Creem Archive

Creem has archived every issue of its magazine and you can access it for free for a short time (the rest of the month, maybe?). It’s fascinating. I only remember reading a handful of issues back in the day. I think by the 80s it was mostly hair metal. The recent documentary was also really good.

Archive is here.

3 Replies to “Creem Archive”

  1. Cristgau’s review of the Knack:

    THE KNACK – Get The Knack
    (Capitol)
    Cognoscenti I know tend to couch their belief that this is the Anticlash in purely technical terms— harmonies treacly, production punched up, like that. Bullshit. I too find them unattractive; if they felt this way about girls when they were unknowns, I shudder to think how they’re reacting to groupies. But if they’re less engaging musically than, say, the Scruffs, they have a lot more pop and power going for them than, say, the Real Kids. In other words, “My Sharona” is pretty good radio fare and let s hope “She’s So Selfish” isn’t the next single. Face it, this is a nasty time, and if the Stranglers are (or were, I hope) Sgt. Barry Sadler, these guys are only Freddie and the Dreamers. Docked a notch for clothes sense. B-

  2. I devoured every issue of Creem from around age 15, so it was a thrill to get in. My favorite magazine by a long shot.

    Christgau came to see us a couple of times in NYC. At one gig he spoke to our manager, who happened to be opening a bag of Famous Amos cookies. Ever the southern gentleman, our manager offered him a cookie. RC took the bag and devoured all of them.

    It was helpful to have him in our corner. The Village Voice had a section where they recommended what shows to see that weekend. We happened to be playing at CBGB’s, warming up for a band that had been locally popular a couple a years earlier. They had waned, gone on hiatus, and this was their comeback gig. I can’t remember their name. Anyway, RC gave us a recommendation, but didn’t mention the headliner until the last sentence, which ended with a snarky “remember them?” As a result, we drew a pretty good crowd, and the headliners were very rude to us at sound check and beyond. Like it was our fault.

    I think RC was too generous with the A-. I’d give that album a solid B. Also, I always hated the name of that album, the name of the band, and the album cover. But I was a good bit younger than the others, the last to join, had quit at one point and rejoined, so I didn’t have much clout with big decisions. Things were a bit tense when we began recording the album, because they were all a bit sore with me for having quit for a while. But once things got going it was very enjoyable, and we all played pretty well. No one tried to tell me how or what to play, and I put in a lot of vocal harmonies and piano overdubs, so I liked it. Was also cool to get to work with John Fry.

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