More than half a century after the release of the last MC5 album, 1971’s High Time, a new album masterminded by the group’s guitarist Wayne Kramer, who died in February, will come out this fall. The record, Heavy Lifting, includes two songs that feature original MC5 drummer Dennis “Machine Gun” …
Read More »MC5 to Release New Album 'Heavy Lifting,' First LP in 53 Years
Proto-punk legends MC5 will release their first album in over 53 years this October, with Heavy Lifting arriving just months after the deaths of guitarist Wayne Kramer and drummer Dennis Thompson, MC5’s last surviving original members. Back in 2022, Kramer first revealed that the band, along with producer Bob Ezrin, …
Read More »Dennis Thompson, MC5 Drummer and Last Surviving Original Member, Dead at 75
Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson, the founding MC5 drummer and the last surviving original member of the pioneering proto-punk group, died Wednesday, The Detroit Free Press reported. He was 75. An exact cause of death was not given, though Thompson had reportedly suffered a series of medical issues in recent months, …
Read More »John Sinclair, Poet, MC5 Manager, and Activist, Dead at 82
John Sinclair — the celebrated counterculture icon, poet, and political activist who advocated for cannabis and rock & roll and managed the MC5 — died on Tuesday at the age of 82. Matt Lee, a representative for Sinclair, confirmed to The Detroit News that he died of congestive heart failure. …
Read More »Wayne Kramer's Rage Against the Prison Machine
This article was produced by Capital & Main. It is co-published in partnership with Rolling Stone. In many ways,rock musician Wayne Kramer was a true radical. The former guitarist for the protopunk band the MC5 — who died Feb. 2 of cancer at age 75 — was known for the …
Read More »Wayne Kramer Looks Back at the MC5 and His Wild Life
Wayne Kramer, who died Feb. 2 at the age of 75, lived a truly rock n’ roll life, from his gloriously unhinged guitar playing with influential proto-punk revolutionaries MC5 to a prison term, years of addiction, and a musical comeback in the Nineties. In this 2018 interview, previously available only …
Read More »Wayne Kramer, MC5 Co-Founder and Activist, Dead at 75
Wayne Kramer, founding member of the legendary Detroit proto-punk outfit MC5 and one of rock’s greatest guitarists, has died at the age of 75. The singer-songwriter-political activist’s death was announced Friday via his official social media accounts. Kramer died at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles from pancreatic cancer, Jason Heath, …
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