Legendary Creem magazine rocks on with first issue in 33 years
nypost.comavailable to subscribers online. For $79 a year, subscribers will also be mailed a print edition of the quarterly magazine.Playing off the name of the band Cream, the magazine was founded in 1969 by Barry Kramer, rising from a Detroit rock scene that included Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and Bob Seger.
With plenty of attitude and irreverence, it helped launch the careers of such rock-star scribes as Robert Christgau, Cameron Crowe and the late, legendary Lester Bangs.After Kramer died from an overdose in 1981, he left majority ownership of the magazine to his 4-year-old son JJ, who had the title of “chairman of the board” in the masthead as a preschooler.
But years after Kramer’s death, JJ’s mother sold the magazine. Now JJ Kramer is finally back as Creem chairman.“I’ve really spent most of my adult life trying to get to this point,” Kramer told the Associated Press. “It’s something I felt like I had to do.
There’s a magnet that draws me to Creem. It’s almost like it was predetermined in a way that I couldn’t fight it.”The first issue of the new Creem features a cover illustration by Raymond Pettibon (whose artwork memorably graced the cover of Sonic Youth’s “Goo” LP), stories on everyone from The Who to younger rock acts such as Viagra Boys, plus pieces on rap and R&B artists including Lil Aaron and KeiyaA.
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