CREEM
Creem “America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine”, was a monthly rock ’n’ roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid. Lester Bangs, often cited as “America’s Greatest Rock Critic”, became editor in 1971. The term “punk rock” was coined by the magazine in May 1971, in Dave Marsh’s Looney Tunes column about Question Mark & the Mysterians. (More from Wikipedia)
Great tracks on the Big Midnight album include the band’s single, “Doin’ All Right”, described by Creem magazine this way: “These denim-clad, sunglass-sporting, Rolling Stones-patched hombres from the Bay Area have crafted a great smoking-in-the-high-school-parking-lot vibe on this debut single.”
(June 2014)
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Even more than the delightful portrayal of a rock groupie by a young Kate Hudson (she won a Golden Globe), the best part of the 2000 film Almost Famous – about the early exploits of Cameron Crowe as a rock journalist for Rolling Stone magazine – is the gonzo performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman as legendary rockcrit Lester Bangs, the editor of Creem magazine. As he and the Cameron Crowe stand-in William Miller (played by Patrick Fugit) are beginning to bond, Bangs starts raving during an interview with a hapless radio station DJ: “What is this hippie station?! Where’s Iggy Pop? Don’t you have a copy of Raw Power?!” He paws through some albums, calling out after awhile, “Found it!”, and then starts playing “Search and Destroy” as the DJ mumbles: “Lester, isn’t it a little early for this?”
(March 2017)
