Albums by MC5
ALBUMHigh TimeMC5
ALBUMBack In the USAMC5
ALBUMKick Out the JamsMC5
Artist Playlists
MC5 Essentials
These Motor City rockers paved the way for high-energy, politically charged music.
MC5: Influences
The psych punks worshipped British rockers, R&B, and free jazz.
Inspired by MC5
The '60s proto-punks blazed a trail for rock to rage against the machine.
MC5: Deep Cuts
Blues, free jazz, and '50s rock lurk inside their proto-punk.
Artist Biography
Alongside their Detroit-area brethren the Stooges, MC5 essentially laid the foundations for the emergence of punk; deafeningly loud and uncompromisingly intense, their revolutionary sloganeering and anti-establishment outrage crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening. The band barreled furiously through a brief initial run before disintegrating by the early '70s, leaving behind a legacy of controversy and three electrifying albums that would set the course for punk, hard rock, and all stripes of heavy music that followed. As classic MC5 material like 1969's bombastic live set Kick Out the Jams was discovered by new generations of listeners and artists alike, various reunion tours and re-formations ensued. In 2022, a new version of the band was preparing both a tour and a new recording, which would be the first album of all-new studio material from the MC5 in over 50 years.
Hometown
Lincoln Park, MI, United States
Genre
Rock