MC5‘s Wayne Kramer has announced that he will be heading out on tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MC5‘s debut album “Kick Out The Jams.” He will be performing the effort in full along with other fan favorites every night. The lineup for the trek will include Kramer along with Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Doug Pinnick (King’s X, KXM), Brendan Canty (Fugazi), and Marcus Durant (Zen Guerilla). Dates have yet to be announced, but the trek is expected to start in September and run through October. So far, an October 27 show has been announced at The Fillmore in Detroit, MI.
In other news, Kramer will be releasing his new memoir “The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, The MC5, And My Life Of Impossibilities” on August 14, via Da Capo Press. The following synopsis was shared for that:
“In January 1969, before the world heard a note of their music, The MC5 was on the cover of Rolling Stone. The missing link between free jazz and punk rock, they were raw, primal, and, when things were clicking, absolutely unstoppable.
Led by legendary guitarist Wayne Kramer, The MC5 was a reflection of the times: exciting, sexy, violent, chaotic, and out of control, all but assuring their time in the spotlight would be short-lived. They toured the country, played with music legends, and had a rabid following, their music acting as the soundtrack to the blue collar youth movement springing up across the nation.
Kramer wanted to redefine what a rock ‘n’ roll group was capable of, and there was power in reaching for that, but it was also a recipe for disaster, both personally and professionally. The band recorded three major label albums but, by 1972, it was all over.
Kramer‘s story is a revolutionary one, but it’s also the deeply personal struggle of an addict and an artist, a rebel with a great tale to tell. The ’60s were not all peace and love, but Kramer shows that peace and love can be born out of turbulence and unrest.
From the glory days of Detroit to the junk-sick streets of the East Village, from Key West to Nashville and sunny L.A., in and out of prison and on and off of drugs, his is the classic journeyman narrative, but with a twist: he’s here to remind us that revolution is always an option.”
It looks like Marilyn Manson’s upcoming video for “Tattooed In Reverse“ will feature Courtney Love as a nurse. A teaser for the clip can be found below. The song appears on his latest release “Heaven Upside Down.“
Awhile back, Underoath stopped calling themselves a Christian band, and now Spencer Chamberlain has offered more insight into that decision, during an interview with Revolver. According to him, stripping the label was “one of the best things [they] ever did.”
“I think that whole idea of spelling it out was a no-brainer for us. If anyone understands how a band works it’s really really hard to juggle all those relationships and personalities. Then in addition to all of that we were adding religion to it and holding people accountable to different things as they’re growing up and learning about themselves and telling them, “You have to be like me, do the things that I’m doing.”
I don’t care what fucking religion you are, that’s so not what it’s about. It’s not about a unit moving together, it’s about a bunch of people growing up on their own. It was so much pressure and everything you did — no pun intended — you were crucified for. You couldn’t do anything without someone being angry. People don’t realize how much that weighs on you.”
My drug problem was very public and all of the Christian community hated me. I was struggling and all I was getting was hate, like, all I’m having is people tell me how shitty I am all the time. That’s not love, that’s not comfortable. The most alone and isolated I’ve ever been in my life is when I considered myself a Christian, personally.
Because I had real issues going on in my life and no one could talk to me about it. There was no help. There was nothing. It was just hide it, don’t talk about because if you do you’re not Christian and the band can’t go on anymore and that’s such an unrealistic thing. Life happens, people deal with stuff differently. It was driving us all apart and it was making things really unhealthy and I had a huge problem with calling the band a Christian band.”
“I think part of music and art is stirring the pot. One of the best things we ever did was when we agreed not to be a Christian band anymore, and when we made this record the [phrase] “That’s not Underoath enough” was not allowed to be said because those two things fucking ruined our band in the first place. We couldn’t grow musically and we couldn’t grow individually and once we let that stuff go we became a healthy happy family that got along and were able create music again.
I’ve been off drugs for over a year and I know that was able to happen because we just let all those titles and restrictions go. That’s beautiful to me and if people are mad about that they can be mad all they want. I’m at a point in life where I can happy and healthy and they really want us to be a metal band and a Christian band again? I would be dead by now. I would be miserable — and overdosed on drugs — and there wouldn’t be an Underoath.”
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