One of the main reasons why I listen to the music I do is back…on-line and soon to be back in print! For those of you under 30 who probably don’t remember, Creem was the quintessential rock and roll magazine. Spin, Rolling Stone, Blender…they’re all just retarted fashion magazines but Creem was the real deal. It kind of went downhill towards the end of the 80s, but from the looks of its website… http://www.creemmagazine.com/index.html it’s gonna be awesome!
You’re not alone, brother!
America’s ONLY Rock and Roll Magazine!
I read it for years through the 70s and 80s until they got bought and redesigned.
Eleganza, the Caption Writers Hut, and all the greatness that was Lester Bangs!
Here’s hoping they do it right!
I’m hoping enough people still care about rockandroll to keep it going.
Was Boy Hody beer a real product or just a prop? I always wanted a can of the stuff.
My interest in popular music ended about the same time Creem started going down hill. I was introduced to people like Lou Reed, David Bowie and other artists through it’s pages during my high school days though. Think I even have several issues somewhere in my storage locker.
Never read this magazine before, too young, and too Scandinavian. Though I’m quite fond of Lester Bang’s writings, which are available in book form at my local library.
But this review of the best of Guided by Voices compilation and box set doesn’t bode well. Managing to implement every goddamn annoying GBV review cliché there is, like for example: “a handful of gems and a handful of something that resembles what just came out of your dog,” and “hell, he’ll have finished writing an album by the time I am done writing this review.” Man, that’s original. And the first paragraph is so revoltingly patronizing it makes the news section of fucking Pitchforkmedia.com (the most wince inducing thing on the Internet) feel like alphabet lessons on Sesame Street. At least the writer had the self control – or common decency – to restrain himself from mentioning the tired fluff piece fact that Bob was a fourth grade teacher once. Fitting that the writers name is Luke Hackney. What a mess.
Can’t say the rest of the reviews I’ve read up until now are much better, the writers seem to like everything, reminds me of NME. Is it the same people who ran the magazine in the 70’s, or is it mostly new guys?
It looks like some of the top people were involved in the mag way back when. But I’m betting the Joe Blow journalists are going to be kids. They don’t seem to have backing from one of the big publishing houses so they’re going to be on a shoestring.
I just hope John Mendelssohn comes back. He was brilliant.
See, though, when I was growing up, Creem was the only cool rock mag you could get at the corner store. The only other choices were Hit Parader or Circus…which were fine if all you wanted to do was look at pictures of Rob Halford or Robert Plant, or Lita Ford…well, OK…I like looking at Lita Ford, but thats not the point. CREEM was THE SHIT if you wanted wanted to learn about really cool stuff that none of your friends knew about like Iggy or The Dictators, and towards the end, they also put out THRASH METAL magazine, that contrary to its name, brought everyone from Dr. Know, Soul Asylum and The Circle Jerks to the masses. There were other magazines that were probably better, like Trouser Press, but Creem just had that coolness to it.
Even when I went through those Orthodox Punk years in my teens and early twentys, I still bought Creem every month, even though I hated most of the bands they featured.
Maybe you had to be there, but I can’t wait till it hits the news stands.
As a kid I’d flip through issues of Creem at the supermarket and bust a rib laughing at the photo captions.
Oh, I loved this magazine. I used to buy it the day it came out and read it cover to cover. I had back issues stacked up to the ceiling of my closet.
What I really loved about it was the range of music it covered. As a junior high school kid in love with “new wave” in the early 1980s, Creem was a fantastic resource. Anyone else remember their “Guide to New Wave”? There are bands I would probably to this day never have heard of without it.
I doubt it will ever be as good as it was, but still, nice to see it back.
I’m with you Torgo…I bought it religiously to pee my pants over the captions…I still have scads of them in scrapbooks somewhere goofing on The Stones, Aerosmith, and Zep(my favorite bands then, and my favorite bands now.)
Loved the mag. Hope it isn’t a lame watered down version. But alas, nothing is ever as good as one remembers it from one’s youth. Sigh.
I wrote an email to the new top dog over there mentioning the Caption Writers Hut and he replied to me! He was in disbelief that I knew about that.
Man, 1980 was a great time to be 13.
It was a pretty cool time to be 15 too Jonathan 
He replied huh? How cool!
One I can remember right off the top of my head is Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall both wearing shades in a limo circa 1981. Mick’s leaning over her giving the photographer the finger as she’s laughing uproarously. The caption read:
Pardon me, but it’s terribly difficult being rich, famous, and in love with someone who has teeth like a horse."
Or something pretty damn close. Heh.