MC5 - Future Now
Alongside their Detroit-area brethren the Stooges, the MC5 essentially laid the foundations for the emergence of punk. Deafeningly loud and uncompromisingly intense, the group's politics were ultimately as crucial as their music. Their revolutionary sloganeering and anti-establishment outrage crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening. Under the guidance of svengali John Sinclair (the infamous founder of the radical White Panther Party), the MC5 celebrated the holy trinity of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Their incendiary live sets offering a defiantly bacchanalian counterpoint to the peace-and-love reveries of their hippie contemporaries. Although corporate censorship, label interference, and legal hassles combined to cripple the band's hopes of mainstream notoriety, both their sound and their sensibility remain seminal influences on successive generations of artists.
MC5 had a promising beginning which earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams. Their initial run was short-lived, though. In 1972, just years after their debut record, the band came to an end. MC5 was often cited as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
Here is the CD I made from the first three albums. Tonight's nugget is their best song to me.
MC5 VOL. 1
KICK OUT THE JAMS
1) Ramblin' Rose 2) Kick Out The Jams 3) Come Together
4) Rocket Reducer No. 5 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa) 5) Borderline
6) Motor City Is Burning 7) I Want You Right Now
BACK IN THE USA
8) Tonight 9) Looking At You 10) The American Ruse
11) The Human Being Lawnmower
HIGH TIME
12) Sister Anne 13) Baby Won't Ya 14) Gotta Keep Movin'
15) Future / Now 16) Poison 17) Over And Over 18) Skunk
(Sonically Speaking)
Future Now
Alongside their Detroit-area brethren the Stooges, the MC5 essentially laid the foundations for the emergence of punk. Deafeningly loud and uncompromisingly intense, the group's politics were ultimately as crucial as their music. Their revolutionary sloganeering and anti-establishment outrage crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening. Under the guidance of svengali John Sinclair (the infamous founder of the radical White Panther Party), the MC5 celebrated the holy trinity of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Their incendiary live sets offering a defiantly bacchanalian counterpoint to the peace-and-love reveries of their hippie contemporaries. Although corporate censorship, label interference, and legal hassles combined to cripple the band's hopes of mainstream notoriety, both their sound and their sensibility remain seminal influences on successive generations of artists.
MC5 had a promising beginning which earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams. Their initial run was short-lived, though. In 1972, just years after their debut record, the band came to an end. MC5 was often cited as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
Here is the CD I made from the first three albums. Tonight's nugget is their best song to me.
MC5 VOL. 1
KICK OUT THE JAMS
1) Ramblin' Rose 2) Kick Out The Jams 3) Come Together
4) Rocket Reducer No. 5 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa) 5) Borderline
6) Motor City Is Burning 7) I Want You Right Now
BACK IN THE USA
8) Tonight 9) Looking At You 10) The American Ruse
11) The Human Being Lawnmower
HIGH TIME
12) Sister Anne 13) Baby Won't Ya 14) Gotta Keep Movin'
15) Future / Now 16) Poison 17) Over And Over 18) Skunk
(Sonically Speaking)
Future Now
