MC5
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Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1971
WHENEVER I USED to say I liked the MC5, I would always preface the statement with some remark like "sure, I know they're a bunch ...
MC5 - A True Testimonal (Future/Now Films)
Review by Lindsay Hutton, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
SEVEN YEARS in the making, this is a multi-dimensional boot up the jacksy to the increasing legion of lazy tosspots that compares anything with a ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 25 January 1994
Detroit guitar-wrangler Wayne Kramer looks back at the MC5 and departed comrades Fred Smith and Rob Tyner, drugs and jail, and his life after the Five.
File format: mp3; file size: 39.6mb, interview length: 43' 14" sound quality: *
List of articles in the library
Report by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 24 June 1966
DO THE graduating seniors at Lincoln Park High spend graduation night carousing at wild private parties? Not since 1964, when a group of parents under ...
The MC-5: 'More Like One Big Musician'
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 17 February 1967
SOME PEOPLE call it psychedelic. The MC-5 call it the "new music". They should know, for they are the leading exponents of the far-out sounds ...
Interview by John Sinclair, The Warren-Forest Sun, May 1967
The following interview with ROBIN TYNER, the lead singer of the MC5, the major Detroit avant-rock band, was recorded by JOHN SINCLAIR in the first ...
Our Hippies — What They Say and Do
Report by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 19 May 1967
IN SAN Francisco a sight-seeing bus runs tours into the Haight-Ashbury district billing it as "the only foreign tour within the continental limits of the ...
'Aid, Comfort For Parents Of Hippies'
Readers' Letters by uncredited writer, Detroit Free Press, 2 June 1967
In response to the story on the parents of hippies which appeared in the Free Press Women's Section last Sunday, and the two stories about ...
Jefferson Airplane, the Rationals, the MC5: Ford Auditorium, Detroit
Live Review by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 3 July 1967
The Jefferson Airplane, Soaring on Pop Power ...
Flash! July 27th 1968 — Total Assault On The Culture
Report by uncredited writer, The Warren-Forest Sun, 26 July 1967
MC5 ARRESTED IN ANN ARBOR FOR PLAYING FREE MUSIC IN WEST PARK CHARGED WITH DISTURBING THE PEACE ...
Report by uncredited writer, The Warren-Forest Sun, 1 March 1968
DETROIT IS turning into ROCK CITY before our eyes, and we love it! All over the country groups are being "discovered, " and cities like ...
Report by John Sinclair, Fifth Estate, 19 June 1968
A STRANGE polarization (or maybe it's a natural one) seems to be happening with rock and roll fans right now, with white teen-age audiences turning ...
Report by John Sinclair, Fifth Estate, 4 July 1968
I PROMISED you when I started this column that I'd take you behind the scenes in the rock and roll industry so you can see ...
Report by John Sinclair, Fifth Estate, 18 July 1968
IN THE past two weeks since the last issue of this paper a bunch of new developments have taken place: Almost every job for the ...
Flash! July 26th, 1968: MC5 Attacked By Police On Job
Report by uncredited writer, The Warren-Forest Sun, 26 July 1968
JOHN SINCLAIR, FRED SMITH BEATEN, MACED, ARRESTED — CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING POLICE OFFICERS ...
Press Release by uncredited writer, The Warren-Forest Sun, 26 July 1968
WHAT FOLLOWS is a deposition written by Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson of the MC5 upon their return from the Loft and the ...
Report by John Sinclair, Fifth Estate, 1 August 1968
Poet-MC5 manager John Sinclair and MC5 guitarist Fred Smith were brutally assaulted, beaten, MACEd, and arrested by members of the National Security Police, the Oakland ...
Comment by John Sinclair, Fifth Estate, 15 August 1968
NOW THAT things have cooled down a little for the MC5 and myself after all the excitement of recent weeks maybe I can get into ...
Essay by John Sinclair, The Warren-Forest Sun, 1 November 1968
FIRST I MUST say that this statement, like all statements is bullshit without an active program to back it up. We have a program which ...
Overview by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 24 December 1968
"AN ELECTRIC caterwauling of power... burning it, flashing it, whirling it down some arc of consciousness, the sound screaming up to a climax of vibrations ...
Overview by John Sinclair, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1969
Here is a typical MC5 program, as performed at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. As well as serving as notes for "an evening recital of ...
The MC5: Rock frenzy points a way
Report by Lillian Roxon, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 4 January 1969
THOSE OF us who have watched rock with interest, believing it to be as good a barometer of the changing times as art or the ...
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, Oz, 1 February 1969
2019 note: My Oz episodes — 2. My first piece for Oz, "Why isn't London jumping?", a tirade against the BBC's programming of pop music, ...
The MC5: Kick Out the Jams (Elektra)
Review by Miller Francis jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 17 March 1969
"Works of art which lack artistic quality have no force, however progressive they are politically. Therefore, we oppose both works of art with a wrong ...
MC5 Brings Back Body Rock To Overthrow The Country
Report by Mike Jahn, Pop Scene Service, 24 March 1969
NEW YORK (PSS) – MC5, the Detroit rock band, has released its first album, Kick Out the Jams. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, near Detroit, MC5 ...
MC5: Kick Out The Jams (Elektra EKS-74042)
Review by Mick Farren, International Times, 28 March 1969
MC5 Muddle ...
The Story Of The MC5 On The West Coast In March Part One
Report by John Sinclair, Ann Arbor Argus, 28 March 1969
John Sinclair, Minister of Information, White Panther Party ...
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1969
WHOEVER THOUGHT when that dirty little quickie Wild In The Streets came out that it would leave such an imprint on the culture? First the ...
Albums from the MC5, Neil Young, Flying Burrito Brothers et al
Review by John Mendelssohn, UCLA Daily Bruin, 7 May 1969
"I guess you could say our thing is a condemnation of everything that is false and deceitful in our society." — John Sinclair, of the ...
Profile and Interview by Lita Eliscu, East Village Other, 14 May 1969
ROCKET ROCKET ROCKET to the — YEAHHHHH the — Fuckit yeah yeah sheeeeit baby Get. Down. On. It. Cmon mothahfuckahs CMON MOTHAH-FUCKAHS MAKE FUCK A ...
Profile by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 21 June 1969
MC5, THE raucous rock band from Detroit, is playing through tomorrow night at Ungano's, a club at 210 West 70th Street. ...
Interview by David G. Walley, Jazz & Pop, July 1969
THIS INTERVIEW took place in the New York apartment of the MC5's press agent Danny Fields, the day after the Detroit band signed their new ...
Jethro Tull, MC5: Fillmore West, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 21 November 1969
Good Music and Giggling Foolishness ...
Press Release by John Sinclair, Countdown, 1970
THERE IS NO way to get at the music without taking the whole context of the music too – there is no separation. We say ...
MC5: Back In The USA (Atlantic)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Fusion, 20 March 1970
WHAT A difference a year can make. This time last year the MC5 were riding high on the crest of the biggest hype in the ...
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 14 May 1970
WOP-BOP-A-LU-BOP-A-LOP-BAM-BOOM. Thud. 'Tutti Frutti', which opens the partly excellent MC5 album, is easily the worst cut on it, and in a way a clue to ...
Essay by Frank Bach, The Ann Arbor Sun, 4 July 1970
THE LIFE of the young rock and roll musician is and has always been filled with the bitter contradictions of honko Amerika................. ...
MC5 — Still The Bad Boys Of Rock
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 August 1970
ONE THING that American rock bands can generally do better than their British counterparts is to channel their energy into the notes. ...
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, 8 August 1970
THE MC5 are a very good, very determined rock band. In the old days when people weren't too bothered about listening to them, they used ...
MC5, Matthew's Southern Comfort, Humble Pie, May Blitz: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 8 August 1970
ON THE surface it seemed crazy — 1,500 kids packed into a hot stuffy old engine shed, while outside the temperature was in the seventies. ...
The Byrds: (Untitled); MC5: Back in the U.S.A.; Burning Red Ivanhoe
Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 12 December 1970
BESIDES BEING ONE of the seminal rock and roll bands, the Byrds also possess perhaps the music's oldest case-history. Of the group which came out ...
MC5: Back In The USA (Atlantic stereo SUPER 2400 016. 42s 6d)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 19 December 1970
STUDIO DRIVE ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 1971
‘SISTER ANNE,’ ‘Over And Over,’ and ‘Gotta Keep Movin’’ on the new MC5 album are without doubt among the best hard rock performances of the ...
Rock & Roll Dope: John Sinclair
Retrospective by Frank Bach, The Ann Arbor Sun, 28 May 1971
IT WAS back in the fall of 1966 when Rob Tyner, lead singer for the then "Avant Rock" MC5, and myself got in Rob's beat ...
Comment by Frank Bach, The Ann Arbor Sun, 25 June 1971
IT WAS A Friday night back in the fall of 1966 when Gary Grimshaw, myself and some brothers and sisters from Detroit set up some ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971
IT SEEMS almost too perfectly ironic that now, at a time in their career when most people have written them off as either dead or ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1971
Their mamas all warned 'emnot to come into townBut they got it in their blood,now they gotta get down– 'Shakin' Street', The MC5 ...
Rock And Roll Dope: MC5 Kick Out The Jams At The Grande Ballroom
Column by Frank Bach, The Ann Arbor Sun, 29 October 1971
IT WAS back in the fall of 1966 when Rob Tyner, lead singer for the then "Avant Rock" MC5, and myself got in Rob's beat up ...
Overview by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 26 November 1971
Update, 2020. "Perverted, outrageous, violent, repulsive, ugly, tasteless. A travesty. That's what's good about them". This was a quote about the Rolling Stones, recorded around ...
Interview by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972
THE MC5 don't want to be stars, if you can dig that. They reason that they are there with you to fill the air with ...
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 19 February 1972
OF ALL THE groups who have dabbled in politics over the last few years, the MC5 seem to have gained the reputation as one of ...
Teenage Outrage in Croydon: the MC5
Review and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Cream, March 1972
THE Fox in Crydon, Surrey, is a very long way indeed from the Grande Ballroom in Dee-troit, Michigan, and the MC5 were a very long ...
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, 4 March 1972
IT COMES AS something of a shock when the MC5 – long since branded as a revolutionary and rather spine-jarring band – looks deep into ...
Syd Barrett: The Madcap returns
Report by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972
SYD BARRETT'S new band, Stars, made their strange debut at Cambridge Corn Exchange last week. Roy Hollingworth reports... ...
Interview by Nick Kent, Friends/Frendz, 31 March 1972
NICK: Firstly, why the move to Europe? ...
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, April 1972
MC5 decided to conduct their interview with me in one of their cupboard-size hotel bedrooms. On the door was a poster of Chairman Mao, on ...
Overview by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, December 1972
DETROIT, FOUNDED in 1736 by a turncoat (to both sides) halfbreed Indian named Quazimodo from the Kuitee tribe which dwelled circa 1670-1777 on the shores ...
Kramer Climbs Back From MC5 Wreckage
Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 27 April 1974
NEW BAND AND A NEW IMAGE: Mick Farren in Detroit ...
Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 14 December 1974
THOSE FUN lovers from the motor city, the Stooges and the MC5, are winding up for another rampage. Of course, we've heard tales like this ...
MC5: Kick Out The Jams (Elektra)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 4 June 1977
‘BROTHERS AND sisters...the time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you are going to be the problem or whether ...
Motorhead, Mighty Diamonds et al: Singles Reviews
Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 25 June 1977
REVIEWED BY PAUL SIMENON (BASS) AND RODENT (ROADIE) OF THE CLASH. TRANSCRIPTIONS: GIOVANNI DADOMO (AMATEUR) ...
The MC5: How the Jams Were Kicked Out!
Retrospective by John Sinclair, ZigZag, July 1977
In Britain, the MC5 are now far more popular than they ever were in their heyday – a fact which has prompted the recent re-release ...
Danny Fields: The Fields Connection
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 9 July 1977
The Doors, MC5, Iggy & The Stooges, John Cale, Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers and The Ramones — without them the last ten years of ...
Wayne Kramer: Broke, Busted, Disgusted, Agents Can't Be Trusted
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 20 August 1977
Former MC5 guitarist WAYNE KRAMER live from Lexington Penitentiary, talks to MAX BELL about times past and time passing ...
The Sex Pistols: Kick out the jams
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 August 1977
IT CONTRAVENES logic, but there is little doubt in my mind that the most important record of the past year is the Sex Pistols' 'God ...
The Return of the MC5's Rob Tyner
Report and Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 1 October 1977
'Vocalist with legendary Detroit rock band seeks gig with hot British combo. Has own harp...' ...
Rob Tyner: The Secret Life Of The MC5
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1977
ROB TYNER, NOW fronting a new MC5 after about four years away from the stage, was recently in this country to check out what's going ...
Wayne Kramer Forgets The Motor City
Interview by Mark Williams, Melody Maker, 17 March 1979
"SOMETIMES we used to pass the Milan jail when the MC5 were driving to gigs outside of Detroit, and I used to look up at ...
MC5: Kicking Out The Jams With The Motor City Rebels
Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, The History of Rock, 1983
"If you take everything in the universe and break it down to a common denominator, all you've got is energy", said the MC5's Wayne Kramer ...
MC5: Babes In Arms (ROIR cassette)
Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 20 August 1983
IDEALLY VLADIMIR Mayakovsky should be sitting down to this review, because never before or since has there been a band quite like the MC5 – ...
After the Revolution: the Legacy of the MC5
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, November 1990
SOMEWHERE THERE exists an alternate universe in which the MC5 became the biggest band in history — bigger than the Beatles (their ambition), bigger than ...
MC5: Young, Powerful and Full Of Sperm
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 7 December 1991
It wasn't all flowers and freedom in the '60s for Detroit's finest rock'n'revolutionary band the MC5, whose legendary 1968 debut LP Kick Out The Jams, ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, January 1992
DETROIT'S ECLECTIC, MILITANT-HIPPY combo MC5 were the ultimate in late '60s punkadelia. Though they never sold any significant quantity of records, the influence of their ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1992
THE recent reissue of MC5's incendiary live album Kick Out The Jams, with the contentious "motherfuckers" rap reinstated in place of the toned down "brothers ...
Review by Jon Savage, Dave DiMartino, MOJO, February 2000
First overall retrospective of seminal late ‘60s/early ‘70s rabble rousers: includes material from all stages of their career. ...
From The Vaults: A Look Back at Bad-Boy Pioneers MC5, Stooges
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 25 March 2000
RECORDINGS OF THESE TWO MIDWEST REBEL BANDS REVEAL THE HUGE INFLUENCE THEIR LANGUAGE AND SOUND HAVE HAD ON CURRENT ACTS. ...
Interview by Ian Fortnam, music365.com, April 2000
DETROIT, MICHIGAN’S Motor City 5 slicked their savage, sonic sedition with pure, high octane, rock ‘n’ roll rocket fuel. When they initially spat their fretboard ...
The MC5: The Battle Of New York
Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, September 2002
AS THEIR FLIGHT FROM DETROIT TOUCHED DOWN AT NEW York's LaGuardia Airport on Thursday, December 26, 1968, the MC5 figured they had the future by ...
MC5 members and friends: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 21 March 2003
FORGED IN DETROIT in 1965, the MC5 played rock'n'roll in an America where motorbike police charged their fans, and ferment and trouble trailed the band ...
MC5: Motor Boys Motor: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2003
What's left of the MC5 kick out those jams again with help (and hindrance) from Dave Vanian, Ian Astbury and a razor-sharp Lemmy ...
DKT/MC5: The Truest Possible Testimonial
Report by John Sinclair, Detroit Metro Times, 9 June 2004
IT'S BEEN MORE than 10 years since Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson took the stage together in Detroit at Rob Tyner's memorial concert ...
Report and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, September 2004
EVERYONE knows the old saw about the Eskimos having over 400 words for snow and the Parisians' two-dozen fevered phrases for passion. ...
The Top 10 Psychedelic Moments in Rock
Comment by Lenny Kaye, Harp, May 2005
Mind expansion. The walls are breathing. Herewith, a personal list of a trip into the whirlpool of creation. ...
MC5: The making of Kick Out The Jams
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Uncut, May 2007
How Wayne Kramer and his Detroit proto punks turned a stage heckle into a battle cry to herald the death of the hippy dream ...
Memoirs of rock mentor John Sinclair
Profile and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, The Sunday Times, 29 March 2009
Poet, activist, entrepreneur, critic, journalist, manager of MC5 and kingpin of US punk scene still performing and writing. ...
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Cincinnati CityBeat, 23 October 2018
Kramer and members of Soundgarden, Faith No More and Fugazi perform MC5 classics at Bogart's on Oct. 25. ...
The 30 best live concert albums of all time
Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020
LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...
see also Wayne Kramer
see also Sonic's Rendezvous Band
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