Amanda Sheppard

At age 20, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat emerged from the downtown scene with a budding sophistication equally rooted in abstract expressionism and the post-punk, no-wave, hip-hop, graffiti grit of the Mudd Club avant-garde. His handsome looks and downtown swagger made him an overnight celebrity, and his bold colors and raw sophistication made his work a favorite among collectors. His proud veneration of Black heroes and his unflinching criticism of racism and class disparity made the WASPy New...

Before living guitar legend Billy Gibbons led the hard bearded bluesy shuffle of the Houston power trio of ZZ Top into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he cut his teeth on the sunny, fuzzed-out, teenage psychedelia of the Moving Sidewalks. The Sidewalks scored a hit single in 1967 with “99th Floor,” recorded the album Flash for Wand records, opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and claimed their place in Texas psych rock history alongside their heroes The 13th Floor Elevators.
Austin 1965, a ...

R&b singer Richard Berry doo-wopped onto the LA music scene in 1953 as part of his high school group The Flairs, three years before Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers became a household name and two years before Little Richard howled across the Billboard pop charts. It was a time when radio was segregated, and r&b was branded “Race Music” as a warning label to pearl-clutching conservative white America and played on separate stations. Berry had a passion for singing and songwriting and an impres...

British singer-songwriter, one-time Riot Grrrl, and Daisy Chainsaw and Queenadreena frontwoman, Katie Jane Garside, is back with her new album, Geiger Counter, from her latest project, liar, flower. Amanda Sheppard spoke with her for PKM.
Proclaimed by Courtney Love as one of the original Riot Grrrls, Katie Jane Garside first buzzed onto the UK charts in the early Nineties as the ethereal frontwoman and enfant terrible of the alternative rock group, Daisy Chainsaw. Doe-eyed Katie Jane growled...

If there was a Mount Rushmore for reggae, Lee “Scratch” Perry’s would be one of faces carved on it. The producer-songwriter-musician-singer, now 83, rose through the ranks of the Jamaican music industry, working with other Rushmore candidates like Coxsone Dodd, Joe Gibbs and Bob Marley before striking out on his own with his Upsetter label. Since the 1970s, Perry has worked with everyone from the Wailers to Keith Richards to Ari Up and has a new album, Heavy Rain, that features Brian Eno, amo...

The legendary musical outfit Swans—a revolving cast of inspired players centered around Michael Gira—has resurfaced with a new album, Leaving Meaning, and an upcoming 2020 tour. In his conversation with Amanda Sheppard, Gira covers much of the ground of his career, from art school in LA with Kim Gordon, living on nothing in ‘Alphabet City,’ sharing rehearsal space with Madonna and his eclectic influences like J.G. Ballard, Glenn Branca and Nico.
Throughout the 1980s, Swans pummeled audiences ...

Mike Watt is the Dale Carnegie of rock & roll. He has made more friends and influenced more people than any living bass man, collaborating with everyone from Iggy Pop and J. Mascis to Kathleen Hanna and the late Daniel Johnston (RIP). But he still has a special place in his heart for the band with which he launched his career, The Minutemen. His latest band is called the Missingmen and, as usual, the only way to catch up with Watt is on the road. Amanda Sheppard caught up with him, and bandma...

Countercultural anthropologist and founding member of Blue Cheer, V. Vale has documented the 1970s San Francisco punk scene and explored the subcultures of industrial music, body modification, and more with his Search and Destroy zine and RE/Search book series. He is still exploring new ways of expression and shocking Jesse Helms’ ghost on a daily basis forty years later. Amanda Sheppard spoke with V. Vale for PKM.

Armed with a carefree spirit and a degree in English Lit from UC Berkeley, wri...

Peter Murphy has reunited with David J., to perform their dark fusion of glam, cabaret, rock and reggae on the career-spanning Ruby Anniversary tour. PKM spoke to Murphy about the tour and playing his “miserable” hometown of Northampton, his experience working with Mick Karn on InGladAloneness before he passed away, his thoughts on dying, his upcoming album and San Francisco Residency, and more.

It has been 40 years since Bauhaus first burst onto the UK music scene, rapidly evolving into some...

The bass player and biographer of the beloved post-punk band [Who Killed Mister Moonlight: Bauhaus, Black Magick, and Benediction] talks about his affinity for the Beats, friendships with William S. Burroughs, John Giorno and Jim Carroll, his time in Love and Rockets, collaborations with Duende and Alan Moore, the ghost of original producer Derek Tompkins, the release of a new single for Record Store Day and his reunion with Peter Murphy

David J., the impish bass player behind those Ray Bans ...

A new documentary on legendary band The Sonics by Jordan Albertsen opens a window on the rich and influential legacy of garage rock in the Pacific Northwest, and the role of visionary label owner and manager Buck Ormsby in shaping that sound. A sound which had such an influence on local musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Nancy Wilson, Mark Arm, and many others. Amanda Sheppard talked to Albertsen about the ten-year process of making his film.

In 1963, before The Stooges and even the MC5, five teena...

Writer, producer, Poptone drummer, and co-founding member of Tones On Tail and Love And Rockets takes us back to his Bauhaus roots with The Bela Session EP and his new coffee table book, Bauhaus Undead and teases a few hints at what he has in store for 2019!

Kevin Haskins, the elusive Bauhaus drummer is quietly powerful behind his placid, penetrating expression. The jazz trained boyish younger Haskins brother who drew more inspiration from Stephen Morris than Gene Krupa paid his dues in bands...

Psychedelic Sixties’ Bay Area survivors the Chocolate Watchband cut their teeth on bills with the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead but went their own way with their heavier British Invasion sound over the past half century… and they have a new album out for 2019!

The Chocolate Watchband, San Jose’s psychedelic proto-punks, set themselves apart from their Bay Area garage-rock peers, The Count Five and the Syndicate Of Sound with a heavier, trippier take on the British Invasion.

The fiv...

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 talks with director Jonathan Sequeira.
In 1974, when bands in Australia were still wearing jumpsuits and faux glam rockers Skyhooks were all the rage, proto-punk pioneers Radio Birdman blew the doors off Sydney’s post-hippie music scene. With the Stoo...

Only in LA, it seems, could a former US Marine, World War II hero and alleged bankrobber, transform himself into a natural foods restaurateur, polygamous leader of a hippie cult and vocalist for an experimental rock band, Ya Ho Wha 13

Father Yod was a 1970s cult leader who fronted the experimental psych rock band, Ya Ho Wha 13 and owned The Source, a raw vegetarian eatery on the Sunset Strip. The Source was a hit with Hollywood A-listers and staffed with members of Father Yod’s spiritual fami...