MC5 "Kick Out the Jams" (Rocktober 2023)

MC5 was an American rock band from Lincoln Park, Michigan, formed in 1964. "Crystallizing the counter culture movement at it's most volatile and threatening," according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, MC5's far left political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock. 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. MC5 was often cited as one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era and their three albums are regarded by many as classics.