free jazz

MC5's Wayne Kramer on why the protopunk legends reformed⁠—interview

MC5 began in the Detroit suburb of Lincoln Park, Michigan in 1963. They were initially the classic American garage band, happy to play three sets per night of Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry and R&B covers in the area’s teen clubs for Cokes and Coney Islands afterward. Then they discovered ultra-loud amps, feedback, the higher energy/more […]

11 bands that shaped Detroit punk, from MC5 to the White Stripes

Detroit in the 1950s and ‘60s was a “boomtown,” according to MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. “It was the manufacturing center of the world,” he wrote in the October 2003 issue of Mojo magazine. “If you wanted it built, we could build it in Detroit. Jobs were there for anyone willing to put in an honest […]

20 songs that transformed punk, from "Raw Power" to "Rebel Girl"

There are a lot of people out there who know what punk rock is but have no idea how to explain it to a novice or an outsider. It would seem simple enough to define it as “three-chord teenage rebel music,” but what about all those songs that have four or more chords? Or all […]