Punk legend and radio broadcaster Henry Rollins has announced a new long-form radio show, clocking in over four hours, titled The Cool Quarantine, which will be broadcasted on the internet via KCRW’s website. The first episode of the show is available here, and features live bootlegs of the Cramps recorded by Ian MacKaye, a story about the time Henry and Ian saw Led Zeppelin in 1977,(alongside a bootleg recording from that performance), audio from original Joy Division album pressings, stories about the early days of Black Flag (which Rollins’ fronted from 1981-1986) and Dischord Records, along with much more content.
Rollins stated that he has wanted to host a long-form show for an hour, however doing so on a radio broadcast would prevent others from hosting a show during those time slots. This new show is set to host personal stories, deep cuts, rarities, bootlegs, full albums, EPs and more during each episode.
“For many years, I’ve had this idea for a long-form show. I mean really long-form. Like hours. To do it terrestrially would be difficult because I would be crowding other shows out,” Rollins explained in a press statement.”But if it was online, hey. It’s as many songs as I want, language issues are not a factor, and if anyone gets bored, they can just turn it off or mark the time they checked out and resume later. The idea is that you’re in your room and Engineer X and I come over with a bunch of records.”
Rollins has been a broadcaster for KCRW, a Santa Monica based NPR affiliated radio station for over a decade, and currently hosts an hour long live show on Sundays. He explained that this long-form show will be similar to his Sunday show, however it will be free from the FCC regulations and restraints broadcast radio shows have due to FCC regulations.
“We play you songs, I tell you stories, and we do time together. Now that many of us are under some kind of confinement, we might as well get some good listening happening. Let’s go long!” he continued. “It’s kind of like the show we do on Sundays but without time constraints or worrying about FCC compliance. It’s an extra slice of pizza. It will be completely indulgent. Fanatic, of course, and hopefully, as Iggy Pop, the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Of Rock And Roll says, ‘a real cool time.'”
New episodes of this broadcast will be released during the coming weeks. Rollins was announced as a tourism spokesperson for Los Angeles earlier this year. Check out his performance of “Rise Above” alongside Cyndi Lauper here.
UPDATE (4/27): Henry Rollins has released the second episode of his podcast the Cool Quarantine. This episode features a performance from Bad Brains from 1985, the original The Stooges mixes by John Cale and more.
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