From the New York TImes:

Creem Set to Return to the Newstand

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

It has been more than two decades since rock fans could pick up a copy of Creem magazine at a newsstand and submerse themselves in the fabled publication where critics like Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh helped define a generation of popular musicians. But there are plans afoot to resurrect the printed magazine this fall, The Associated Press reported this week.

Jason Turner, the chairman of Creem Enterprises Inc., said the team that has been operating a music Web site under the Creem trademark since 2001 plans to begin publishing a quarterly edition of the printed magazine sometime in late September.

“We just feel the time is now,” Mr. Turner told The A.P. “There’s so much amazing music happening today but there’s no filter.”

Mr. Turner said the resurrected magazine, with between 150,000 and 200,000 copies, will be part of a broader music network that will include mobile apps and streaming music videos. The hope is to attract both older readers who remember the magazine and younger music fans, who consume music and criticism over the Internet.

The new publishers have a big reputation to live up. The magazine was started in 1969 by Barry Kramer, who owned a record store in Detroit, and within two years had become a national publication, known for its irreverent style and iconoclastic reviews. Mr. Bangs, one of the most influential critics of his time, took over as editor in 1971, and under his leadership the magazine was on the forefront of recognizing first heavy metal and later punk rock as important movements.

The magazine also gave exposure to underground and outside-the-mainstream groups like Lou Reed, Roxy Music and The New York Dolls before the mainstream press did. In the 1980s, it led the pack in focusing attention on R.E.M., The Smiths and The Cure, among others.

But when Mr Kramer died in the early 1980s, the magazine was mired in debt. Unable to make a profit, the founder’s wife sold the intellectual property rights to a New York businessman, Arnold Levitt, who closed down the publication in 1988. It was brought back as a glossy tabloid a couple years later, but died then folded again.

Then in 2001, the success of Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical movie “Almost Famous” rekindled interest in the magazine. (Mr. Crowe had written for Creem as a teenager.) Some investors led by a former photographer for Creem, Robert Matheu, persuaded Mr. Levitt to let them start an online version, and in 2006, they finally bought the title and intellectual property rights for $70,000, according to court documents.

Now the same group is talking about reviving the publication. Mr. Turner would not comment on how the re-launching of the magazine would be financed or who would edit it, though he said he hoped to re-establish the long, in-depth articles that had made it famous. He suggested a whole new crop of writers might emerge from the ranks of people who visit the Creem website. “We have to write with personality and we think some of the best ways to find up and coming writers is to open it up to users to contribute,” he told the wire service.

Back in my punk rock days, I would buy the latest Creem off the magazine stand in the college bookstore and read it straight through. In high school I was more of a Circus guy.

No way this could ever be what it was. For me back in those days, this was the bible, I was as big a fan of the writers as I was of the music. And that's the thing, it was about that combo of writers at that period in time, putting out that mag. Yeah, Marsh/Bangs/Edmonds/Uhelszki/Tosches/Meltzer/Marcus etc. etc. but it was also things like Patti Smith and her poetry/reviews, the cartoons, the captions on the photos, Vince Aletti, the first openly gay rock critic (this was1970 folks) with his own column that I can think of, Lisa Robinson and Eleganza, the general anything goes attitude of the times. Where else in 1969/70 could you read huge pieces on the Velvets or Lou Reed or Alice Cooper or Smokey and The Miracles or the Jackson Five or the Frut in the same issue as reviews of The Stooges and the Stones and obscurites like White Witch or the Sidewinders. Can't do that these days, the times are different, the world has changed. I wish 'em luck.

People don't want or need a "filter". That's why magazines are dying. That's why "professional critic" has become more of an insult than a respected title.

Back when CREEM started, it was really a more professional/better staffed/bigger version of a fanzine. The people who started it (Kramer/Marsh a couple of others) were fans with a yen to write/brag about what they knew and spread the word. Back at a time when spreading the word on rock'n'roll was still pretty new. Crazy enough about it all to live together in a farmhouse on a desolate patch of land in Michigan. The fact that there was a large well of creative writers/photographers to draw from was to their benefit. They had no filter back then, no real agenda as to what they were about (at least at the beginning). Of course it changed over time and the corporate blah blahs came along and ate rock'n'roll whole. It was lightning in a bottle , and to call this new venture CREEM is merely trading on past glories while trying to snare an audience that isn't there anymore, or, if it is, it's too small to make it all viable. And, face it, most rockers these days aren't interesting enough personality wise to merit 500 words, much less 10,000. Man, I sound old.

Back in the day, I loved Creem. I found a web site a few years back that has an archive of old issues, but never spent much time with it.

here's the link: http://www.creem.tv/ The site is so slow today that I have no clue what's currently in the "archives" section & if there's a fee involved. The only thing i can get to come up currently is the home page which is a new Joe Perry article.

I need someone to tell me what to like.

And my wife agrees.

I still have a few old issues.

My first issue was this one...

I was an odd cross between a hippy & a glam rocker as a teen, so liked Rolling Stone & loved Creem

Nah, magazines are dying because of the internet.

Nothing wrong with good rock criticism. I enjoy reading rock criticism for the same reason I enjoy internet forums... it's interesting to hear others' opinions, even if you disagree with them. A well-written review is a source of entertainment in and of itself. I don't need anyone to tell me what to think, but I enjoy reading a creative or well-thought-out view of what someone else thinks.

I'm surprised anyone would start up a new magazine in 2011, though. That seems like a hopeless cause.

I'm down to 3 subs: The local newspaper, Rolling Stone & Maximum PC. Due to lack of time, I'm about 6 months behind on reading Maximum PC. I'm close to being caught up on Rolling Stone.

Movies, the internet, & my business' long hours have all cut into my reading time big time.

Most of the music criticism I read is on the AV Club website.

This news makes me do something in my pants.