john sinclair

It’s been years in the making and "LOUDER THAN LOVE", the long-awaited documentary paying tribute to legendary Detroit music venue the Grande Ballroom, is finally available.

The Grande was the birthplace or breeding ground for the likes of the Stooges, the MC5, The Up and The Rationals. It also became a notorious killing field for visiting international bands who had to undergo a "trial by support band" where the locals did their best to blow them off the stage (sometimes succeeding.)

“LOUDER THAN LOVE: The Grande Ballroom Story” is Tony D’Annunzio’s first independent film as a producer and director.  His movie chronicles the Detroit music scene in the late 1960s, as told through the eyes of the legendary bands that played there.

I was just looking at my review of Bro. Wayne Kramer's reished "Hard Stuff" and I musta been outta my fuckin' mind when I wrote it...that album definitely rates five Rolling Rocks if anything does. Which made me wonder, why am I so hard on Wayne?

“Brutal” was the first word that came to mind after finishing the posthumous autobiography of MC5 bass player Michael Davis and that adjective is still hanging in the air, 24 hours later.

Over 350 skilfully-written pages, Davis shines a spotlight onto the lives of family, friends, lovers, bandmates and associates over five decades, but it’s the glare cast on his own existence that’s the starkest.

By accident or design, “I Brought Down The MC5” only covers Davis’s life up until meeting his last wife, Angela, and moving to California in the late 1990s. It excludes the DKT-MC5 reunion with bandmates Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson, his fight with Hep C, charity work and near fatal 2006 bike crash. 

All of that, and Michael finding redemption, could have made a dynamite second book, but Davis sadly passed from liver cancer in 2012, aged 68.

No introduction needed for the onetime spiritual leader of the MC5 so here’s a personal note about meeting John Sinclair:

It was on a night off during a business trip that involved a flying visit to Ann Arbor, Michigan in the early 2000s. Sinclair was in town for that city’s annual Hash Bash and had just played a show at The Blind Pig. I’d been drinking at the Eight Bar Saloon with some locals, including Scott Morgan who did the introduction.

 _{Gary Rasmussen (left) with other members of Sonic's Rendezvous Band, Scott Morgan, Fred Smith and Scott Asheton. Joann Uhelszki photo.} 

Sonic’s Rendezvous Band bassist Gary Rasmussen has passed away after a short illness. He was aged 72.

A resident of Howell in Michigan, Rasmussen played bass with some of the region’s most influential bands in the late 1960s and ‘70s. He was a member of Scots Pirates, The Rendezvous Band, The Scott Morgan Group, The Up and more recently, Broken Arrow Blues Band. He also appeared on Patti Smith’s “Dream of Life” album.

After suffering a sore throat and back pain on Tuesday, Gary was admitted to hospital. He was transferred to University of Michigan Hospital where he was put into an induced coma after doctors diagnosed meningitis. He passed on Friday, surrounded by family and friends including longtime partner Marla Swartz.