Creem (often stylized in all caps) is an American rock music magazine and entertainment company, founded in Detroit, whose initial print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential critic Lester Bangs served as the magazine's editor from 1971 to 1976. It suspended production in 1989 but attained a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a tabloid. In June 2022, Creem was relaunched as a digital archive, website, weekly newsletter, and quarterly print edition.[1]
The magazine is noted for having been an early champion of various heavy metal, punk rock, new wave and alternative bands, especially bands based in Detroit. The term "punk rock" was coined in the May 1971 issue of Creem, in Dave Marsh's Looney Tunes column about ? and the Mysterians. That same issue is sometimes credited with having originated the term "heavy metal" as well;[2] in fact, the term had been used earlier, though Creem did help to popularize the term throughout the 1970s.
History
In the winter of 1969, Barry Kramer owned the Detroit record store Full Circle, as well as Mixed Media, a head shop/bookstore, and was an unsuccessful concert promoter and band manager. After the local alternative paper rejected a concert review he had written, he decided to start publishing his own paper. Tony Reay, a clerk at Kramer's record store, became its first editor, and came up with its name, a tribute to his favorite band, Cream. Charlie Auringer became the photo editor and designer, and Dave Marsh joined soon after at age 19. The first issue was distributed only in Detroit, as a tabloid-sized newspaper, but then a deal was struck with a distributor. Many copies were ordered by porn shops who were confused by the faintly suggestive title, and who displayed it next to the similarly sized Screw magazine. Richard "Ric" Siegel became circulation director, Creem become a glossy color magazine sized for newsstand distribution, and within two years had secured a national distribution deal.[3]
For the magazine's first two years, its offices were at 3729 Cass Avenue in Detroit. An armed robbery of the offices prompted Kramer to move the operation to a 120-acre farm in Walled Lake, Michigan, at 13 Mile and Haggerty Roads. Just before the move, Lester Bangs was hired, originally to write a feature on Alice Cooper. He had been fired from the rival music magazine Rolling Stone by publisher Jann Wenner for "disrespecting musicians" after a particularly harsh review of the group Canned Heat. Bangs fell in love with Detroit, calling it "rock's only hope", and remained there for five years.[3]
Many of the staff members lived in the Walled Lake farmhouse, where there were occasional physical altercations between writers. One day, Marsh, who objected to Bangs' poorly housebroken dog, placed the dog's dung on Bangs' typewriter. This resulted in a fistfight that gave Marsh a gash on his head. Eventually, the magazine was successful enough to move to editorial offices in downtown Birmingham, Michigan. In 1971, Bangs became editor,[4] and in 1976 he left the magazine; he never wrote for it again. On January 29, 1981, Kramer died of an accidental overdose of nitrous oxide. A year later, on April 30, 1982, Bangs died in New York City of an accidental Darvon overdose.[3]
The magazine's offices were geographically separated from most of the entertainment industry in the United States, which was then primarily based in Hollywood and New York City. It was known for its irreverent, deprecatory and humorous tone, and became famous for its comical photo captions, which poked fun at rock stars, the industry, and even the magazine itself. The magazine dubbed the tall Plexiglas pyramid that was presented to the winner of the annual American Music Award "the Object From Space", and said it was endowed with the power to force celebrities to look ridiculous while holding it.[5] Because of the magazine's location, it was among the first national publications to provide in-depth coverage of many popular Detroit-area artists, such as Bob Seger, Mitch Ryder, Alice Cooper, The MC5, The Stooges, Iggy Pop, and Parliament-Funkadelic, as well as other Midwestern acts such as Raspberries and Cheap Trick.
Alice Cooper referenced the magazine in his song "Detroit City" – "But the Riff kept a Rockin', the Creem kept a-talkin', and the streets still smokin' today".[7]Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth said: "Having a certain sense of humor in the rock'n'roll culture – CREEM nailed it in a way that nobody else was. It informed a lot of people's sensibilities."[8]
The magazine moved its office to Los Angeles in January 1987. Holdship and Kordosh were both involved in Creem's move to Los Angeles after it was purchased by Arnold Levitt, but both had already left the magazine before its move to New York City after Levitt licensed the name to a publisher there, and its ultimate demise.[citation needed] Before licensing Creem to the New Yorkers, Levitt made Judy Wieder editor-in-chief of a heavy metal version of Creem, called Creem Metal, which was originally edited by DiMartino, Holdship and Kordosh and which sold well.[citation needed]
A young female audience-targeted spinoff, Creem Rock-Shots, was also published, as were countless special editions throughout the 1980s. Former William Morris agent, musician and journalist Mark J. Petracca (aka Dusty Wright) became the editor during its New York residence over 1992–93. Chris Nadler was the last editor before the magazine was shut down. Steve Peters and David Sprague were the final members remaining in the original editorial chain that reached back to 1969.[citation needed]
Graphic design
The Creem logo was designed by Bob Wilson, who also wrote a regular comic strip, "Mike and Barney". The "Mr. Dream Whip" and "Boy Howdy" icons were designed by underground cartoonist Robert Crumb.[1] Both appeared on the cover of the second issue as a black and white drawing titled Detroit 1969. For the December 1971 issue, Wilson colored the drawing, which appeared in every following issue in a Creem's Profiles, a parody of the then-popular Dewar's Profiles, featuring musicians and bands holding cans of "Boy Howdy" beer.[13]
Change of ownership and disputes
Ownership of the magazine, trademark and intellectual property has changed hands numerous times since the death of publisher Barry Kramer in 1981, and the magazine's subsequent bankruptcy.[14]
Arnold Levitt bought the rights to the magazine in 1986 from Connie Kramer, and added titles including one devoted exclusively to metal along with numerous monthly special editions, before shutting down in 1989. In 1990, he licensed it to a group of Florida investors who published a bimonthly glossy tabloid version, but it was not successful either.[15]
The release of writer and director Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous in 2000, and Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of editor Lester Bangs, rekindled interest in Creem and rock journalism of the era. Former Creem photographer Robert Matheu formed Creem Media in 2001 with his cousin Jason Turner and Michigan businessman Ken Kulpa. They negotiated a five-year licensing deal with Levitt, with the option to purchase the magazine's intellectual property rights for $100,000. There was talk about a quarterly print publication in 2011.[16] They launched a website and generated new content, primarily to maintain the brand.[citation needed]
As the five-year deadline of the licensing deal approached, Matheu sought investors, and got a $52,500 investment from Los Angeles disk jockey Chris Carter and Barry Kramer's son J.J. Kramer. Matheu provided the balance of the $100,000.[15]
Carter and Kramer claim that they were verbally promised one-third of Creem Media for their investment by Matheu.
Turner and Kulpa claim they were never consulted about the deal, and never approved it.
Matheu claims he never promised Carter and Kramer such a large share for their investment.
In 2007, Kramer sued in New York County and won,[17] as the Court ruled that Creem Media could take no action without the approval of Carter and Kramer.
Creem Media was sued by T.A. Riggs Licensing LLC in 2010 for breach of contract. Creem Media lost that suit, and Riggs was awarded $575,000. Creem Media was either unable or unwilling to pay. In November 2011, Creem Media attempted to have the judgment set aside, but in January 2012, the Court upheld the Judgment. In February 2012, the Court appointed a Receiver to seize all of Creem Media's assets to help satisfy the outstanding judgment. The Receiver then transferred all of the Intellectual Property from Creem Media, Inc to Riggs. CREEM International, Inc purchased the assets from Riggs to become the new successor company with all rights of ownership.
Matheu tired of the legal battle and resigned from the board of Creem Media in 2009. Creem Media, Inc. became defunct shortly thereafter.[18]
In 2017, a group headed by Kramer acquired the Creem brand and its archives.
Creem documentary
In 2019, the Kramer-led Boy Howdy Productions, in partnership with Muse Production House and New Rose Films, wrapped production on a Creem documentary entitled CREEM: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine, which world premiered at SXSW 2019 to rave reviews.[19] In February 2020, the film was acquired by Greenwich Entertainment[20] and subsequently released online through paid virtual cinema streaming rental in August 2020.[21][22]
2022 relaunch
Following years of litigation, the relaunch of Creem was announced on June 1, 2022, by JJ Kramer, an IP attorney and son of founder Barry Kramer. Management includes former Vice publisher John Martin as CEO, VP of content Fred Pessaro (Vice, Revolver, BrooklynVegan), former Entertainment Weekly copy chief Dan Morrissey as executive editor and original staffer Jaan Uhelszki as editor-at-large.
The relaunched Creem includes digital archives of all 224 issues of the original magazine, a website and weekly newsletter called Fresh Creem, and a quarterly oversized glossy print edition, which commenced publication in the fall of 2022, on a subscription-only basis, with no newsstand sales.[1][23][24]
Related Research Articles
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist and critic. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and was also a performing musician. The music critic Jim DeRogatis called him "America's greatest rock critic".
Nirvana was an American rock band formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987. Founded by lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic, the band went through a succession of drummers, most notably Chad Channing, before recruiting Dave Grohl in 1990. Nirvana's success popularized alternative rock, and they were often referenced as the figurehead band of Generation X. Despite a short mainstream career spanning only three years, their music maintains a popular following and continues to influence modern rock culture.
Punk rock is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles with stripped-down instrumentation. Lyricism in punk typically revolves around anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian themes. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent labels.
Metal Machine Music is the fifth studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed. It was recorded on a three-speed Uher machine and was mastered/engineered by Bob Ludwig. It was released as a double album in July 1975 by RCA Records, but taken off the market three weeks later. A radical departure from the rest of his catalog, the Metal Machine Music album features no songs or recognizably structured compositions, eschewing melody and rhythm for modulated feedback and noise music guitar effects, mixed at varying speeds by Reed. Also in 1975, RCA released a Quadrophonic version of the Metal Machine Music recording that was produced by playing it back both forward and backward, and by flipping the tape over.
The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, and also known as Iggy and the Stooges, were an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander. Initially playing a raw, primitive style of rock and roll, the band sold few records in their original incarnation and gained a reputation for their confrontational performances, which often involved acts of self-mutilation by Iggy Pop.
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics.
Proto-punk is rock music from the 1960s to mid-1970s that foreshadowed the punk rock movement. A retrospective label, the musicians involved were generally not originally associated with each other and came from a variety of backgrounds and styles; together, they anticipated many of punk's musical and thematic attributes. The tendency towards aggressive, simplistic rock songs is a trend critics such as Lester Bangs have traced to as far back as Ritchie Valens' 1958 version of the Mexican folk song "La Bamba", which set in motion a wave of influential garage rock bands including the Kingsmen, the Kinks, the 13th Floor Elevators and the Sonics. By the late 1960s, Detroit bands the Stooges and MC5 had used the influence of these groups to form a distinct prototypical punk sound. In the following years, this sound spread both domestically and internationally, leading to the formation of the New York Dolls and Electric Eels in the United States, Dr. Feelgood in England, and the Saints in Australia.
Punk was a music magazine and fanzine created by cartoonist John Holmstrom, publisher Ged Dunn, and "resident punk" Legs McNeil in 1975. Its use of the term "punk rock", coined by writers for Creem magazine a few years earlier to describe the simplistic and crude style of '60s garage rock bands, further popularized the term. The founders were influenced by their affection for comic books and the music of The Stooges, the New York Dolls, and The Dictators. Holmstrom later called it "the print version of The Ramones". It was also the first publication to popularize the CBGB scene.
Greg Shaw was an American writer, publisher, magazine editor, music historian and record executive.
Before the Flood is a live album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and The Band, released on June 20, 1974, on Asylum Records in the United States and Island Records in the United Kingdom. It was Dylan's first live album, although live recordings of earlier performances would later be released. It is the 15th album by Dylan and the seventh by the Band, and documents their joint 1974 American tour. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, reached No. 8 on the popular album chart in the UK, and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Dave Marsh is an American music critic and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on rock music. He is also a committee member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Bomp! Records is a Los Angeles-based record label formed in 1974 by fanzine publisher and music historian Greg Shaw, and Suzy Shaw.
Wayne Stanley Kramer was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, and film and television composer. Kramer came to prominence in the 1960s as the lead guitarist of the Detroit rock band MC5.
The history of the punk subculture involves the history of punk rock, the history of various punk ideologies, punk fashion, punk visual art, punk literature, dance, and punk film. Since emerging in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia in the mid-1970s, the punk subculture has spread around the globe and evolved into a number of different forms. The history of punk plays an important part in the history of subcultures in the 20th century.
Jeffrey Morgan is a Canadian writer and photographer who is best known for being the authorized biographer of both Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop and The Stooges.
Rock Against Sexism (RAS) was a political and cultural movement dedicated to promoting women in music, and challenging sexism in the rock music community, pop culture and in the world at large. It was primarily a part of the punk rock music and arts scene.
Chuck Eddy is an American music journalist.
Jaan Uhelszki is an American music journalist and co-founder of the music magazine Creem where she became one of the first women to work in rock journalism. She is a founding editor of Addicted to Noise and writer-at-large for print and online music and news publications. She writes, produces and is featured in music documentaries and is editor-at-large for Creem, relaunched in 2022.
Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock 'n' Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock 'n' Roll is a collection of essays written by rock music critic Lester Bangs. Named for a 1971 article of the same title, it was edited by Greil Marcus and released in 1987, five years after Bangs' death. In his introduction, Marcus explains that, "Perhaps what this book demands from a reader is a willingness to accept that the best writer in America could write almost nothing but record reviews."
Mitchel Lee Hyman, best known by his stage name Mickey Leigh, is an American musician and writer. He is the brother of Joey Ramone, lead vocalist of the punk rock band Ramones.
↑ "Backstage - Where the stars tank up & let their images down". CREEM: 66. May 1985. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2013. Cory Hart watches amazededly as the Object forces Stephen Still and Cyndi Lauper to grin sheepishly for the rest of their lives beginning now!
↑ Guarino, Mark (October 12, 2001). "Heavy heaven New Cobain bio sheds light on fallen hero". Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL). Archived from the original on February 22, 2021. Soon band member Roger "Buzz" Osborne started Cobain's schooling, lending him records and old copies of the '70s rock magazine Creem."
↑ Cwik, Greg (January 15, 2013). "'Conversations with Greil Marcus' Are Not Conversations About Greil Marcus". PopMatters. Retrieved January 18, 2013. Born in San Francisco in 1945, Marcus has spent nearly his entire life in the Frisco/Berkley/Oakland area, though he would write and edit for New York-centric publications Creem, Rolling Stone, and The Village Voice.
↑ DeLano, Sharon. "The Torch Singer". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 17, 2013. Smith had been writing pieces for Creem and other music magazines …
↑ Hirsch, Caroline (August 2, 2011). "Laura Levine: New York Rocker". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 17, 2013. I worked for all of the usual suspects – Rolling Stone, Creem, Trouser Press, Spin, Sounds, the New York Times
↑ "Night after Night: Jan. 10, 2013". My SA. Retrieved January 18, 2013. Turner started his career in the '70s, writing for the Los Angeles proto-punk fanzine Back Door Man, moved on to the storied Creem magazine for more than a decade.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
