He is known for his work (1983-1993) at Rolling Stone, where he was first a senior writer and later West Coast editor, and for envisioning and co-founding the first web music magazine, Addicted to Noise, in 1994, for which Newsweek included him in its 1995 "Net 50" list of "the 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet".

[1] Between 2014 and the fall of 2016 he published the Freak Scene Dream trilogy of  1970s coming-of-age novels (True Love Scars,[2] The Flowers Lied,[3] and Untitled[4]), and worked actively in animal rights causes.

He started writing short stories in elementary school, but seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show turned him into an obsessive rock 'n' roll fan—as he later recalled, "It was like being hit by lightning or something.

"[6] In 1967, while still in middle school, he launched a psychedelic poster business with a friend and photographed Jim Morrison[7] and Ray Manzarek[8] of the Doors and other artists at the KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais.

During his undergraduate years at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Goldberg wrote for the local underground paper, Sundaz!, interviewing The Realist magazine’s founder/editor, Paul Krassner, for a cover story.

He went on to contribute numerous articles to entertainment magazine Sunday Datebook on artists including Sly Stone, Stevie Nicks, the Clash, The B-52's, Muddy Waters, and Flipper; he photographed and interviewed legendary film director Nicholas Ray[11] for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

[19] He also wrote investigative pieces on music and the mob, the death of Dennis Wilson,[20] the troubles of Brian Wilson[21] and profiles of many artists including Robbie Robertson,[22] Chris Isaak,[23] and the first in-depth interview with Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr.[24] During his time at Rolling Stone, Goldberg and writer Michael Snyder put together the Flamin' Groovies album Groovies' Greatest Grooves, for which they selected the tracks and wrote the liner notes.

After trying unsuccessfully to interest established media companies in his business plan, and with just $5,000 in the bank, he partnered with programmer Jon Luini to launch Addicted to Noise (ATN).

[28] In 2008 Goldberg began writing what became the Freak Scene Dream Trilogy, a trio of novels set in the 1960s and early 1970s, viewed by narrator "Writerman" through the lenses of music, film, literature and visual art.

Reading excerpts from the novels, Goldberg collaborated with the Grammy Award-winning experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser for two live "Post-Beat Happening" performances: one[38] at Down Home Music[39] in El Cerrito, California, in 2014; one[40] at The Octopus Literary Salon[41] in Oakland in May 2016.

Reviewing the book for Pop Matters, poet Marc Zegans wrote: "Goldberg’s meticulously researched biography delivers a deep-hearted and poignant account of the rare and extraordinary creative talent who—following his legendary entry into the music scene as bass player for San Francisco's primeval punk band, the Avengers—crafted the incomparable yearning two-note opening to Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game.'"