It’s kind of funny, but even though I’m a techno-weenie at work, I really don’t jump to embrace new technologies.  I still prefer vinyl to digital, I don’t even have an Ipod & and took me quite a while to get around to that whole cell-phone & IM world.  But last weekend, I flew down to Florida to see the Hentchmen and discovered something that I need right now – Sirius Radio!!! 

This whole little trip started off with one objective – I really needed to see the Hentchmen and they were on tour.  Sometimes it’s more fun to see my favorite Detroit bands on the road & see how the rest of the country appreciates our homegrown talent.  The Hentchmen played in Orlando at a club called the Social.  The Hentch were opening up for the Black Keys & the place was sold-out.  It took some negotiating and pleading with the doorman before I could even get into the place by having Johnny Hentch add me to the guest list.  (It would be pretty embarrassing to fly 1000 miles and then have to listen to the show from outside the window).   Needless to say, the show was awesome and the trip was well worth it.  

However, the trip was even more of a treat thanks to Hertz and a Ford Taurus that was equipped with Sirius Radio.  There are about 80 channels on this thing, but I only needed to find one – the Underground Garage.  For the next three days I had more fun cruising around with the music blaring than I did at any of their beaches.  First of all, there seems to be a very cool rule on this station – no more than 30 minutes between songs by Detroit bands (and I’m only counting the “new” Detroit stuff – bands that I’ve seen either at the Lager or the Gold Dollar: Outrageous Cherry, the Fondas, Clone Defects, Paybacks, Gore Gore Girls, Sights, Dirtbombs, Ko & The Knockouts, etc).  The second thing is hearing all of these great tunes from back in the 60s by bands that I had only vaguely heard of – a few times I was swerving off the freeway to write down some band name before I forgot what they were talking about.  The DJs include such rock & roll stalwarts as Handsome Dick Manitoba, Kim Fowley, Joan Jett and even Detroit’s own Ko Melina.  The playlist also includes a whole bunch of modern garage bands from places ranging from Pittsburgh to Sweden and all the way to Australia.  All of this music is also sprinkled with some punk classics from the Ramones, Minor Threat, Sex Pistols, the Clash and the like.  It’s really hard to go wrong while listening to this station – my main problem was that I just didn’t want to leave my car.  Another cool thing is the display unit that shows the band name and song that is being played.  I always tried to figure out the song before looking at the display unit, but my garage IQ is way too low and I caught myself peeking at the unit when I should have known that these were the Stems or Cynics playing.

There aren’t any commercials to disrupt the flow of the music and the DJ’s really make an effort to give all sorts of cool background info on the bands.  I really don’t have any complaints about this at all – they do run the same shows at different times and some of the songs may be a little to mellow for me – but, this Underground Garage station just kicks ass.

This sounds like one of these “what I did on my vacation” essays from grade school, but the combination of the Hentchmen and the “Underground Garage” puts most of my previous vacations to shame.