'll go on the show admitting that details are "vague" on the newest band he's promoting as the "Coolest Song in the World this week". It's just makes everything else look better by comparison, (which it is) but really doesn't help the scene as a whole.
Gas-House Gorilla said:
I just don’t understand the compulsion by some to blast Little Steven around here. Perhaps it’s human nature to cast aspersions at our neighbors? Hell, I recently read a comment from a Hound blog reader taking a shot at the GaragePunk Hideout. That’s the way it goes I suppose. It’s just beyond me. As Sleazy pointed out, Little Steven is about the only guy out in the corporate world promoting good music. Shouldn’t we be criticizing everybody else instead? Key to me is his Sirius station, where thankfully I can get in my car anytime and be assured of hearing quality music on my radio (and hear a great collection of hosts - Handsome Dick Manitoba, Mighty Manfred, Andrew Loog Oldham, etc). Perhaps the music doesn’t all fit into a narrow definition of “garage”, or perhaps you’re not as likely to hear an obscurity as you are with the GP podcasts (although, you’ll certainly hear some gems on Bill Kelly’s show), but that doesn’t make the music played any less great. Just count me in as a fan of anybody promoting good music. There are so few out there.
