MC5

MC5, also commonly called The MC5, is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The original line-up consisted of Rob Tyner (vocals) Wayne Kramer (guitar), Fred "Sonic" Smith (guitar), Michael Davis (bass), and Dennis Thompson (drums). MC5 was listed by VH1 as one of the most important American rock acts of their era. Their three albums are regarded by many as classics, and their 1969 song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.
"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging innovators of the punk movement in the United States.[citation needed] Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.
MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance in Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut live album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the original lineup disbanded in 1972.
Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.