Started originally as a ruse to get free drinks, records, and tickets, White Noise developed into a tabloid sized magazine covering the Detroit punk scene as well as those who came to town to play. Influenced by the scene magazines of New York (Punk), L.A (Slash), and San Francisco (Search and Destroy) as well as Creem and National Lampoon, White Noise published its first issue in Spring 1978.

Started originally as a ruse to get free drinks, records, and tickets, White Noise developed into a tabloid sized magazine covering the Detroit punk scene as well as those who came to town to play. Influenced by the scene magazines of New York (Punk), L.A (Slash), and San Francisco (Search and Destroy) as well as Creem and National Lampoon, White Noise published its first issue in Spring 1978.

Along the creatives who worked on the magazine included Paul Zimmerman, Jerry Vile (of The Boners), Katy Hait (of The Sillies), Sue Rynski, Niagara (of Destroy All Monsters), S. Kay Young, Mike Murphy (of The Denizens/The Boners), and others from the scene.

The magazine published six issues over two years before folding in Spring/Summer 1980 as a split magazine with a new venture called Street Life, created by a mix of staffers from White Noise and SPOOEE!

(Panel discussion with Paul Zimmerman & Jerry Vile about White Noise at Cranbrook Art Museum on September 22nd, 2018.)

In 1986, Vile and several former White Noise staffers started what could be considered the first free humor magazine in America. Fun magazine was published monthly until late 1989. Vile, reverting back to his given name – Jerry Peterson, evolved Fun magazine into a more mainstream, but still satirical, free paper called Orbit which ran from 1990 to 1999.

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2 thoughts on “White Noise

  1. The first White Noise benefit was booked on a Friday and Saturday night at Bookie’s Club 870. Mike Duffy was the Detroit Free Press entertainment writer who came earlier in the evening on the Friday show in order to get material in time to get a story for the next day edition of the paper. Capital Punishment were a group composed of teenagers who were the first band to take the stage on Friday night. Duffy asked Jerry Vile if he knew the name of the band’s lead singer. Vile, appreciating the enormity of the moment, replied (falsely) “Gomer Gilligan.” Sure enough, the Saturday edition of the paper had a photo of Capital Punishment on stage at Bookie’s with a caption which included a mention of their singer “Gomer Gilligan.”

  2. An addendum to Jerry Vile living with Paul Zimmerman in East Lansing/Michigan State University: While preparing the rental in an attempt to get back the deposit when moving out of the premises, somebody tried to chip out the thick ice which had accumulated in the freezer with a butter knife. Unfortunately, the knife pierced a freezer wall and made a gaping hole in the plastic. In a valiant effort to hide the damage from the landlord, the same person spread Velvetta cheese – which was very close in color to the freezer plastic wall – over the hole. Not sure if the landlord ever caught on at the time of inspection.

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