John Sinclair to make rare NYC appearance, Oct 17, with Adventures In Bluesland

For the true revolutionaries: From Phil Gammage (he of Adventures In Bluesland), comes word of this rare NYC appearance by the one & only John Sinclair on October 17.  Go on and kick out some jams!

ATTN: Drum Nuts - Ever dream about owning a legends kit?

Now is your chance. Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson of the MC5 is making this vintage Ludwig set available. For much more info, including a contact address, do a drum fill on over to his website.

Movie of the Week: MC5 - A True Testimonial (2002)

If you've never seen this, and are interested, I highly suggest you watch it pronto...who knows how long it will be available on YouTube? This is, by far, one of the best rockumentaries out there. Not to mention the band wasn't too shabby either.

MC5 "Borderline" shipping box addressed to John Sinclair (1968)

Here's a very cool bit of ephemera as seen last week in the collection of the Archive of Contemporary Music - a cardboard box used to ship copies of the MC5's second single, 1968's "Borderline" b/w "Looking At You" on the A-Sqaure label run by Jeep Holland. Its addressed to MC5 manager John Sinclair.

The first of the two bi-annual sales at the Archive is coming up soon beginning June 8 and running through June 16. Click the website link above or visit them on Facebook here.

Gets You There On Time: John Sinclair business card

John Sinclair business card, circa 1967, courtesy of Marty at Ephemera. Its up for auction on eBay for about two more days. Check it out here.

Friday Ephemera: Detroit

 Courtesy of Detroit Rock City

Friday Ephemera - Phun City (1970)

Image courtesy of Mick Farren. Phun City was a one off UK rock festival in 1970 put together by Farren, and headlined by the MC5. There's a very thorough website dedicated to it here, but the best account can be found in Farren's HIGHLY recommended memoir, Give The Anarchist A Cigarette.

Movie of the Week - The MC5: Live on the Beat Club (1972)

Explosive!

1. Kick Out the Jams - 0:00
2. Ramblin' Rose - 9:03
3. Motor City's Burning - 13:00
4. Tonight - 18:15
5. Black To Comm - 26:20

The MC5 and The Stooges play Queens, 1969

Thanks as always to Its All The Streets who are big shots now that Douglas Wolk & the Rolling Stone tumblr posted about them - they're just finding out what we've known for ages!

Michael Davis (MC5) RIP

Michael Davis, MC5 (far left)

Michael Davis - RIP 

"...I had an acoustic guitar and I used to sing folk music and Bob Dylan songs. I loved rock and roll though. I grew up with it in the '50's. I was DEEPLY into R&B and everything that was on the radio. I was deeply into music but I was not a musician at the time.

So I went out there and saw those guys place in Detroit at this small bar. After they finished their set, I went over to say hi to Rob and he introduced me to Wayne and Fred. I had made a radical purchase of some brown Beatle boots. Wayne was like 'Where did you get those boots! Who is this guy?' 

Basically, I had been to art school at Wayne University and my whole direction in life was to be an artist and do drawings and paintings. Wayne and I got to talking and we hit it off pretty good. We became friends almost immediately. Like I said, I was a bit older than those guys and travelled around the country a little bit so I had some things to say about what was going on outside of Detriot. This was of enormous interest to them. I lived in New York, down on the Lower East Side. Anything I had to say about my travels was fascinating to them, particularly to Wayne.

We became pretty good friends and started hanging out. Within a short amount of time, Wayne and I both decided that it would be great if I was in the band. So I decided to start learning the parts to the different songs to see if I could pick it up. It was a short matter of time before the bass player that was in the band coincidentally quit so I was right there to step into the slot. I might have practiced for two weeks on my own. The first gig I played with them was at my alma mater, Wayne State University." - Continued at Perfect Sound Forever

More eBay vinyl fun - Small Faces! MC5! Moby Grape! Buffalo Springfield!

SMALL FACES Ogdens Nut Gone LP UK Mono 1st press Lilac label

SMALL FACES Autumn Stone LP UK 1969 heavy vinyl pink label 1st press RARE NM

SMALL FACES There Are But Four LP 1968 Immediate CBS

SMALL FACES s/t Immediate LP UK Mono 1st press 1967 Lilac label

BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD Again LP UK Pressing Stills Young fully laminated cover

BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD Best of/Retrospective 2xLP Stills Young SEALED!

BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD Last Time Around LP 1968 Stills Young

MOBY GRAPE Grape Jam LP 2xEye Columbia Al Kooper Mike Bloomfield

MOBY GRAPE Wow LP 2xEye Columbia 1968

MOBY GRAPE s/t debut LP w/finger 2xEye Columbia

MC5 Back In The USA LP Atlantic 1970 early press Stooges Detroit

MC5 High Time LP Atlantic 1971 early press Stooges Detroit NM

Before and After: Looking At You

Before - MC5:


After - the Damned:

Before and After: Ramblin' Rose

Before:


After:


Thanks again to Mr. Lee.

Friday Ephemera - The MC5 and Stooges in Queens 1969

Signed DC over at All the Streets You Crossed keeps obsessively bringing it by scouring the Village Voice archives on Google. Today she posted the two goodies here, vintage 1969 ads for the Stooges debut in NYC, and a different ad for the same MC5-headlined show with the Stooges supporting. Click thru to her site and see MUCH more...

MC5 - Gold again

In 1972, the MC5 had three songs used on a soundtrack for a long forgotten film entitled Gold. It turns out that this film will be getting the reissue treatment at the end of July. As it says on IMDB, the tagline for the film was "A turned on tale of the new American dream." Okay... If you can tell me what this means after watching the trailer below you're a better man than I.

Although it will be interesting to hear the MC5's music in the context of the movie, something tells me the music itself is the best part. If you want to skip the movie, pick up a copy of Babes In Arms from ROIR - a long in-print compilation of MC5 rarities that is out of this world.



Thanks to Retro Kimmer for the news. Read more about Gold and the MC5, and download a clip of the film here.

Sue Rynski Photography

Take a glimpse into the Detroit rock underground of the late 70's with Michigan-born/Paris-based photographer, Sue Rynski. Below are Ron Asheton & Dennis 'Machine Gun' Thompson messing around in some back room. I like the t-shirt Dennis is wearing. Read a 2003 interview with Rynski at the I-94 Bar.


Thanks to Kimmer for the tip.

Louder Than Love - the Grande Ballroom Story

I thought I had posted about this last year but I couldn't find it in the archives. Anyway, here is a clip from an upcoming documentary about Detroit's famous Grande Ballroom. The Grande was the main live rock venue for Detroit, on par with the Fillmore theaters of the time, in the mid-late sixties. Most of the bigger touring rock bands of the era played there like the Who and (the) Creem, amongst many others. But more importantly, it was also the breeding ground for the incredible scene of homegrown Michigan bands like the Stooges & especially the MC5.

LOUDER THAN LOVE-The Grande Ballroom Story from Tony D'Annunzio. Hat tip to Machine Gun Thompson & Kimmer for the tip.

UPDATE: I found the older post I mention at the beginning of this one - from May of 2009.

Machine Gun gets good letters

"When I started 7th grade in the fall of '69 I was lost - new school, bullied by the derelicts in my neighborhood, turned on by my other neighborhood "friends". I was a wreck, and the only thing that helped me survive psychologically was music. The MC5 and Blue Cheer became my best friends that fall."

This is what it's all about.

The hippies dig some punk

Things got pleasantly all punk rock this week over at Wolfgang's Vault...Here's a preview, including cuts from the Nuns & the Avengers when they opened for the Sex Pistols at their last show in San Francisco in January 1978. Everything is kicked off, fittingly enough, by the MC5's spiritual advisor, Brother J.C. Crawford.

MC5 at the Grande Ballroom 10/30/1968:


The Avengers & the Nuns at Winterland 1/14/1978 opening for the Sex Pistols:




The Sex Pistols at Winterland 1/14/1978:


The Runaways at the Palladium (NYC) 1/7/1978:


X at L'Amour (Brooklyn) 11/26/1983:

Just Because - the MC5

The MC5, Rolling Stone Magazine, January 4, 1969. Read Machine Gun Thompson today!