Consumer Guide Album

Wayne Kramer: Citizen Wayne [Epitaph, 1997]
The punk line on the MC5 is that their revolutionary pretensions were imposed by conniving hippie John Sinclair. So how come it was Fred Smith who got "People Got the Power" out of Patti? And how come Wayne Kramer has now enlisted ex-rad David Was in the most political record of either career? Despite one small-minded sectarian dis--nobody in my Trotskyite cell would be so gauche as to serve chips with pesto, let me assure you--these songs talk class and counterculture simultaneously, a rare thing, especially with the emphasis on the class. And musically, the two Detroiters tear up each other's roots as Was tilts Kramer's good old guitar toward the avant-funk it has long since deserved. A−