Henry Rollins, who made his name as the manic vocalist for hardcore punk kingpins Black Flag, is inviting us down to his metaphorical cellar.
“I want to re-create that ubiquitous teenage hangout, where you and your friends wind up in somebody’s basement and just play records,” Rollins tells The Post, explaining the genesis of his just-launched podcast, “The Cool Quarantine,” which clocks in at four hours long. “With everybody cooped up, the time seems right. Hopefully it will relieve some tension in a harsh world.”
Reminiscent of the old free-form FM radio DJs, Rollins weighs in with great anecdotes about experiences alongside legendary pals and the kind of music that you don’t get to hear every day.
On his recent debut, he played songs by an embryonic Joy Division, as well as a cassette-recorded cut snagged at a Washington, DC, gig by The Cramps (the amateur bootlegger was godfather of DC punk Ian MacKaye).
“I wanted to make a long-form show with no constraints,” says Rollins, who, for the last six years has been doing a weekly broadcast on LA’s NPR outpost KCRW. “[The station] offered to pay me for this and I said that they don’t have to. My pay is that they won’t tell me what to do.”
And since “The Cool Quarantine” is heard online rather than over public airwaves, Rollins adds, “I don’t have to dodge the FCC and worry about songs where singers drop F-bombs.” Considering Rollins’ taste in music, salty lyrics come with the territory.
Rollins admitted during his first podcast that it will be nothing more than a short-lived curiosity if listeners don’t dig it. But quite the opposite was true: “The response was insane and I was told to hurry with another.” So a second outing is in the offing and, for that one, Rollins hopes to freak out his Led Zeppelin-loving listeners with a recording from an early show at the tiny Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles.
It took place before an indifferent crowd. “Robert Plant tells the audience that the band has an album coming out in two weeks and people are talking over him, wondering where their car keys are,” says Rollins. “They do a blistering set and you hear, like, five people clapping. Some 150 million records sold later, it is the acorn before the mighty oak.”
How long will Rollins continue this enterprise?
“We’ll just keep doing it until Anthony Fauci tells me I can come out of my hole,” he says.
Here are four other cool, musically oriented podcasts likely to lift spirits during dire times.
If you think world-class hip-hop is restricted to the two coasts, “Bottom of the Map” provides a welcome awakening. Journalist Christina Lee and self-proclaimed hip-hop scholar Regina N. Bradley, Ph.D., drop knowledge via interviews with movers from the Southern scene.
Music nerds love nothing more than to get deep on a particular album. The crew behind “Heat Rocks” do exactly that, with special guests who possess particular passions. Records explored include the “High Fidelity” soundtrack and Björk’s groundbreaking “Post.”
Fans of movies by the Safdie brothers — most notably “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time” — know that soundtracks play a major role. The hip sibs’ “Elara.FM” provides cool mixes and slabs of comedy from wise-guys who include the brothers themselves, producer Sebastian “Sebo Bear” Bear-McClard and Oneohtrix Point Never (the guy who does their nerve-rattling soundtracks).
The indefatigable Diplo and his crew are offering “Corona World Tour,” with fresh mixes to keep fans sated until he’s back on the road.