The Legendary Trouser Press Magazine Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary
Trouser Press Magazine can trace its origins back 50 years ago in 1974 when high school friends Ira Robbins and Dave Schulps had an idea to publish their own magazine.
Originally called Trans-Atlantic Trouser Press. the name would ultimately be changed to Trouser Press magazine.
Fifty years to the month after Trouser Press published its first issue, Trouser Press Books has released Zip It Up! The Best of Trouser Press Magazine 1974 – 1984.
This 440-page large-format paperback collects more than 90 of the best articles – profiles, interviews and histories – that appeared in the magazine.
Fans often referred to Trouser Press as “the bible of alternative rock” but had a broader mission than that.
Starting At the End – Trouser Press Magazine
JIM MONAGHAN – Ira, let me start with you and let’s go to the end in 1984. MTV comes on, video is supposed to kill the radio star.
IRA ROBBINS – It killed the print star too.
JM – Yeah, you decided to take Trouser Press down at least in point part because of MTV. Why?
IR – What we could do for the bands that we wanted to write about was write about them. What MTV could do was play the music, show their, you know, show them their videos and interview them in person on, you know, on TV.
So we started to feel like what we could do wasn’t as special as it had been.
For a long time we were kind of like a lifeline for people because we could write about bands that they couldn’t find out about any other way.
We sort of felt like our turf had been sort of extracted out from out from under us.
JM – Radio felt it to an extent as well. But I don’t know, people keep saying radio is going to die sooner or later. And they’ve been saying that since pretty much the medium started and it hasn’t happened yet.
You know, I was always surprised that when I read that, that that was one of the reasons why you decided to cease publication.
IR – Yeah, no, no ill will towards MTV. I mean, what they did was great. They made a lot of bands very successful in America.
MTV in a way functioned as a national radio station. You know, they had a playlist that went to every city in America after a while. And so, you know, the same way the BBC functions in Britain, where, you know, a record that got added to BBC to became a hit because it got played all over Britain.
At the same time, you know, that was something that we couldn’t compete with.
There are other reasons why we stopped – age, money, fatigue, boredom, all those things.
The music was getting away from us a little bit as well. Duran Duran was great, but they weren’t the Clash.
Back To the Beginning of Trouser Press Magazine
JM – Dave, let’s go back to the beginning here in 1974. You, Ira, and Karen Rose decide, Hey, let’s put together a magazine. Three years later, you are on a private jet sitting next to Robert Plant.
How surreal was that?
DAVE SCHULPS – Very surreal. And the weird thing is that we were actually supposed to interview Jimmy page that day. It didn’t happen because he was “under the weather.”
As I watched him being kind of carried up the airplane steps by, you know, two guys, you know, he had his arms around two large guys to get up that ramp. I knew it might not actually happen on the plane.
And it didn’t.
It took five days in LA to actually get that interview done. But when it got done, it was great.
He gave me five hours. And we just sat there and went through his career in various stages. And it was a pleasure. It was really wonderful.
JM – One of the things that struck me about Trouser Press was it started, you know, a few years, obviously, after Rolling Stone (magazine). As Rolling Stone magazine grew and obviously was very, very successful, it had a lot of detractors and a lot of those detractors, I think, were people who didn’t realize that they were out of the demo that Rolling Stone was going after.
I never noticed that reaction to Trouser Press readers, Ira.
IR – Well, we didn’t really have a demographic in the in the traditional sense because we wrote about a pretty wide variety of artists and we, I mean, the one thing that you had to be to be a Trouser Press reader was really into music.
To be a Rolling Stone reader, you could be into the culture, you might want to, you know, read about Saturday at live, you know, but Trouser Press, we really did nothing but write about bands, and occasionally, towards the end, we started writing about synthesizers because we figured out we might get a few ads that way, which we did.
But, you know, I mean, the commitment that we showed in the magazine was what we expected from our readers, you know, and I mean, one of the things that we always did, which I think set us apart a little bit, well, was that we never talked down to people.
When USA Today started, there was this idea that they had to be pitched at like a sixth grade reading level or something like that.
We never cared about that.
We used a lot of big words, we made references to things that people wouldn’t know about. And we just sort of expected, because we’d grown up this way, if you didn’t know it, you looked it up.
We thought that leading people was much better than pandering to them.
So we wrote about bands that they had never heard of, we wrote about, you know, places that they’d never been to, you know, it was just our way of respecting our own integrity and our own curiosity and letting people follow us if they wanted to.
There was never really a demographic.
I think we had, as we went into the MTV era, we got much younger readers, which was a weird thing for us. I mean, all of a sudden, our readers weren’t as sophisticated and there were a lot of kids buying the magazine on newsstands because Adam Ant was on the cover.
That was weird for us because we were getting older and they were getting younger.
JM – When I think of Trouser Press, a comparison I think of is the bands Velvet Underground and Big Star.
This is going back now to the earlier days of Trouser Press. Velvet Underground and Big Star were two bands that did not sell a lot of records, but it was said that everybody who bought one of those albums went out and started a band.
I think about some of the writers and some of the musicians who were part of that early days of Trouser Press, the readers, they either went out and became writers for you or, you know, rock writers in general.
I think of Bill Flanagan whose work I love, David Fricke, Holly Gleason wrote for you.
And then bands like the Dictators, Yo La Tengo, the DBs who were part of that Bowery Electric show, Dennis Diken, you know, all of these guys, it’s almost as if you spawned this whole genre of writers and bands.
DS – Yeah, Dennis made our first T-shirts when he was 15 years old in his garage, pre-Smithereens, obviously.
We also had really good interns. It was kind of amazing that the success that our interns went on to. I mean, yeah, it’s funny because, you know, people have asked me whether we were really tremendously talented at picking writers.
And I don’t think we were. I just think that people found us and if we liked them, they wrote for us.
There was no money really involved. I paid people terribly. So it had to be, you had to really be into it.
Somehow those people had the talent and the commitment to go on to real careers.
So, you know, you look back at the pages of Trouser Press, you see a lot of well-known names who did a lot of great work for next to peanuts, and the photographers as well. We had really great photographers.
JM – You talk about commitment, and the other part for me, Ira was that they were fans of the music.
The first writer who came to mind to me as a kid was Richard Robinson. He was editing Hit Parader magazine.
I’d read that and I’m just learning to play the guitar and I’d been playing drums for a few years. And I thought, wow, this guy reminds me of me. He cares about this music.
That was the thing that always got me about whoever it was I was reading in Trouser Press. There was a passion for it.
IR – One of the things that we were able to do sort of unintentionally was develop a character. The magazine had a character and had a personality of its own.
It wasn’t just kind of a neutral tabloid that anything could be done in.
People still to this day talk about a Trouser Press band and they don’t mean anybody that we wrote about.
You can hear a band that formed three weeks ago and think yeah, they’re a Trouser Press band. I find it fascinating that people have been able to internalize whatever it was that we thought was important in good music.
They still can feel that, you know, when they look at music and listen to music.
MORE ALL MIXED UP – Interviews and Playlists
Sonic Universe - Meet The Band
Meet The Band – SONIC UNIVERSE, who will be opening the first WDHA Parking Lot Party of the season on 5/3!
It’s Terrie Carr and WDHA is excited to bring back one of our most popular listener experiences, our PARKING LOT PARTIES! And welcome Sonic Universe to open!
What is a WDHA Parking Lot Party?
WDHA’s Parking Lot Parties were created so our WDHA listening family can enjoy the “experience” of live/acoustic performances and meet and greets with cool artists in a fun setting, with like-minded rockers, and enjoy some awesome eats!
How Can Fans Get Into A Parking Lot Party?
You gotta be in it to win it! Listen weekdays for the opportunity to win your way in and keep our number handy- WDHA Studio Line- 973-292-1055– You can also enter online on our website and we will contact you if you win your way in!
Where Can I Enter?
Win Your Way In- WDHA’s Parking Lot Party With Sonic Universe
How Does It Work?
You will be contacted about the time to arrive, park in our lot (space availability allowing) and we will ask for ID upon entry. You are invited plus one as well, so grab a friend and come on in!
Is There Food?
It’s a party! Our friends at TAPT EVENT SERVICES bring the menu and cook up some tasty eats. It’s free, but tipping is always welcome and you can eat as much as you’d like. Tapt is amazing and does parties for groups large and small, so please grab their card, meet their staff, and inquire about them catering your next party- They are amazing!
Our friends from TAPT provide a GREAT party!
WHO IS THE BAND OPENING THE PARKING LOT PARTY SERIES?
Meet- “Sonic Universe” – The Bands Debut- “It Is What It Is” – comes out May 10th.
THEY ARE-
Corey Glover- Vocals
Mike Orlando- Guitar
Booker King- Bass
Taykwuan Jackson- Drums
How Did They Get Together?
Meet Sonic Universe below and meet other rockers on My Reconnect With Rockers Interview page!
WDHA’s Reconnect With Rockers Page
Sonic Universe Is…
Corey Glover - Vocals
Corey Glover is a legend! While most know this ultra talented vocalist and frontman from his band “Living Colour” , Corey has had a successful solo career, has been a part of other bands- Ultraphobix and Disciples Of Verity, and has been a television host, actor (he played Francis in Platoon) and has played with multiple rockers and musicians.
Corey is beyond amazing and I’m not going to lie, I’m a total fangirl!
Living Colour is back, touring and rocking better than ever and Corey’s new project “Sonic Universe” is an incredible showcase for his amazing talents.Corey’s quote about the bands amazing first single- “I AM” – “I Am” is about being able to state who you are emphatically without any controlling rules. Nothing. I am who I am, and this is sort of what the song gets to.”
COREY ON LIVE IN 1989- PERFORMING OPEN LETTER TO A LANDLORD – ON LIVE AT THE APOLLO
