Alivaltiosihteeri ("Undersecretary of State") are a band formed in mid-1980s in Tampere, Finland, consisting of four members: bassist Simo Frangén, lead guitarist Pasi Heikura, drummer Jyrki Liikka and singer Satu Kurvinen, who was later replaced by Matti Toivonen.
Since 1990 the first three members of the group have made weekly hour-long radio shows for the Finnish national broadcasting company Yleisradio (Alivaltiosihteeri - Suomen virallinen ohjelma, strictly translated Alivaltiosihteeri - the official program of Finland). The humour used in the shows is based on playing on words and the style is dry and official throughout, no matter what the subject is. Every week two new palindromes are released, read both forwards and backwards.
One of the songs played during program is always chosen from the albums by Neil Young (in the early 1990's AC/DC was used). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.