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A selection of our top stories, for your reading pleasure…

PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF PKM FOR 2021, PART II

PKM Editor·December 27, 2021

By PKM Editors These are the TOP TEN STORIES for the year on PKM, our toppermost of the poppermost. Enjoy these over the next few days while we prepare some great new stories for the new year. 1. RUTH UNDERWOOD:...

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UTOPIA PARKWAY: THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF JOSEPH CORNELL

Alan Bisbort·November 16, 2021

Artist, filmmaker and writer Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) was a mystery when he was alive and continues to mystify fifty years after his death. Best known as the “box artist,” he made assemblages that defy categorization but seem to resonate with...

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RUTH UNDERWOOD: A MOTHER OF INVENTION

Ingrid Marie Jensen·November 15, 2021

An integral part of Frank Zappa’s band the Mothers of Invention, Ruth Underwood stayed mostly in the background on stage and in the studio, filling the sound with her indispensable contributions on marimba, harp, xylophone, vibraphone and drums. Her reputation,...

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NILS LOFGREN: ROCK’S MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Parke Puterbaugh·June 3, 2021

Nils Lofgren has been both a bandleader and a team player, and is equally accomplished in both roles. He has fronted his own band, Grin, and another throughout his 40-year solo career, but he has also been a valued member...

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RELIEF AND RELEASE: REVISITING WENDY O. WILLIAMS & THE PLASMATICS

Adam Ganderson·May 6, 2021

The Plasmatics, fronted by the unmatchable Wendy O. Williams, may have been the most misunderstood rock ‘n’ roll band ever. Conceived as all of the following: performance art, social comment, consumer culture satirists, and rock ‘n’ roll band; the Plasmatics...

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JACK KEROUAC: BASKING IN THE GOLDEN ETERNITY

Catherine de Leon·April 27, 2021

By the time Jack Kerouac died at 47 in 1969, he’d exiled himself from the 1960s youth culture he’d partly inspired with the likes of On the Road and The Dharma Bums. Bloated by booze and reactionary politics, he bore...

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LEONARD COHEN, PHIL SPECTOR: DEATH OF LADIES’ MEN

Sylvie Simmons·April 21, 2021

Leonard Cohen and Phil Spector were an unlikely pairing, to say the least. And yet, there they were, in an L.A. studio in 1976, both drinking heavily, both dealing with marital woes, but thrown together by an album project, Death...

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MIDNIGHT COWBOY: A NEW YORK CITY PORTRAIT

David Stewart·April 19, 2021

Midnight Cowboy (1969) is the only X-rated movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. Now considered an American classic, its release was fraught with controversy, inducing an anti-gay backlash. Seen half a century later, it’s a brilliant snapshot of a...

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RICKIE LEE JONES: THE DUCHESS OF COOLSVILLE IS BACK

Cree McCree·April 12, 2021

Rickie Lee Jones is back in the spotlight with a compelling memoir, Last Chance Texaco, and a 40th anniversary box set and tour to celebrate her landmark release Pirates, the follow-up to her 1979 debut that put her, and her...

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LAURA NYRO: THE MIRACULOUS MAGIC OF HER MUSIC

John Kruth·April 8, 2021

Though Laura Nyro’s songs are familiar to millions of people–through hit versions by Three Dog Night, the 5th Dimension and others–she herself remained in the shadows during her remarkable career as a singer, songwriter, arranger and muse. An elusive and...

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VIN DIESEL, ARTHUR RUSSELL AND ME

Gary Lucas·March 30, 2021

Mixmaster Arthur Russell meets wannabe rapper Mark Sinclair (aka Vin Diesel). What could possibly go wrong? That’s what Gary Lucas thought when he brought these two talents together in a recording studio. At the time, Lucas was an A&R scout...

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DOWNTOWN LIFE: JOHN OATES RECALLS HIS EARLY DAYS IN NYC

Chris Epting·March 22, 2021

When Daryl Hall and John Oates arrived in New York from Philadelphia in 1972, they were a folk-soul duo signed to Atlantic Records. The city, particularly the Downtown scenes at the Mercer Art Center and Max’s Kansas City, would have...

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KID CONGO POWERS: DREAMING ABOUT LUX & POISON IVY, JEFFREY LEE PIERCE AND SEAN DELEAR

Eric Davidson·March 15, 2021

The genial former member of the Gun Club, the Cramps, Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds and a collaborator with just about anyone else cool, Kid Congo Powers has not slowed down since his move to Arizona. His current projects include recordings...

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THE DICTATORS BACK TOGETHER! ANDY SHERNOFF TELLS ALL

David Laing·March 4, 2021

With their irreverent mix of ‘teengenerate’ sarcasm, three-chord garage rock, surf music and party-hearty stage antics, The Dictators presaged New York City’s punk attitude. An eternal favorite of PKM, the band, with a break here and there, ‘coulda been a...

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Jack Kerouac based his muse/lover “Mardou Fox” in The Subterraneans on Alene Lee, a mixed race (Black/Cherokee) bohemian writer and intellectual who was a part of the NYC Beat circle of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lucien Carr. Despite her intimate connection to these writers, the real Alene Lee is nowhere to be found in most accounts and biographies—partly due to her own reticence to speak. Erika Blair did some digging and presents a more rounded portrait of this fascinating woman. Read more!

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SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES

ALL THE RAJ: HOW ‘NORWEGIAN WOOD’ UNLEASHED THE ‘INDIAN INVASION’

THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES

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PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF PKM FOR 2021, PART II

UTOPIA PARKWAY: THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF JOSEPH CORNELL

RUTH UNDERWOOD: A MOTHER OF INVENTION

PRIDE TV: THE QUIET GAY HEROES OF SIXTIES SITCOMS

THE WIFE & DEATH OF SPADE COOLEY, HOLLYWOOD’S KING OF WESTERN SWING

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Best Of

PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF PKM FOR 2021, PART II

UTOPIA PARKWAY: THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF JOSEPH CORNELL

RUTH UNDERWOOD: A MOTHER OF INVENTION

NILS LOFGREN: ROCK’S MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

RELIEF AND RELEASE: REVISITING WENDY O. WILLIAMS & THE PLASMATICS

JACK KEROUAC: BASKING IN THE GOLDEN ETERNITY

LEONARD COHEN, PHIL SPECTOR: DEATH OF LADIES’ MEN

MIDNIGHT COWBOY: A NEW YORK CITY PORTRAIT

RICKIE LEE JONES: THE DUCHESS OF COOLSVILLE IS BACK

LAURA NYRO: THE MIRACULOUS MAGIC OF HER MUSIC

VIN DIESEL, ARTHUR RUSSELL AND ME

DOWNTOWN LIFE: JOHN OATES RECALLS HIS EARLY DAYS IN NYC

KID CONGO POWERS: DREAMING ABOUT LUX & POISON IVY, JEFFREY LEE PIERCE AND SEAN DELEAR

THE DICTATORS BACK TOGETHER! ANDY SHERNOFF TELLS ALL

SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES

ALL THE RAJ: HOW ‘NORWEGIAN WOOD’ UNLEASHED THE ‘INDIAN INVASION’

THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES

POLY STYRENE: BREAKING DOWN THE BONDAGE

WE NEVER LEARN: GUNK PUNK IN THE 1990S