Anthology 1965-1971

Check out the incredible remastering job of this 2008 MC5 collection — the guitars, drums, bass and vocals are separated and balanced so well that it sounds like you’re listening to playbacks off the studio mixing board. Spanning six years and digging 25 songs deep into the cream of this seminal Detroit band’s crop, Anthology 1965-1971 is sequenced non-chronologically opening with the original uncensored version of band’s most popular/infamous song “Kick Out the Jams” before downshifting into the infectiously jangly “Shakin’ Street” which plays like a Sonny & Cher tune with muscle. “American Ruse” picks up some lyrical political dissent from mid-‘60s protest folk and drops it smack-dab into 1969’s fist-pumping, ballroom-era hard-rock before the explosive “Skunk (Sonically Speaking)” detonates giving listeners a good understanding as to why wildman drummer Dennis Thompson was nicknamed “Machine Gun.” This tune also boasts one of Rob Tyner’s best-recorded vocal performances. A rare 1966 cover of Mike Coulter and Tommy Scott’s garage-rock classic “I Can Only Give You Everything” finds Tyner in fantastic form.