Best Of

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

WELCOME TO THE TRIDENT: WHERE YOU COULD GET ANYTHING YOU WANT

Benito VilaNovember 25, 2019

From its waterfront perch in Sausalito, the Trident’s clientele could see the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge. The club/restaurant was “a trippy space ship” whose passengers just happened to be a Who’s Who of rock & roll (the Sto...

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THE DEATH OF COUNTRY DICK MONTANA & THE BALLAD OF DAN MCLAIN

Burt KearnsNovember 12, 2019

Once described as ‘half Waylon and half Johnny Rotten,’ Dan McLain was a mortal drummer from San Diego who transformed himself into Country Dick Montana, driving force for the Beat Farmers and Pleasure Barons. It was while performing with the Beat Fa...

All Please Kill Me PostsBest OfBurt KearnsCool PeopleHistoryR.I.P.0 Comments 7

BJ PAPAS: FROM NY HARDCORE TO LA PUNK – SHE’S SHOT THEM ALL

Sharon M. HannonNovember 6, 2019

Photographer BJ Papas started out shooting the New York hardcore scene—bands like Agnostic Front, the Bad Brains and their audiences. A fan and friend of the bands, she started going to hardcore Sunday matinees at CBGB when she was in college, then h...

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David Johansen / Shawn Cassidy image by Bob Gruen

PANYC ATTACK: CAMILLA SALY’S LIVING HISTORY OF NYC PUNK

Eric DavidsonOctober 30, 2019

Camilla Saly turned her wild stories of a misspent youth in punk bars, and their eventual boxes of ephemeral proof, into the Punk Archives NYC, a developing online database for collectors of punk artifacts related to the city. Camilla talked with Eri...

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THE JOY OF DESOLATION: TAKING PUNK ROCK TO THE DESERT

Richie UnterbergerOctober 16, 2019

Putting on punk shows in Los Angeles in the early 1980s became near to impossible with the lack of venues and police harassment of those events that did manage to find one. So a young promoter, Stuart Swezey, took bands like Redd Kross, the Minutemen...

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WHEN JACK KEROUAC HAD HIS CRACK-UP

Paul Maher, JrOctober 8, 2019

Spiraling down a silo of despair and drunkenness in the wake of his On The Road/Dharma Bums celebrity as ‘king of the Beats’, Jack Kerouac longed for a safe haven. Poet/publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti heeded the call, loaning Kerouac his cabin at Big...

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THE MURDER OF ALFALFA

Burt KearnsAugust 27, 2019

Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer was the most popular star of the classic Our Gang comedies. But the facts of the Little Rascal’s untimely death have been clouded in Hollywood Babylon myth... until Burt Kearns & Jeff Abraham started digging. by Burt Kearn...

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GARY PANTER: LIFE AFTER PUNK & PEE WEE

Eric DavidsonAugust 19, 2019

Raised in Texas, artist Gary Panter moved to L.A. in the late 1970s and made an immediate mark on the L.A. punk scene with his now iconic poster for the Screamers, among many other fliers, posters and comic strips in Slash. But his amazingly varied a...

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BE KIND TO ME: THE MUSIC AND ART OF MICHAEL HURLEY

Gregory DaurerAugust 7, 2019

Michael Hurley could be called the godfather, or grandfather, of ‘freak-folk” but the Oregon-based singer, songwriter, artist and storyteller’s roots go back to his childhood in rural Pennsylvania and early forays into New York City, where he found k...

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MY BOYS: STERLING LORD ON JACK KEROUAC, LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI AND KEN KESEY

Benito VilaJuly 22, 2019

The longtime publishing insider and agent Sterling Lord is still keeping the Beat flames burning for Kerouac, Ferlinghetti and Kesey. PKM's Benito Vila spent a memorable day in New York with the 99-year-old prince of letters, the man to whom Jack Ker...

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VIVIEN GOLDMAN AND REVENGE OF THE SHE-PUNKS

Eric DavidsonJuly 8, 2019

From her pre-punk perch as a record company publicist and journalist in London, Vivien Goldman immersed herself in the sounds that most moved her--reggae and then punk--and began making music of her own. She was the author of the first books on Bob M...

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‘WHERE’S THE BAG, MR. KARDASHIAN?’: OR, HOW I EXPOSED O.J. SIMPSON’S ACCOMPLICE AND SET THE STAGE FOR A TV EMPIRE

Burt KearnsJuly 3, 2019

Four weeks after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, a tabloid news producer made a discovery that stunned the world and turned a family name into a billion-dollar brand. Twenty-five years later, Burt Kearns tells the story of his gr...

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ON THE ROAD WITH BOB DYLAN, REVISITED: A ROLLING THUNDER REVUE STORY

Larry Ratso SlomanJuly 1, 2019

Larry Sloman covered the Rolling Thunder Revue for Rolling Stone, and he got more than he bargained for, including his nickname "Ratso," courtesy Joan Baez. He shares some amazing memories with PKM from his time in the front row of rock & roll hi...

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HERE’S WHY KAREN CARPENTER MATTERS

Alan BisbortJune 20, 2019

The singing/drumming half of the 1970s' hitmakers the Carpenters died at age 32 in 1983 of health issues related to anorexia. As popular as she was in her lifetime, Karen Carpenter has, according to a new book, Why Karen Carpenter Matters, “generated...

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Joe Shmo on JOHN PEEL: HIS LIFE AND MUSICAL LEGACYTo be fair , John was an opportunist and in the right place at the right time from his employment in Texas to his tenure at the Beeb. He appealed to white boys who lived in the suburbs and the wide open spaces , many of whom didn't have access
Marina Lutz on HOW I LOST MY VIRGINITY TO STIV BATORSThanks Alicia! Maybe 2020 they will pay me to write something else. Meanwhile you can watch my film at https://themarinaexperiment.com/ - I'm making a new doc this year.
Marina Lutz on HOW I LOST MY VIRGINITY TO STIV BATORSThank you Tomas! I will, if they pay me!

All Posts

KINKY 101: LIFE ADVICE FROM DOMINATRIXES

JOHN PEEL: HIS LIFE AND MUSICAL LEGACY

TELSTAR: THE SONG, AND THE FUTURE THAT NEVER WAS

Best Of

WELCOME TO THE TRIDENT: WHERE YOU COULD GET ANYTHING YOU WANT

THE DEATH OF COUNTRY DICK MONTANA & THE BALLAD OF DAN MCLAIN

BJ PAPAS: FROM NY HARDCORE TO LA PUNK – SHE’S SHOT THEM ALL

Best Of

WELCOME TO THE TRIDENT: WHERE YOU COULD GET ANYTHING YOU WANT

THE DEATH OF COUNTRY DICK MONTANA & THE BALLAD OF DAN MCLAIN

BJ PAPAS: FROM NY HARDCORE TO LA PUNK – SHE’S SHOT THEM ALL

PANYC ATTACK: CAMILLA SALY’S LIVING HISTORY OF NYC PUNK

THE JOY OF DESOLATION: TAKING PUNK ROCK TO THE DESERT

WHEN JACK KEROUAC HAD HIS CRACK-UP

THE MURDER OF ALFALFA

GARY PANTER: LIFE AFTER PUNK & PEE WEE

BE KIND TO ME: THE MUSIC AND ART OF MICHAEL HURLEY

MY BOYS: STERLING LORD ON JACK KEROUAC, LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI AND KEN KESEY

VIVIEN GOLDMAN AND REVENGE OF THE SHE-PUNKS

‘WHERE’S THE BAG, MR. KARDASHIAN?’: OR, HOW I EXPOSED O.J. SIMPSON’S ACCOMPLICE AND SET THE STAGE FOR A TV EMPIRE

ON THE ROAD WITH BOB DYLAN, REVISITED: A ROLLING THUNDER REVUE STORY

HERE’S WHY KAREN CARPENTER MATTERS

KINKY 101: LIFE ADVICE FROM DOMINATRIXES

JOHN PEEL: HIS LIFE AND MUSICAL LEGACY

TELSTAR: THE SONG, AND THE FUTURE THAT NEVER WAS