This spelling is an old thing that I could never remember. Did they play off the band’s name or did they come first? I know, but don’t ask me because I’ll never commit this fact to memory, no matter how hard I try. My introduction to this lovely rag was of course through Almost Famous, which played like footage of some religious sermon on an old tube TV in my living room. Remember those? They made a space age *pop* sound when you turned them on.
They don’t make ‘em like they used to.
We sat around this ancient box like curious and dedicated young hipsters, ironically recording references to weaponize against those who dared transgress against our band tees and pin-laden blazers. Ol’ Lester Bangs was the man. The unapologetic curmugeon snob we idolized. He had the life. Writing about music? Talking music on the radio? Proto-shitposting? Lester was already 30 years ahead of us, covering every pivotal band from rock and roll’s young adult years. At the time, say sophomore year of high school, I was just dabbling in writing – every other journalism assignment, improv poetry with my friend Trevor to be attempted at a local cafe with an open mic (Thank you Cucamonga Coffee for hosting cool shit to do, and those irreplaceable smoothies). I didn’t take writing as seriously as I took listening. It was an absorbing year and I took the greats of 2004 to heart. Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine, Interpol – too many from today’s required listening list to mention.
Anyway, CREEM was there in the background and inspired me to grab my generation’s own iterations – Spin, FILTER, Guitar World, All Music Guide, leading to infecting the family computer with ungodly diseases from legally grey software. I was too late for CREEM’s first life, but am right on time for it’s digital reincarnation. They’re taking over the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles September 21st to screen their long-awaited documentary about the history of the magazine and Tickets. Are. Available!
Notable CREEM contributor and author Michael Goldberg, (whose latest collection of writings, Addicted To Noise: The Music Writings of Michael Goldberg, is out Nov. 1 a la Backbeat Books) was on the podcast recently to talk about his biography on the late James Calvin Wilsey of Avengers and Chris Isaak accolades. Stay tuned for a follow-up!