Like many music fans of my generation, I was turned on to the MC5 by At The Drive-In, or at least journalists writing about At The Drive-In - a classic gateway drug situation, and one for which I'm very glad. Debut album Kick Out The Jams is as thrillingly raucous an aural stimulant as you'll hear.
With the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a new album, Heavy Lifting, released a mere 53 years after the last (take note, My Bloody Valentine, you lightweights), Daniel Dylan Wray has written an excellent beginners' guide to the only band that can possibly rival fellow Detroiters the Stooges in the proto-punk stakes.
Musically, the MC5 y were "a fiery mix of hard rock, free jazz, touches of psychedelia, and a blisteringly unique tone"; politically, they fearlessly flew the anti-Vietnam and anti-racism flags and took pot-shots at conservative and corporate America, inevitably putting a few noses out of joint.
With the aid of a few interviewees (including Tom Morello and Alice In Chains' William DuVall, both of whom guest on Heavy Lifting), Wray does a sterling job of conveying just how exciting they were. Sadly, the past tense is apposite - the deaths of Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson this year means that there are now no founding members left, so Heavy Lifting serves as an epitaph.
No comments:
Post a Comment