A warm conversation about band names, front people, and sharing the spotlight.
Built around the Cocktail Slippers' latest single, "Joyride," this conversation with Rocket Queen settles into a thoughtful discussion of band identity.

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Rock stories, straight from the people playing them.
Little Steven's Underground Garage - Coolest Conversations is a music-interview series centered on rock, power pop, garage bands, and the stories behind recent singles. The Mighty Manfred keeps the pace easy, giving artists room to explain how bands formed, songs changed shape, and working relationships kept going.
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Little Steven's Underground Garage - Coolest Conversations is a rock interview series with a record-store counter feel. The Mighty Manfred talks with artists connected to rock, power pop, and the broader Wicked Cool Records orbit. The setup is simple. A recent song gets played, then the conversation follows the people and choices behind it. The show is less interested in celebrity gloss than in how musicians actually keep bands alive. Rocket Queen talks through The Cocktail Slippers, lead singer chemistry, and the difference between a front person and a backing band. Ryan Hamilton explains why a trusted recording team matters, naming Dave Draper, Reggie Cooper, and Emily Ewing in the context of songs that became part of a larger album. Mateus Coulter describes Banda AL9's shift toward English after international attention began arriving online. Charlie Starr traces a line through Atlanta bands, friendships, borrowed basses, and the early pieces that became Blackberry Smoke. Kurt Baker's episode turns songwriting into a story about collaboration, divorce, memory, and hearing another writer hand life back as lyrics. Dion brings the long view, tying current work to first-generation rock and roll experience. The pace is welcoming. Questions often begin with a release detail, then widen into origin stories, scenes, producers, bandmates, and the emotional use of music. That patience is the point. Artists are allowed to sound like working musicians, not just promotional visitors. The show also carries plenty of formatted radio furniture, including sponsor openings and repeated closing credits, so it has the shape of a broadcast segment as much as a podcast. Underneath that structure is a dependable pleasure: musicians explaining the little moments that made them keep playing.
Made for: Best for rock and power pop listeners who like artist interviews with real release details and band-history tangents. It also suits music fans who care about collaborators, scenes, studio teams, and why musicians keep chasing songs.
What sets it apart: The show pairs current singles with deep, conversational origin stories instead of treating each guest as a quick promo stop. Its strength is the patient movement from a song title into band chemistry, old scenes, working relationships, and personal meaning.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The Mighty Manfred turns artist interviews into clear accounts of songwriting, recording relationships, career turns, and the scenes behind the music.
The Mighty Manfred gets musicians talking about how songs and careers are actually made. Coolest Conversations moves easily between personal history, local scenes, current releases, and the working relationships behind a record, with questions that invite specific answers rather…
Mighty Manfred gets you from an upside-down guitar to the stories behind new songs.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm conversation about band names, front people, and sharing the spotlight.
Built around the Cocktail Slippers' latest single, "Joyride," this conversation with Rocket Queen settles into a thoughtful discussion of band identity.
Ryan Hamilton highlights trusted collaborators, steady process, and the working stories behind his latest single.
Ryan Hamilton's conversation with the Mighty Manfred frames That Come to Jesus Moment through the relationships that helped shape it. Hamilton talks about the latest single, an album in progress, and the close working circle of Dave Draper and Emily Ewing, with Reggie Cooper on…
A warm talk about Banda AL9, two brothers making joyful guitar music, and an online audience opening the door to wider ambitions.
Mateus traces Banda AL9's shift from Portuguese-language songs to English releases after the group found international attention online, including a video from Justin Hawkins.
Charlie Starr traces Blackberry Smoke's beginnings through Atlanta bands, friendships, and early uncertainty about his own songs.
Charlie Starr's path toward Blackberry Smoke runs through Atlanta's close band circle, where the Shambles, Voodoo Piston, Johnny Three-Legged, and the Turner Brothers all brush against one another.
Kurt Baker traces "Undertow Afterglow" from shared life stories to the chord that made the song click.
Kurt Baker's conversation with Mighty Manfred frames "Undertow Afterglow" as a small but revealing study in how lived experience can find its way into power-pop craft.
A benefit tribute album conversation finds its richest moments in the care artists bring to Jesse Mallon's songs.
Jesse Mallon's paralysis after a rare stroke of the spinal column gives this Coolest Conversation its emotional weight, but the episode stays rooted in the songs.
Evie Sands looks back on television, Los Angeles, and the upside-down guitar style that shaped her path.
Evie Sands's career is framed through the choices and pivots that kept reshaping it: a teenage start in the early 1960s, blue-eyed soul, songwriting, session work, and the pull of Los Angeles after repeated television appearances made the city feel familiar.

Rock Hall obsession, argued with jokes.

Rock fandom, one deep cut at a time.


Heavy music conversations with lived-in scene memory.

Aussie rock pride, backstage and loud.

Hard rock talk with radio-road history.
Kurt Reil of The Grip Weeds discusses their album Soulbender and a B.B.
Jesse Malin, paralyzed from a spinal stroke, reveals how Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello are funding his recovery with a tribute album.
B.B. King risked his life to save his guitar from a fire, leading him to name all his guitars Lucille.
Blaze Dahl, lead singer of the Midnight Cowgirls, tells Mighty Manfred that three spinal stress fractures from figure skating and dance led her to guitar and singing lessons.
Mighty Manfred interviews Stina Bendixson, known as Rocket Queen, about The Cocktail Slippers' new single "Joyride" and the departure of singer Hope after 15 years.
Little Steven's Underground Garage - Coolest Conversations features The Mighty Manfred with Ryan Hamilton discussing 'The Come to Jesus Moment' on Wicked Cool Records.
Host Mighty Manfred interviews Donnie Vie, lead singer of Enough's Enough, about his career and new single 'Plain Jane'.
Little Stevens Underground Garage's Coolest Conversations spotlights Banda AL9 guitarist Mateus Coulter and the duo's path to Wicked Cool Records, including their debut single 'She Can Do It All.' Mateus says he and his brother Thiago grew up in Santana de Parnaíba near São Paulo, where their doctor father taught him guitar in the same bedroom they still use to write songs.
Robin Zander of Cheap Trick discusses his career and the story behind B.B.
The Mighty Manfred introduces an interview with Dion DiMucci, discussing his book and album, after a sponsor segment about B.B.
Stephen Van Zandt called Kurt Baker in Madrid, Spain, told him “your show’s canceled,” and offered him work at Wicked Cool Records.
Charlie Starr talks with Mighty Manfred on Little Steven's Underground Garage about growing up near Lynette, Alabama, hearing bluegrass from his father, and later finding Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Aerosmith.
Butch Walker discusses his band Marvelous 3's cover of 'I Melt With You' and shares a story about B.B.
Host Mighty Manfred introduces Glenn Page of the Lemprize 3, discussing their new album Misty Medway Magic and the story behind B.B.
Scott McCaughey discusses his new album with Peter Buck and the story behind B.B.