“Heavy Lifting” – which is being marketed as the first MC5 studio album in 53 years – is out on October 18.

Led by late founding member Wayne Kramer (pictured right) and recorded with iconic producer Bob Ezrin (Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, KISS), the album features original Five drummer, also late Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson, on two tracks along with special guests including Slash, Tom Morello, William DuVall (Alice in Chains), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Don Was, and Tim McIlrath (Rise Against).

"Heavy Lifting" will be on LP and CD with a bonus disc of live tracks by MC50, the band Kramer fronted on a world tour to showcase MC5 songs for the 50th anniversary.

earMUSIC will release the album a  day prior to the MC5’s induction into 2024’s Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

It had to happen: Californian imprint PR Press is publishing a ground-breaking new book on Australian punk, “Orstralia: A Punk History 1974–1989” by Tristan Clark, on July 9. And on the same date, Clark will self-publish a companion volume “Orstralia: A Punk History 1990 –1999”.

"Ostralia: A Punk History"will be the first comprehensive overview of the story of Australian “punk”, from its beginnings as an underground movement in the '70s through the emergence of hardcore in the '80s, and extending into its commercial ascent in the '90s.  

Both volumes seek to go beyond the music to take in cultural context and sociological concerns. They tell the story on a city-by-city basis with regional centres also covered.  

Author Tristan Clark has been involved in the Melbourne punk scene for mor than three decades. He has done his homework. Clark conducted 130 interviews, with members of The Saints, Radio Birdman, Boys Next Door/Birthday Party, Babeez/News, Victims, Leftovers,  Fun Things, Zero, Psycho Surgeons and X, through to the likes of Depression, Hard-Ons, Cosmic Psychos and Grong Grong, TheLiving End, Bodyjar and Frenzal Rhomb.

Legendary garage rockers, The Stems, have announced supports, an extra show and one venue shift on their tour to celebrate 40 years. .

Power-pop rockers The Prize will kick off the national run as support for both the August 24 show at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne and a newly-added date at the Theatre Royal at Castlemaine in August 24.

Adelaide can expect the dark folk-pop of Romana Ashton & The Reeds as support. Acclaimed indie-pop rock outfit Ups And Downs are set for the Brisbane gig, which is now at the Mansfield Tavern.

In Sydney, The Stems will be joined by The New Christs. The Rinehearts have the main support in WA with Fremantle alt-rock four-piece Vancool opening.

The Stems
40^th Anniversary Australian Tour
AUG
+ The Prize
23 - Theatre Royal, Castlemaine. VIC
+ The Prize
24 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
+ Romana Ashton & The Reeds
25 – The Gov, Adelaide
+ Ups & Downs
30 – Mansfield Tavern, Brisbane
+ New Christs
31 – Manning Bar, Sydney
SEP 
+ The Rhinehearts
+ Vancool
5 – Freo Social, Fremantle
Tickets here

It will be a gathering of the faithful when some of Michigan’s most respected and enduring rock and roll acts take to the stage at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor for “A Tribute to The MC5” on June 9.

A fundraiser for the late Wayne Kramer’s Jail Guitar Doors Foundation that uses music to rehabilitate jail inmates, it was instigated by former Scott Morgan’s Powertrane bassist and current Mazinga member, Chris “Box” Taylor after the recent passing of the Five’s last man standing, drummer Dennis Thompson.

Musical anniversaries are coming at us coming quicker than a Dee Dee Ramone "1-2-3-4" count-in, but there’s a special place in Australian rock and roll sensibilities for the 40^th birthday of the seminal Hoodoo Gurus album “Stoneage Romeos”.

The band has already unveiled vinyl and CD re-issues of the their debut LP and there’s a run of Australian dates in November and December this year on which the Gurus will reprise the long-player from go to whoa.

Originally released in March 1984, “Stoneage Romeos” featured the hits “Leilani”, “Tojo”, “My Girl” and “I Want You Back”. It reached #29 on the Australian Album Chart and went on to win Best Debut Album at the 1984 Countdown Awards. “Stoneage Romeos” has consistently appeared in the Top 10 on almost every Top 50 and Top 100 Australian album lists.

 _{Grande Ballroom image by Norm Lye.}

Vale Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson, who was Last Man Standing from the MC5 until today. “MGT” passed away peacfully in hospital in Detroit where he had been rehabilitating following a heart attack in April. He was aged 75.

The Detroit Free Press reported earlier today that he was still at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital during his initial recovery when he heard that the MC5 was headed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on April 21.