MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
His actual review of the album isn't anywhere near as scathing as people pretend it is. It is a decadent album, it was way overhyped, but it is easy to learn to love it and change your mind. In fact, the only thing you can't do is get over the sheer shock of Wayne Kramer's falsetto on Ramblin' Rose. I still laugh every time. I can't help it, it's so shocking it's funny.
What are we really dealing with here? Well, it's proto punk, it lives in that weird space between Ziggy Stardust glam and the Sex Pistols grotesque downward spiral. These guys were the real deal. They actually made more money playing shows than they did at their day jobs, so they quit going to work. They upstaged Big Brother and the Holding Company and Cream when they opened for either. At no point did they ever need to make an actual record. But, when they finally did it was a big deal. Remember that DNC riot from the liner notes of Chicago Transit Authority? Yeah, MC5 played for 8 goddamned hours there 'cause nobody else dared step out on stage. That reminds me of that hilarious Melanie concert powered by ice cream trucks. Man, the late 60s make our modern day hissy fit over public health and safety look like a kindergarden scuffle over who gets to sleep on the pink yoga mat.
It's a bottle review, so i'm allowed to call you a moron if you think corporate america is doing a good job at any of the things they are doing on publicly broadcasted radio. I don't need a pundit to tell me how stupid the words these 4 and 5 digit morons vomit on a daily basis, i heard them say it (for the record, i'm a 3 digit moron and those numbers refer to the average daily balance of your checking account). If you're even the tiniest bit comforted by anything a broadcast personality says at the moment, then please unfriend me in real life.
Now, before you get all defensive about your 0.3% dividend for investing in the hedge fund that invested in Sandra Marmaduke's Mailboxes By Mail, or Bankrupt a Trucking Company and Sons, please remember that that money was withheld from someone else's paycheck. In real life, owning a company is the way you document losses from your actual income to lower your tax liability. Finding just the right amount of failure is the key.
Sorry, i got sidetracked. What Lester actually learned later was that these people were good people, and that the ridiculous spectacle was the whole point. They were a band of crazy working class people who truly believed that this was as good a dream life as anyone could ask for. Look, you and your 4 friends aren't practicing every night in Kyle's garage to not wear sparkly capes and be sheer mayhem. No, you're in it to hear 500 people scream and dance around like maniacs while you act ad ridiculous as possible.
To be sure, there's a heavy left political spin. However, that spin is much more clear and direct on this album than most anywhere else. It's not militant, it's not offensive, it's simply the notion that being rich doesn't make you better than anyone else. Especially when your money came from the labor of people you pretend are somehow "less" than you. MC5 spent all that money making their show bigger and even more ridiculous because that's the whole point of it all.
Plus, i must have like the best pressing ever because this is probably the third best live recording i've heard. Go read forums. Everybody says it's sounds tinny and overproduced, and i'm like whaaa? The Stones' vinyl mastering is crap, this sounds great. It's supposed to sound like the speakers in their amps are about to shred, that's not fake tube sag, the vocals are actually audible, and the crowd noise isn't making it unlistenable at all.
Anywho, if you've never actually listened to the first MC5 album Kick Out The Jams, you really should. It took me 2 or 3 times to warm up to it, but yeah it's a great little piece of anarchy sure to exacerbate your tinnitus in a good way.
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