If the descriptor "first album in over 50 years" has ever been used before, it certainly hasn't been often.
It can legitimately be applied to the MC5's "Heavy Lifting," the first album from the Detroit proto-punk band since its third album, "High Time," in 1971.
Guitarist Wayne Kramer is the lone original member carrying on the name of the provocative leftist band that was on stage (for eight hours) during the riotous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and redefined hard rock with the 1969 classic "Kick Out the Jams." MC5, which incorporated blues, garage-rock, psychedelia and free jazz, enjoyed limited commercial success and was beset by drug, production and label problems before signing off on Dec. 31, 1972.
