• 12-01-2008, 09:16 AM
    Swish
    Week 16: 25 Best Live Records of All Time.
    Well, I suppose this one won't get trashed like J.B. did last week, and this will probably silence those who don't want any more obscure selections either.

    10) Kick Out the Jams--MC5: Nothing like a band who records their debut album live in front of a real audience. The record company probably liked the idea because they then didn’t have to worry about excessive, wasteful studio dates. And the band was happy because no producer came in to commercialize their sound. So instead you end up with a chaotic mess that’s all the better because it is a chaotic mess, which was the whole point to begin with.

    Only 9 more weeks to go. Comments?

    Swish
  • 12-01-2008, 10:02 AM
    MindGoneHaywire
    The record is almost unlistenably bad past Kick Out The Jams. I think it's as shrill as KISS Alive 72 or whatever the number on that pile o'crap is.

    Great band that there are very few documents of that don't suck for one reason or another. Worship of this record is BS. I can see releasing it, but not the hipster hero worship for a band that deserved a much better career. The Stooges might not have even ever gotten it down on wax, I don't think the original incarnation of the Dolls did, either. But the Stooges, at least, are far better represented. The records that sound most like what I can only imagine this band truly sounded like are the original singles recorded before this record...and the painfully few live video clips.

    This guy's a turd for listing this here unless he apologized by offering that even though it's hipster posing...that it might just be necessary in some 'rock canon' sense. But he didn't, even though he did at least mention that it's a chaotic mess. I like a good chaotic mess, and this is maybe a decent chaotic mess. But from where I sit it's far from a great live album: considering its pedigree, it's something I would tend to reach for and continue to play again & again. Instead, the once every few years that I pull it out it still sounds like the same overrated headache-inducing nonsense.

    Sad.
  • 12-01-2008, 11:55 AM
    3-LockBox
    You see, for me, a great live album means everyone at the top of their game, and that includes roadies and sound men. I don't give a crap how fierce the singing, playing or message is...out of tune instruments, out of sync playing, feedback and mics coming in-and-out...it all adds up to a bad time, not to mention a crappy album.