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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!

HIS LIPS ARE SEALED: THE DEATH OF SONNY FRANZESE, NEW YORK’S LAST OLD SCHOOL MOBSTER

Mark Jacobson·March 24, 2020

When Sonny Franzese died last month at age 103, he was the last living remnant of the New York Mafia from its heyday. A feared enforcer and dictatorial head of the Profaci (later Colombo) family, he knew where all the...

All Please Kill Me Posts Best Of Crime History Mark Jacobson

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5 MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES THAT YOU CAN STREAM RIGHT NOW

Robyn Hale·March 20, 2020

Looking for something to do while you’re stuck inside due to COVID–19? Pick up that remote or put your laptop on your lap, grab a blanket and a snack and tune in to these 5 music documentaries that you can...

All Please Kill Me Posts Documentary Film Musicians Robyn Hale

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JAH WOBBLE: TUNED TO THE POWER OF THE UNIVERSE

Robert Gourley·March 19, 2020

A school mate of John Lydon’s, Jah Wobble (John Wardle) was still a teenager when he joined Public Image, Ltd., and he learned bass on the fly. Not a huge fan of punk—though he did like the Sex Pistols—Wobble embarked...

All Please Kill Me Posts Interviews Musicians Robert Gourley

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IN THE STREET WITH NICK TOSCHES (RIP), ROCK SCRIBE, NOVELIST AND MASTER OF ‘STUDYIN’ NOTHIN’

Bob Pomeroy·March 18, 2020

Bob Pomeroy met Nick Tosches on a Manhattan sidewalk bench. Prior to that, Pomeroy had collected, read and reread the writer’s inimitable works, like Hellfire, his biography of Jerry Lee Lewis; Unsung Heroes of Rock ‘n’ Roll; Country: The Biggest...

All Please Kill Me Posts Bob Pomeroy Books Cool People R.I.P.

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FRIED & JUSTIFIED: INSIDE THE POST-PUNK YEARS (1978-98) WITH MICK HOUGHTON

Richie Unterberger·March 17, 2020

Mick Houghton came of age as a pop music ‘obsessive’ in the 1960s. By the 1970s, he was a pop music industry insider. His previous books—biographies of Sandy Denny and Elektra’s Jac Holzman—were from a fan/journalist perspective. His new memoir,...

All Please Kill Me Posts Books History Interviews Richie Unterberger

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KATHY VALENTINE: ALL SHE EVER WANTED

Amy Haben·March 16, 2020

Kathy Valentine was born with a rock ‘n’ roll heart, so it was no surprise to find herself playing bass in the Go-Go’s, whose first album Beauty and the Beat (1981) was one of the most successful debuts in pop...

All Please Kill Me Posts Amy Haben Books Cool People Interviews Musicians

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THE PUZZLING CASE OF PATTI SMITH: GROUNDBREAKER, ‘GODMOTHER OF PUNK’ AND YOUR MOM’S FAVORITE AUTHOR

Billy Hough·March 12, 2020

Patti Smith has been one of Billy Hough’s “Ride-or-Die” favorites ever since he heard her debut album, Horses. In his inimitable style, Billy muses on and marvels about the poet, playwright, author, musician and icon; he also messes with her...

All Please Kill Me Posts Best Of Billy Hough Cool People Musicians

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LAUNCHING WARHOL AND POP ART: WALTER HOPPS AND HIS FERUS GALLERY

Tony Mostrom·March 11, 2020

As we enter a new Roaring Twenties, let’s recall two renegade art dealers who kickstarted modern art back in the Swinging Sixties: Walter Hopps and Irving Blum of Ferus, the L.A. gallery that launched Pop Art and the young (guess...

All Please Kill Me Posts Anthony Mostrom Art Galleries History

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MY OWN PRIVATE ORWELL

Alan Bisbort·March 10, 2020

George Orwell died over 70 years ago. It would be hard to find another writer of his generation who had as profound an influence on, and prophetic accuracy about, the world we now inhabit. David Bowie, The Jam, Eurythmics, Radiohead,...

Alan Bisbort All Please Kill Me Posts Books Cool People History

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KICKING ASH: FRANK SECICH OF BLUE ASH AND DEAD BOYS, REVISITS HIS POWER POP ROOTS

Eric Davidson·March 9, 2020

Signed to Mercury the same time as the New York Dolls, Ohio-based Blue Ash was part of a pre-punk wave pushing against the pretentions and bloat of 1970s rock & roll, along with Big Star, the Raspberries, the Records, and...

All Please Kill Me Posts Cool People Eric Davidson Interviews Musicians

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HOW SWEET TO BE NEIL INNES (RIP)

Burt Kearns·March 5, 2020

Neil Innes, one of the true gentlemen of rock & roll, died at the end of 2019. A founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, collaborator with Monty Python (he was called ‘The Seventh Python’) and the Beatles...

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

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BODY SLAM: PRO WRESTLING VS. ROCK & ROLL, A CAGE MATCH

Fiona McQuarrie·March 4, 2020

The influence of professional wrestling on the music industry has seldom been examined. Consider, for starters, the rock bands whose members prance menacingly around stages in masks and clownish apparel—from Kiss and Insane Clown Posse to the Residents and GWAR....

All Please Kill Me Posts Fiona McQuarrie Musicians

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TAQUILA MOCKINGBIRD: KEEPING PUNK HISTORY ALIVE IN L.A.

Lucretia Tye Jasmine·March 3, 2020

Taquila Mockingbird developed a following in LA with her various bands (punk and jazz) beginning in 1977, and she became a fixture on the LA punk scene when, from 1980-1984, she booked acts as Do Monkey Productions with Richard Skidmore...

All Please Kill Me Posts Best Of Interviews Lucretia Tye Jasmine Musicians

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WINTER KILLS: HOW THE JFK ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY THEORIES DROVE A NATION INSANE

Mark Jacobson·March 2, 2020

Based on a novel by Richard Condon, the feature film Winter Kills (1979) reimagined the JFK assassination and the paranoia unleashed by that history-changing event, as black comedy. Though a New York Times‘ critic compared it to Citizen Kane, the...

All Please Kill Me Posts Film History

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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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All Please Kill Me Posts

HIS LIPS ARE SEALED: THE DEATH OF SONNY FRANZESE, NEW YORK’S LAST OLD SCHOOL MOBSTER

5 MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES THAT YOU CAN STREAM RIGHT NOW

JAH WOBBLE: TUNED TO THE POWER OF THE UNIVERSE

IN THE STREET WITH NICK TOSCHES (RIP), ROCK SCRIBE, NOVELIST AND MASTER OF ‘STUDYIN’ NOTHIN’

FRIED & JUSTIFIED: INSIDE THE POST-PUNK YEARS (1978-98) WITH MICK HOUGHTON

KATHY VALENTINE: ALL SHE EVER WANTED

THE PUZZLING CASE OF PATTI SMITH: GROUNDBREAKER, ‘GODMOTHER OF PUNK’ AND YOUR MOM’S FAVORITE AUTHOR

LAUNCHING WARHOL AND POP ART: WALTER HOPPS AND HIS FERUS GALLERY

MY OWN PRIVATE ORWELL

KICKING ASH: FRANK SECICH OF BLUE ASH AND DEAD BOYS, REVISITS HIS POWER POP ROOTS

HOW SWEET TO BE NEIL INNES (RIP)

BODY SLAM: PRO WRESTLING VS. ROCK & ROLL, A CAGE MATCH

TAQUILA MOCKINGBIRD: KEEPING PUNK HISTORY ALIVE IN L.A.

WINTER KILLS: HOW THE JFK ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY THEORIES DROVE A NATION INSANE

ORK RECORDS: STARTING AN INDIE-ROCK REVOLUTION ONE SINGLE AT A TIME

Paulo César Gadioli: How PKM Changed My Life

THE STOOGES – PART 1: THE THREE CHORD TRAIN TO HELL

RICHARD HELL: THE PAST AND PRESENT OF DESTINY STREET

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