POLY STYRENE: BREAKING DOWN THE BONDAGE
A new documentary film, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, clears up some of the mystery around the...
Richie Unterberger
BOOGALOO DOWN BROADWAY: WHEN FANIA RECORDS FUSED SOUL MUSIC WITH LATIN RHYTHMS AND MELODIES
Fania Records is mostly known as a superpower of salsa, issuing records by some of salsa’s biggest names,...
LENI SINCLAIR AND THE MOTOR CITY UNDERGROUND
In 1959, Leni Sinclair—born Magdalene Arndt—left a West Berlin refugee camp bound for Detroit, where relatives lived. A...
‘OUR KID’: MIKE MCCARTNEY CAPTURES THE EARLY BEATLES ON FILM
Paul McCartney’s younger brother, Michael, had a front row seat during the early days of the Quarrymen and...
ARTHUR BROWN’S CRAZY WORLD: TIME HAS COME FOR KINGDOM COME
Arthur Brown, after announcing to the world, in 1969, “I am the god of hellfire…,” climbed the charts...
IRA ROBBINS: TROUSER PRESS, LASTING IMPACT & LIFE THEREAFTER
Ira Robbins began publishing Trouser Press in 1974 for all the right reasons: love of music on the...
WHEN CAN I FLY?: MICHAEL BELFER, THE SLEEPERS AND TUXEDOMOON
Michael Belfer and his Bay Area-based bands the Sleepers and Tuxedomoon were mainstays, along with Crime, of the...
ELDRIDGE CLEAVER: A SOUL FOREVER ON ICE
Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998) was an enigma. The former Black Panther, revolutionary and author was also a murderer, rapist,...
JONI MITCHELL: THE FIRST FIVE YEARS
Despite being regarded as one of her generation’s greatest singer-songwriters, Joni Mitchell labored in relative obscurity for years...
JIMI HENDRIX IN MAUI: GOING FAR BEYOND RAINBOW BRIDGE
We can’t think of any better person to ring in the new year at PKM than Jimi Hendrix....
ROSE SIMPSON: LIFE IN THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND
The Incredible String Band was best-known as the vehicle for the otherworldly talents of Mike Heron and Robin...
HANGING WITH GHOSTS: ADELE BERTEI ON PETER LAUGHNER
Peter Laughner is one of those ‘what could have been’ rock & roll stories, and nobody knew that...
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY: THE ORIGINAL LINDA LAFLAMME REMEMBERS
It’s A Beautiful Day, with their soaring, unforgettable “White Bird,” were an anomaly among bands of the San...
HARLEM OF THE WEST: SAN FRANCISCO’S FILLMORE DISTRICT
Before the hippies swarmed in to reshape America’s counterculture—and before the city embarked on a disastrous urban renewal...