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The latest articles on PleaseKillMe.com – music, art, culture, fashion, poetry and movies from the 60s through today. This Is What’s Cool!

MARISKA VERES: BEYOND ‘VENUS’ AND SHOCKING BLUE

John Kruth·January 21, 2021

One scene in the miniseries The Queen’s Gambit was all it took to put the Dutch rock band Shocking Blue, and the band’s sultry singer, Mariska Veres, back on the media map. You know the scene. The drunken dance-and-crash scene...

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SYLVAIN SYLVAIN: SLEEP BABY DOLL

James Marshall·January 20, 2021

Sylvain Sylvain was the secret weapon of the New York Dolls, the diplomat and cheerleader who held the band together and an underrated musician and songwriter. With his death last week, the world of rock ‘n’ roll lost a true...

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LET THE SUNSHINE IN: THE ENDURING MYTHS OF HAIR

Alan Bisbort·January 19, 2021

Aquarius, the astrological sign, begins tomorrow, Jan. 20, and runs through Feb. 19. It is generally regarded as the most humanitarian zodiac sign, presaging radical change and progress. This aspect of Aquarius was the underpinning of one of the most...

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LABEL CONSCIOUS: EXPLORING ‘LOST’ MUSIC OF THE 1970S

Chris Epting·January 18, 2021

One way to gauge the quality of older rock & roll recordings is by the label that released them. Ork Records, Spy Records, Stiff, Radar, ZE, ESP-Disk and on and on were all marks of if not guaranteed rock &...

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DON VAN VLIET AND FRANK ZAPPA: TWO PEAS IN A MISSHAPEN POD

Gary Lucas·January 14, 2021

Guitarist Gary Lucas found himself smack dab in the middle of two of America’s musical geniuses, Don ‘n’ Frank. Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa were boyhood chums whose fates were inextricably linked, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in...

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THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER: THE HOTTEST OF COLD CASES

Tony Mostrom·January 13, 2021

On January 15 1947, the body of a murder victim was found in a weedy, vacant lot in Los Angeles—the severed body of a beautiful young woman named Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the Black Dahlia. Her mutilated corpse has since launched...

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AS NEEDED FOR ANXIETY: RICHARD KERN’S PHOTOGRAPHS OF PHARMACEUTICAL CHIC

Supervert·January 12, 2021

A unifying thread weaves through the work of ‘trangressive’ filmmaker and photographer Richard Kern. In this interview with his collaborator Supervert (Who’s Your Death Hero?), Kern describes that theme as “things just aren’t as good as they seem.” The kindred...

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LIFE AS A COSMOPOLITAN: GIRLS GONE GO-GO, NYC, 1977-‘82

Jamie K Sims·January 11, 2021

Jamie K. Sims studied music composition and dance at UNC, then moved to New York City in 1977, following hard in the heels of boyfriend Chris Stamey, who earlier had heard the siren call of Alex Chilton and Ork Records....

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MEET THE BEATLES WITH MILES: AN INTERVIEW BY LEGS MCNEIL

Legs McNeil·January 7, 2021

Miles (aka Barry Miles) had a front-row seat to the London underground scene of the 1960s, as a bookseller and gallery co-owner at a time when Beatlemania was morphing into psychedelia. He met and befriended Paul McCartney at his Indica...

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GREGORY CORSO: STREET PUNK & BEAT TURNED POET & PLAYWRIGHT

Alan Bisbort·January 6, 2021

Because he was often seen as a character in one of Kerouac’s writings, Gregory Corso has been given second billing from the main Beat pantheon of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Cassady, Burroughs. A new collection of his plays, published by Tough Poets...

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ALICE BAG: AN L.A. PUNK LEGEND

Lucretia Tye Jasmine·January 5, 2021

Alicia Armendariz (aka Alice Bag) is a Los Angeles punk legend, not just for her groundbreaking first band the Bags (featured in Penelope Spheeris’s Decline of Western Civilization), but for her outspokenness, activism, writings, and embodying the D.I.Y. ethic instilled...

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JIMI HENDRIX IN MAUI: GOING FAR BEYOND RAINBOW BRIDGE

Richie Unterberger·January 4, 2021

We can’t think of any better person to ring in the new year at PKM than Jimi Hendrix. A new documentary investigates the Hawaiian concert that became Rainbow Bridge, and corrects a misperception that Hendrix was losing his creative direction...

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PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF 2020, PART II

PKM Editor·December 30, 2020

Keep that tankard of coffee warm because here’s another bracing batch of 2020’s top stories on Please Kill Me. These include features and interviews on the Cramps front man Lux Interior; the peerless bassist, Gail Ann Dorsey (who played for...

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PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF 2020, PART I

PKM Editor·December 28, 2020

Put another log on the fire, top that tankard of coffee, and kick back with Please Kill Me’s Top stories of 2020…starring Poison Ivy and Lux Interior, united again in a tandem of stories by Ingrid Jensen; the tough-talking Carol...

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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 LONESOME DEATH OF DANNY RAPP: THE FRONT MAN FOR DANNY & THE JUNIORS

VIN DIESEL, ARTHUR RUSSELL AND ME

DIRECTOR KEVIN CONNOR: FROM HELL TO HALLMARK!

All Please Kill Me Posts

MARISKA VERES: BEYOND ‘VENUS’ AND SHOCKING BLUE

SYLVAIN SYLVAIN: SLEEP BABY DOLL

LET THE SUNSHINE IN: THE ENDURING MYTHS OF HAIR

LABEL CONSCIOUS: EXPLORING ‘LOST’ MUSIC OF THE 1970S

DON VAN VLIET AND FRANK ZAPPA: TWO PEAS IN A MISSHAPEN POD

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER: THE HOTTEST OF COLD CASES

AS NEEDED FOR ANXIETY: RICHARD KERN’S PHOTOGRAPHS OF PHARMACEUTICAL CHIC

LIFE AS A COSMOPOLITAN: GIRLS GONE GO-GO, NYC, 1977-‘82

MEET THE BEATLES WITH MILES: AN INTERVIEW BY LEGS MCNEIL

GREGORY CORSO: STREET PUNK & BEAT TURNED POET & PLAYWRIGHT

ALICE BAG: AN L.A. PUNK LEGEND

JIMI HENDRIX IN MAUI: GOING FAR BEYOND RAINBOW BRIDGE

PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF 2020, PART II

PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF 2020, PART I

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