New Film ‘CREEM: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine’ To Be Released In August

Features Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Joan Jett, Michael Stipe, Cameron Crowe & More

Greenwich Entertainment announced today that CREEM: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine will be released as theaters reopen later this summer. Featuring appearances from Alice Cooper, Cameron Crowe, Joan Jett, Wayne Kramer, Michael Stipe, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Kirk Hammett, Thurston Moore, Peter Wolf and many more CREEM contributors and famous fans, the highly-anticipated documentary celebrates the irreverent, wild-child publication out of Detroit.

Videos by American Songwriter

Produced by JJ Kramer (son of CREEM co-founder and publisher Barry Kramer) and Jaan Uhelszki (original CREEM alum), directed by Scott Crawford (Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington DC, 1980-90), and scored by MC5 founder Wayne Kramer, CREEM: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine captures the messy upheaval of the ’70s just as rock was reinventing itself. The film explores CREEM’s humble beginnings in post-riot Detroit and follows its upward trajectory from underground paper to national powerhouse. Along the way, we meet the rock critics who would influence a generation — Crowe, Uhelszki, Dave Marsh, Lester Bangs, Susan Whitall, Sylvie Simmons and Patti Smith — before bearing witness to CREEM’s imminent demise following the tragic deaths of Bangs and Barry Kramer.

Over fifty years after publishing its first issue, CREEM remains a seditious spirit in music and culture. After the film premiered at SXSW, Variety said “this compact, well-crafted documentary will no doubt make viewers comb eBay and garage sale print stacks for all the old CREEM issues they can find.” 

Leave a Reply

ASCAP Unveils Its Pop Awards Winners Via Social Media: Louis Bell Receives Songwriter Of The Year; “Sucker” and “Old Town Road” Top Song Categories