Best Of Archives

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

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

Benito Vila·November 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...

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THEE BIRD MAN: RIC OCASEK

Bebe Buell·November 14, 2019

Ever since Ric Ocasek died two months ago (on Sept. 15), Bebe Buell has been trying to process the loss of one of her dearest friends and the guiding force of her own musical career. Even while Ocasek was steering...

All Please Kill Me Posts Bebe Buell Best Of Cool People Musicians R.I.P.

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

Burt Kearns·November 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...

All Please Kill Me Posts Best Of Burt Kearns Cool People History R.I.P.

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

Sharon M. Hannon·November 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...

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David Johansen / Shawn Cassidy image by Bob Gruen

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

Eric Davidson·October 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...

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NICO: THERE SHE GOES AGAIN, A MEDITATION ON DEATH, BEAUTY AND ARTISTRY

Billy Hough·October 24, 2019

Nico (Christa Paffgen) was many things to many different people, including Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Alain Delon and numerous other collaborators. But to performance artist Billy Hough, Nico was “the most underrated/overexposed tornado in the Holy...

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THE JOY OF DESOLATION: TAKING PUNK ROCK TO THE DESERT

Richie Unterberger·October 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...

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WHEN JACK KEROUAC HAD HIS CRACK-UP

Paul Maher, Jr·October 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...

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JABBERJAW: WHEN AN L.A. CLUB CREATED ITS OWN SCENE

Lucretia Tye Jasmine·October 1, 2019

What started as an all-ages coffee bar and acoustic venue in 1989 turned into a must-play showcase for local and out of town bands. Jabberjaw’s roster included L7, Bikini Kill, Iggy Pop, Elliott Smith, Hole, Beck, and many others. In...

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ROGER MCGUINN: A NOTORIOUS BYRD BROTHER FINDS PEACE

Larry Ratso Sloman·September 16, 2019

Roger McGuinn, as a founding member and guiding force of The Byrds, had a huge impact on rock ‘n’ roll of the 1960s, before embarking on a long and distinguished solo career that continues today. His fellow member of the...

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THE MURDER OF ALFALFA

Burt Kearns·August 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...

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GARY PANTER: LIFE AFTER PUNK & PEE WEE

Eric Davidson·August 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...

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

Gregory Daurer·August 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 kindred spirits...

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

Benito Vila·July 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...

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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

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

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

PRIDE TV: THE QUIET GAY HEROES OF SIXTIES SITCOMS

WERE WE ALL BRAINWASHED BY THE CIA WITH SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK & ROLL?

Best Of

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

THEE BIRD MAN: RIC OCASEK

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

NICO: THERE SHE GOES AGAIN, A MEDITATION ON DEATH, BEAUTY AND ARTISTRY

THE JOY OF DESOLATION: TAKING PUNK ROCK TO THE DESERT

WHEN JACK KEROUAC HAD HIS CRACK-UP

JABBERJAW: WHEN AN L.A. CLUB CREATED ITS OWN SCENE

ROGER MCGUINN: A NOTORIOUS BYRD BROTHER FINDS PEACE

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

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