patti smith

In the 1990s, a pro-choice benefit album Choice: The Freedom Remix was set to feature an all-star cast. Years later, the album still hasn’t been fully released, but is as relevant as ever.

From Patti Smith and Joe Strummer to Iggy Pop and Keith Morris, see our list.

In 1991, Anita Hill testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee about being the target of sexual harassment from African-American judge Clarence Thomas at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. The hearings were televised, and Hill’s lurid testimony sent bolts of shock and disgust across an America yet to become completely tabloidized. When this all-white, all-male committee […]

Each month, Alternative Press Gallery explores the work of photographers, directors and other creatives who help shape the music world from behind the scenes. With each issue, we explore the stories behind the shoots and take deep dives into the most compelling media, asking about the vision as well as the happy accidents that create […]

Gratitude is the answer to everything these days. Riot Fest knows that inherently. Across all four days of the festival, that feeling permeated the grounds of Douglas Park. Whether it was Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins professing his love for Chicago several times over or Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne performing from a human hamster ball […]

Music legend Patti Smith makes her return to streaming service Veeps with Live At Electric Lady. The livestream event airs Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. ET. Live At Electric Lady documents Smith’s time working at New York’s storied Electric Lady Studios. In July, the godmother of punk stopped by to record the Live At Electric […]

September 1963: A young R&B combo called the Rolling Stones are rehearsing, preparing for a recording session. Their manager, former Beatles publicist Andrew Loog Oldham, was tearing his hair out. They were about to record their second single, a follow-up to their modestly successful remake of Chuck Berry’s “Come On.” But they had one problem: […]

Alternative Press’ native home of Cleveland, Ohio, stands alongside New York City and London as one of punk’s birthplaces. Yet, few outside of U.K. music journalist Jon Savage, in his crucial ‘70s punk history England’s Dreaming, acknowledge this. But how could Cleveland—a torched-and-trashed post-industrial landscape by the ‘70s, famed for the Cuyahoga River being so […]

This past March 5, the French punk label Guerilla Asso quietly slipped a genius album into the marketplace: Rocket To Kingston, credited to Bobby Ramone. The melding of the isolated vocal tracks from nine of Bob Marley’s most deathless classics to edited Ramones backing tracks, it sounds like a joke on paper. The cover even […]

One of the best things about music is when artists put their own unique spin on iconic songs. Sometimes they change the song’s original genre, swap in new lyrics or reimagine its intent. Modern artists will always cover classic songs, such as twenty one pilots undertaking “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley or Miley Cyrus […]

Welcome back to AltPress Weekly. It’s hard to believe we’re already at our fourth installment of our weekly roundup, which gathers up everything we want you to check out. Each week, we showcase longtime favorite tracks and brand-new cuts. We also focus on all the things happening at Alternative Press, as well as the latest […]

Lester Bangs, the greatest rock journalist ever, felt eternal Lower East Side musical royals the Velvet Underground were “our Beatles and Bob Dylan combined” and that “modern music begins” with them. He wasn’t wrong. They existed only for a handful of years—1965 to 1970. But five years was enough for them to create virtually everything […]

We’re back with the latest AltPress Weekly. Every week, we highlight new things we want you to check out. We call attention to new songs and old hits, classic listens and fresh finds. We’ll also keep you up to date with the latest happenings at Alternative Press, along with the stories we keep coming back […]

Since the world first became aware that there is such a thing as punk, there’s been a nonstop argument about its birthplace. The clueless mainstream media reported for years that it began in England, simply because the Sex Pistols’ snarl was more extreme. Which royally pissed off New York City, the first place to essentially […]

Welcome to the second installment of AltPress Weekly. Each week, we’ll cover new things we want you to check out. We’ll shout out fresh song drops and vintage finds, highlighting longtime favorites and brand-new discoveries. We’ll also feature the stories we can’t stop thinking about, along with all of the goings-on here at Alternative Press. […]

Before there was Amy Lee, Lzzy Hale, Taylor Momsen and Maria Brink, there was Joan Jett, Patti Smith, Poly Styrene and Kathleen Hanna. Generation after generation, these rock stars and others in their position have dreaded receiving what has become an inevitable label of “female-led,” “female-fronted,” “women in rock” or “female rock.” While all of […]

Alongside Hank Williams, Bob Dylan is arguably the greatest American songwriter of the 20th century. Last year’s blues-drenched Rough And Rowdy Ways proved that he’s hardly lost any of his gifts in this century, even as he approached his 80th birthday this past May 24. But the minute he walked into New York’s Columbia Studio […]

When searching a bookstore for music memoirs, it’s likely that the shelves are packed with men such as Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash and Keith Richards. While it may seem that there are fewer books written by or about women musicians, they are growing in numbers. Women in the music industry refuse to be silenced, and, […]

Garbage have made their long-awaited return with their fiery new single “The Men Who Rule The World.” For the anthemic rock track, the band take no prisoners as they call out the misogyny, sexism and racism that is evident around the world. The biting new single is off of their first full-length album in nearly […]