Rollins Band: A Rollins in the Wry : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

If there's any remaining doubt that Henry Rollins missed his true calling as a stand-up comic, this hilarious compilation of "spoken word" performances (recorded over a four-week period in 1999 at L.A.'s LunaPark) should dispel it completely. Though A Rollins in the Wry might not pack the same aggressive punch of his musical endeavors, the solo format allows him to train his scope on a much wider array of topics -- this time around, he covers everything from receiving English-as-a-second-language fan mail to listening to his gay neighbors get it on. Poets, Bill Clinton, Rite Aid and techno-loving teens all get shish-kebabed on the blade of Rollins' incisive wit, though none so severely as the man himself. Though the album's cover illustration depicts Rollins as the proud owner of a "Ph.D. in Bullshit," you'll truthfully find far more B.S. in a five-minute George W. Bush oration. To paraphrase the old Nixon campaign slogan, we need Rollins now more than ever. (DAN EPSTEIN)