Podcasts, audio or video programs distributed over the internet for playback on computers and mobile devices, are one of the coolest results of the MP3 player's growing popularity. They're like little radio shows, made by whomever the hell feels like making one, talking about whatever the hell one feels like talking about.

Eric Christianson, guitarist in Kane Hodder and self-proclaimed geek (he's counting down the days till the release of Superman, after all), started a music podcast called Never Forget with a few of his friends back in January. "I desperately needed something to do while the band was home writing songs," he says. "I'd been listening to podcasts for a few months already, and it seemed really easy."

Christianson looked into it a little further and, surprised by how easy it was, started producing the weekly show from his bedroom with cohosts and friends Gary Barbo and Chris Cabellero. Some shows are devoted to playing rare and random punk, indie, hardcore, and pop favorites, while others carry out a theme, including cover songs, or bands with female members.

To do a podcast of your own doesn't take a lot of broadcasting expertise, says Christianson. "Any questions I had when I first started could easily be answered through Google. One only needs a computer, a mic, and some recording software. If you want to get multiple mics, you need a mixer, too. Recording software varies from free to extremely expensive, but you can download Audacity for free at http://audacity.sourceforge.net and it does the job."

There are a few things new podcasters should also know. "Podcasting isn't just about recording audio and putting it up on a website," says Christianson. "True podcasting is actually having your show set up as a feed so people can subscribe and have the show automatically download to their computers or MP3 players. That's where the 'casting' comes in."

And while setting it all up might be easy, actually creating a quality show wasn't quite as simple. "It wasn't easy the first time, and it still isn't," he explains with a laugh. "This is why I have cohosts. I'm not a good speaker, my grammar is horrible, I trip up my words, and I slur a lot. But who [doesn't] want to have a radio show going up? Nowadays it seems you either have to go to school for it or be a person of some privilege. Even then you're working for huge corporations that don't care about the quality of their content. Even small 'local' radio stations have their scandals nowadays. But podcasts are something anybody can do without any outside influence, and they have the ability to reach millions of people."

You can listen to Never Forget at www.neverforgetpodcast.com. Christianson's bandmate Nick Cates has also started a show, with Schoolyard Heroes bassist Jonah Bergman, called War of Attrition, available at www.warofattritionpodcast.com. If you want just localmusic, you can tune in to Insomnia Radio, which features Seattle bands, at http://seattle.insomniaradio.net.

megan@thestranger.com