Best Of

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

CHRIS STEIN: HIS PHOTOGRAPHIC POINT OF VIEW

Eric DavidsonFebruary 7, 2019

With his camera eye, Blondie’s guitarist offers a fresh angle on the city where he grew up and the punk scene he documented, in his new book. In a candid conversation with Eric Davidson, he recalls the times when NYC was disheveled but fun, when Lest...

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LOU REED: FREEING THE ROCK & ROLL ANIMAL

Steve KatzJanuary 23, 2019

When Steve Katz, late of Blood Sweat & Tears and the Blues Project, signed on to produce some Lou Reed albums, he discovered that there were two Lou Reeds. The first one was an animal, captured beautifully live, and the second one was a zombie, s...

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MICHAEL CHAIKEN: MAKING BOB DYLAN’S ARCHIVE COME ALIVE

James MarshallJanuary 15, 2019

The Dylan Archive curator’s road to Tulsa was paved with good obsessions, such as free jazz, Godard, the Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker, Norman Mailer and working with Glenn Horowitz. James Marshall hounds out the roadmap in a wide-ranging interview with C...

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CHRIS BELL: A FALLING STAR IN A FLEETING COSMOS

Bruce EatonJanuary 10, 2019

After sketching out the creative blueprint for Memphis-based Big Star, the band that launched a thousand other “power pop” bands, Chris Bell left it in Alex Chilton’s hands after one album. He spent the rest of his short life trying to reclaim that m...

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THE ROAD FROM THE CATACOMBS TO ASTRAL WEEKS: VAN MORRISON’S LOST 1968 TAPE UNEARTHED

Richie UnterbergerJanuary 3, 2019

A recently discovered tape, briefly released by Morrison on iTunes, may be a rock & roll Rosetta stone, serving as the link between Van the sorta-pop star and Van the Man superstar. Richie Unterberger talks to some of those who helped shape that ...

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IT’S ALIVE! THE RAMONES!

Ed StasiumJanuary 2, 2019

Legendary producer Ed Stasium recorded The Ramones It's Alive 41 years ago at the Rainbow Theatre in London – a recording that many regard as one of the best live albums ever. This is his story. All photos by Danny Fields - from December 31, 1977 ...

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Sue Brisk. Untitled I, San Francisco, CA, 1976/77. Courtesy of Sue Brisk.

PUNK LUST AT THE MUSEUM: RAW PROVOCATION

Eric DavidsonDecember 20, 2018

A provocative and entertaining new exhibit at the Museum of Sex in NYC undresses the ‘raw provocation’ that defined the punk era (1971-1985) and planted the seeds for present-day gender deconstruction The Museum of Sex is kind of like the tipsy sing...

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DESIGNING AND LIVING WITH LOU REED: AN INTERVIEW WITH SYLVIA REED

Eric DavidsonDecember 4, 2018

Sylvia Reed - Lou Reed's wife, art designer, manager, and reading partner - offers insights into the most productive period of Lou’s career Sylvia (Morales) Reed was Lou Reed’s wife, but she was also his integral creative half during arguably Lou’s ...

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WOODY WOODMANSEY: THE LAST SPIDER FROM MARS

Robert GourleyNovember 20, 2018

David Bowie’s drummer recalls his time with ‘Ziggy Stardust’, Mick Ronson and Trevor Bolder and now pays tribute, with longtime Bowie associate Tony Visconti, in Holy Holy, touring in 2019 The last surviving member of The Spiders from Mars, drummer ...

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Norman Mailer and Legs McNeil. Photo by Victor Bockris.

NORMAN MAILER MEETS THE RESIDENT PUNK, 1979

Legs McNeilNovember 16, 2018

The great novelist had just published The Executioner’s Song—which would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize—when he sat down with Legs McNeil two days after they had attended a Ramones concert at CBGB. Mailer talks about his experiences with drugs,...

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A LOVE SUPREME: HOW JOHN COLTRANE CHANGED THE WORLD

Alan BisbortNovember 12, 2018

With a single night’s recording session and a 1965 album, “Trane” pointed the way toward a new consciousness not just in music but in all things. Jazz historian Ashley Kahn tells us how and why… Mention the word “jazz” in a roomful of rock & rol...

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DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM: THE RADIO BIRDMAN STORY

Amanda SheppardNovember 9, 2018

Australia’s proto-punk pioneers formed in 1974, were signed by Seymour Stein in 1977, and influenced a generation of Oz rockers by leading a DIY revolution in Sydney. Their story is recounted with gusto in a new documentary film. Amanda Sheppard talk...

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The Day Lemmy Taught Me About Speed

Chris SimunekNovember 5, 2018

Motörhead’s leader holds forth on the joys of the powder, the dangers of heroin, the need for a code of honor and the saving grace of rock & roll It was as incongruous a sight as you could hope to see in the mid-afternoon light of the Burbank Hi...

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LIFE IN FRANK ZAPPA’S PAD, 1968

Pauline Butcher BirdNovember 1, 2018

For a bright and shining moment, the Laurel Canyon ‘log cabin,’ once belonging to Tom Mix, was home to Zappa, his family, his band and staff, and a crossroads to a musical who’s who. An assistant to Zappa tells all… In 1968, Frank Zappa was enjoying...

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Carol Kaye started as a jazz solo guitarist, working the club scene of 1950s LA, when she was asked to work on some studio tracks for Sam Cooke. Though she loved the bebop jazz scene, Carol was a single mother with three kids and so to the studios she went, eventually switching to bass. She ultimately changed the very sound and role of that instrument in pop music as a member of what drummer Hal Blaine dubbed The Wrecking Crew (but which Carol has called The Clique). By any name, these were the session musicians who shaped some of the biggest hits of the 1960s, after which she went back to playing live gigs and working in movies and television, writing and teaching, which she is still doing in her 80s. Michael Shelley talks with the amazing Carol Kaye for PKM. Read more!

Maryjane Calyx on THE GHASTLY ONE: JIMMY MCDONOUGH TALKS ABOUT ANDY MILLIGAN AND HIS TRANSGRESSIVE CINEMAThis article caused me to stop thinking about the stuff I was thinking about; thank you. This struck me as particularly interesting: "an angry, abusive, sex-crazed, often charming, macho queen who was conversely quite conservative, or at least suspicious of those who could experience the freedom flowering of the Sixties
Dorothy on BLOOD NOT SO SIMPLE: CHARLES HARRELSON, WOODY’S DADAwesome insightful article
Stuart Ake on VIOLENT FEMMES: NO NORMAL BANDThanks for the thoughtful and thought-filled piece. I had no idea the Carnegie Hall show loomed large in the history. My NYU dorm mates and I had floor seats 10ish rows back. I had just gotten turned on to Leo Kotke and John Fahey, so I remember being disappointed that

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PETER GREEN: THE END OF THE GAME (RIP)

THE GHASTLY ONE: JIMMY MCDONOUGH TALKS ABOUT ANDY MILLIGAN AND HIS TRANSGRESSIVE CINEMA

BLOOD NOT SO SIMPLE: CHARLES HARRELSON, WOODY’S DAD

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FRED WILLARD WAS FOREVER YOUNG: AND REALLY REALLY OLD

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Best Of

CHRIS STEIN: HIS PHOTOGRAPHIC POINT OF VIEW

LOU REED: FREEING THE ROCK & ROLL ANIMAL

MICHAEL CHAIKEN: MAKING BOB DYLAN’S ARCHIVE COME ALIVE

CHRIS BELL: A FALLING STAR IN A FLEETING COSMOS

THE ROAD FROM THE CATACOMBS TO ASTRAL WEEKS: VAN MORRISON’S LOST 1968 TAPE UNEARTHED

IT’S ALIVE! THE RAMONES!

PUNK LUST AT THE MUSEUM: RAW PROVOCATION

DESIGNING AND LIVING WITH LOU REED: AN INTERVIEW WITH SYLVIA REED

WOODY WOODMANSEY: THE LAST SPIDER FROM MARS

NORMAN MAILER MEETS THE RESIDENT PUNK, 1979

A LOVE SUPREME: HOW JOHN COLTRANE CHANGED THE WORLD

DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM: THE RADIO BIRDMAN STORY

The Day Lemmy Taught Me About Speed

LIFE IN FRANK ZAPPA’S PAD, 1968

PETER GREEN: THE END OF THE GAME (RIP)

THE GHASTLY ONE: JIMMY MCDONOUGH TALKS ABOUT ANDY MILLIGAN AND HIS TRANSGRESSIVE CINEMA

BLOOD NOT SO SIMPLE: CHARLES HARRELSON, WOODY’S DAD

THE DAWNING OF AQUARIUS: AN L.A. ARTIST REVISITS THE 1960S

VIOLENT FEMMES: NO NORMAL BAND