Songs, recording rooms, rivalries and rock mythology—separating documented history from the stories that grew around it.
Jason Molina Was Still Making Plans
The songwriter behind Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. could fill a room with music. During his last years, the people who loved him kept trying to bring him back into one.
Gene Clark and the House on Middle Ridge
Gene Clark found a home on the Mendocino coast while writing some of his most ambitious songs. Years later, his son Kai learned those songs alongside memories of the father he’d missed.
Syd Barrett After the Band Went On
The friends who could no longer play with him, the songs he still wanted to make, and the sister who kept his pictures.
Badfinger Had Already Made It
Pete Ham and his bandmates had the hits, the songs and the Beatles’ support. Their recollections trace the gap between Badfinger’s success and the money they could actually reach.
Ian Curtis and the Bookshop He Never Opened
Joy Division’s singer lent records to his bandmates, filled notebooks with lyrics and once talked of opening a shop with his wife. The people around him remembered a life larger than the tragedy that ended it.
Courtney, Kurt and Billy
Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan made music through romance and rivalry. Their recollections lead from a backstage joke in 1991 to a collaboration that kept surviving its quarrels.
