Kick Out The Jams (Live)

Each individual song was a good late 60s rock jam, but with only one dynamic setting (loud) it got monotonous.

It’s all a bit messy and that’s sort of the point but I doubt I shall return to this album as there are far better punk and proto punk albums out there. Guys, you can get over the shock of hearing the word motherf*cker on an album, now.

Couldn't get into it so much

Not like.

Meh. Live album which reminded me of Van Halen but a decade prior.

I get this is influential, but it is also a mess.

Drab at moments, but has a few shiners.

My main problem with most live albums is that feeling that it probably would have been good to have been there, rather than hearing it secondhand and muddy. I imagine at the time, this raucous noise would have been great, but in the rear view mirror, it was superseded by the Stooges and all that followed. Kick Out the Jams is still good though.

Not my favorite by any means.

Can see how influential it was but doesn't make it much good.

I know this album was quite influential but this was a boring listen for me.

2/5

I think they're angry

This is surprisingly "punk-y" for '69. Definitely heavy-duty psychedelic hard-driving chaotic rock going on here. It's a little too much for me but I bet if I were a teen when this came out I would've enjoyed it and wanted to see them perform live. I can imagine this record was played in quite a few suburban homes in the late 60s and early 70s by teens who wanted to annoy their parents. (Side Note: at times, I swear I hear what sounds like a much messier version of Neil Young's '(Keep On) Rockin' In The Free World', which is a coincidental kind of fun.)

just rock n roll.. thats enough

This album is wild. I've heard of MC5 before, but didn't know their genre. They're like a punkier version of The Who's early years! Must be the US take on the sound. Appreciation, I give it a 3. Personally, 2.

I get this even though it’s not particularly my style. I won’t listen again.

Punk rock band MC5's debut album 'Kick Out The Jams' is a live album recorded over two nights - including Halloween - in Detroit in 1968. This album is a forerunner to punk rock, because at the time there was no such genre and the band's music was considered hard rock or garage rock. At release the album was commercially popular, but critically seen as a flop. The music was considered only to be a passing phase of rock and was reviewed as such. The band were troublemakers and this also caused problems for the record company at release. Now, this album is held in high regard for starting punk rock and being an energetic live album. Every time you listen to this album, you are being transported back to Detroit in the late 1960's to listen to a band "kick out the jams" with their "new-fangled rock".

Run-of-the-mill late 60's rock, complete with pretentious lyrics, calls for a 'revolution' and out-of-tune instruments. Not totally awful, but boring. 2/5

Classic first wave of rock

Messy and raw, bad mixing, not awful but also not good

Disappointing

The energy is there, but without much representation in the mids it’s hard to distinguish one track from another in a live environment.

Hard to believe this was from the 60s. Early eary punk.

Pretty terrible chaotic American pap!

I know this gets credited as being one of the first punk albums, but it's pretty hard to listen to. Sloppy, bad production, and the song endings go on forever. There's good attitude and some decent songs underneath it all but as my co-judge deftly pointed out, the fact that it's a live recording makes it sound even more like noise.

Most of this sounds pretty much the same and the production values are really rough, much like the group and the music so I guess that's fitting. I'll boost this up by one star given its influence on the punk genre, but this isn't something that I'll seek out in the future.

Meh

2/5 nope, way to metaly

I'm sure this is great for someone but it's not something I'll revisit any time soon.

1,5 Ik denk vroeger goed maar het aged gewoon echt niet wel, rommelig en Wild vind ik het.

was niet slecht maar ook niets speciaal

Really underwhelmed the first time I listened and had the same dull play through this time as well

Don't dig it

Not much gained out of this. Seems like a fair bit of noise.

Terrible musicianship. At some points its just noise and gibberish. Ill leave this off my list. Past kick out the Jams , meh

Can't fault their energy. Not sure of it's significance.

I don't know what they're saying.... I- Favorites: Borderline Motor City is Burning

Undoubtedly energetic and angry in a yoof/punk style, probably fun to watch their gigs, but not pleasurable to listen at home. More in tune guitar soloing please!

noisy

Soms leuke 'jams' maar het live aspect draagt hier weinig bij

nah

dont see anything special. was recently told they were "important" which just adds to the ball of confusion

meh

Live denk ik best een goede band maar uit dit album komt dat wat mij betreft niet echt tot z'n recht. Veel energie maar ook wel erg veel een gruizige geluidsmuur.

Zaten we net in een lekkere flow, krijgen we dit!

not worth the reputation if you ask me. It's alright and parts were really good but a lot of it is just house band fare.

Super boring rock

Pas facile comme ecoute. Des fois il y a des bouts qui sortent du lot. Fuzz et disto sont a l’honneur, mais c’es tres punk decousu. 2.80

An unenjoyable live album. 2.5.

Var nära en etta.

Boring

another live album? i don't really like live albums but let's give this one a whirl post listen: no

I love kick out the jams (the track) but as an album this is a little too 60's for me

Brutal.

Ay herkes bagiriyo bitiremeicem sanirim

Don’t like it

This was just noise, not sure why its on the list.

Noise for the sake of noise.

No, just no. I don't like live albums, and this album hasn't changed my mind in any way. A lot of it just sounds like noise as the electric guitar is just so loud that it takes over the music. Yes, I heard the drumbeats and the lead singer sounded like he was shouting through the songs, but that electric guitar was just loud. All I could think of through the whole song of "Starship" was make it stop...please, make it stop. Unfortunately, it was 8:25 of that noise, luckily it was the last song of the album.

Disliked

i understand the cultural significance of this album but it just doesn’t hold a candle to other proto punk albums. Really just feels like standard rock slightly turned up. Only redeeming part is the live recording providing some rawness and energy to the music.

Not a live album kind of guy - quality is not there

fav: Rocket Reducer No.62-Talk el resto hubbah hubbah meeh

What isn't bad and unenjoyable about this album? I couldn't tell you.

If you told me this was a high school band’s show, I’d believe you. “Starship” brought this down a point.

This is not the kind of live album that's fun to listen to 50+ years later. It's a bunch of frantic noise that way overstays its welcome.

Gebed 4 Affe paar pfanne und holzstöck und das Album chund use. Denn no live. Wäq teufel

It's getting to the point where not only am I getting sick of listening to all this 60s psychadelic rock, but I'm sick of complaining about it too. The first few times I had albums like this I didn't particularly like them, but I didn't yet have the same contempt that I have for them now. And early on in my time doing this project, many of my reviews for them were something along the lines of saying how much of this there is on the list when there really doesn't need to be. I do my best to give each album an interesting and insightful review, but when the music is this generic it makes that very hard. This is exactly the same as almost all the other psychadelic rock albums of this period, so I'm not even going to try and find something interesting to say about it, I've already said everything I possibly can about this era of music history. 274 albums remaining after this one and I dread to think how many more times I'll have to give this whole speech again....

Didn't enjoy

Nope, couldn't finish. Not a fan of live albums and this was just noise.

A live punk album from a band I've never heard of before. It's about what you would expect. Some of the guitar distortion and tone is cool as hell but this is the music that my grandpa was describing when he said he didn't listen to rock and roll because "it's just noise". That describes this album perfectly. Just loud for the sake of being loud. No message, no structure, no clarity. Just in your face noise and aggression just to stick it to the man. Needless to say, MC5 never made it big in mainstream culture. After reading some peer reviews - apparently it's supposed to sound like this and some people love it. This album just goes to show that just because something is important doesn't mean it's good. It's just objectively bad music. 2/10

This was bad and then it became unlistenable

Unbelievably average

turn off that racket! *shaking fist*

Sounds like it maybe would have been a fun concert to have attended but not a good listen by any means. I was surprised to see this came out in the 60s, it seems very ahead of its time, but still wouldn’t listen under any circumstances

Just doesn't feel like the birth of punk, especially when im listening to the 12 bar blues

1 Wth is dit zelfs. Spontane combustie van mijn oren veroorzaakt.

not my thing

Meh

don’t care

Just because you're are the first group to do something doesn't make it good. Like the first person to bite into a raw egg. The shell cracks & the goo of the whites & the yolk hit inside your mouth. Crunchy, gooey yummyness, huh! The recording does them no favors as it sounds like dog shit. Motor City is Burning seems like the only competent song, mostly cuz it's a simple blues number. I get it, it's raw & loud & angry but it's just not good. I imagine this is what Kiss sounded like to those pearl-clutching parents who gave them them their reputation. 1

Absolute trash

Does this sound good to me on any level? Absolutely not. I think it may have been a fun show to be at and rebel against the establishment. That was 55 years ago and for me it’s more of a reminder of a failed generation who could have changed things but only made everything worse. These are just my thoughts listening and whether that’s true or not, who knows.

Nah, not really worth it.

The music had promise, sadly the vocals and lyrics were awful.

Yikes

Мне плохо. Слишком волосатый рок, даже щербинка между зубов не спасает, а она дает +100 к таланту

Don't like live albums, don't like punk

Sounds like one of those songs in Rock Band that you just assume is by one of the developers shitty garage bands. “Come together” is probably the horniest song we’ve had on this list yet.

Nop

Initially, it was funny, but then became boring. They sound like they’re joking.

Live album.

Lots of energy but that’s the only thing I find good about this album.

this album answers the question that everyone's been dying to know: what if the stooges were even worse?

Ew.

Awful noise

Not my jam.

Today was not a good day for this type of noise. Live recordings sound bad and the music was cheep at best

Dated and corny, not my rhing

Loud noise

American trash. American mess. American shit.

no lo aguanté, perdón si son eminencias en algun nicho

I think I'm not meant to enjoy live albums.

Another fuggennnn live album. For whatever reason I've been rolling in these things for the past week or so. Guess I'll just have to smash out another wunnadeez. I've never heard of MC5 and chances are there won't be any songs I recognise in here. I've no clue what to expect going off this album cover. Maybe something psychedelic? I can't think of another genre where it's common to overlay a bunch of images for the album cover. Ayyyy, psychedelic rock. I'm a genius. As far as live albums go this is, conceptually, a decent pick. Rock and jazz are much more in-tune with the live album medium than any other genre. Jazz for the reason that it likely appeals to the hoity-toity wine samplers of this list and rock for the reason that there's a real dynamic energy to these recordings. I kinda got that impression here, though truth be told the music sucks pretty heavily. The guitars all have a rough, unpolished sound and the vocals aren't moving, either. For the second (I think?) time since the founding of my review formula, there isn't a single thing about this album which sticks out to me. Each song is a jagged mush of lacklustre songwriting and overblown, subpar guitar smashing. Can't say I really felt anything while listening to this. Book time. Polarising among critics at the time, though that's as far as this album's merit goes. Wikipedia reveals that this album charted decently and was an early influence on punk rock. Yeah, I'm gonna snub this one - it just sucks. In place of this album, I humbly submit Quebec by Ween for inclusion on the list.

This was exhausting to listen to.

Rock. I think this might be a band I’d like, but I hated this particular album. Didn’t like that it was live, didn’t like the singer, didn’t like the weird falsetto song. Sucks because the guitars sounded pretty good.

I really tried to want to like this because it is an “important” album, but as a musical project it’s absolute garbage and noise. 1 star for being a record, 1 star for “importance” and -1 star for quality. 1⭐️

I imagine this is a great album while partying but listening to it while driving home from work sober doesn’t sound impressive.

Pas pour moi pas du tout aimé

The songs are not very memorable and I didn't like them.

Nope. Not my thing. I don't know how anyone can listen to "Ramblin' Rose" and actually take it seriously. As a huge punk fan, I can absolutely appreciate that these guys were a big part of the movement, but the recording quality is toilet water and the band is so sloppy. Props for recording something like this in '69, but yeah I'm gonna hard pass on this one. I did, out of morbid curiosity, check out some of their studio recorded offerings, and I found those quite a bit more enjoyable.

Had to do research to understand why this was included, which doesn’t feel like a great sign to me. Maybe just having a hard time appreciating the historical significance.

pass

live album shite again

Negative

I can't stand this.

These talentless knuckleheads owe my ears an apology.

No es para mí.

Meh

Feels like an album I could’ve died without listening to

Not for me. I find it strange that this album is on the list. It's ok, but I wouldn't really listen again. Maybe you had to be there.

Livealbum

Live albums are cheating. Unless there is something special, amazing or unique about them, live albums have no place on a list like this. That being said, this one is no exception. You can tell the band rocked live, but the mixing and production could be way better. Also, I don't like the songs at all. More than one star, but barely.

Only knew Kick out the jams and that was through covers, so had high hopes for this album. Turns out that those hopes were misplaced. Far more straight down the middle rock than i expected and just fails to provide anything interesting

I think this made it onto the list by accident.

Ehhhhh *muffled guitar noises (Live)*

IMO. The first song was awful. Rest was ok. Won’t listen again

Atrocious. No redeeming value. I wish I could get those 40 minutes back.

This album is just horrendous. Somewhat reminiscent of Spinal Tap but without the satire or humor. If ever an album was worthy of the review “Shit Sandwich”, this one fits the bill.

So much distortion and feedback that it’s hard to make out the already chaotic instrumentals, and the singer is all over the place too. I like high energy music, but you need more than energy to be great. There were a couple cool solos, but they were hard to make out in the cacophony.

Nope.

scheiße

I understand the significance, but it just doesn’t sound good. Just because it’s one of the first in a genre doesn’t mean it has to be bad. (1)

Didn’t receive this name from you

Not good, extremely lacking in talent. However I do appreciate the energy level.

Kinda boring rock. Forgettable

Heard these guys were we great but this live album is a bit of a mess

Music full of sound and fury signifying nothings..except a total lack of talent

The only thing this had going for it was the fact it's loud and seemed to be newer than the 60s. But even compared to the pink albums we've had it's trash.

Kick Out The Jams (Live) is a poor effort, live albums should elevate the experience or at least make it seem like a time capsule of an event that was significant or noteworthy, but this does neither. It doesn't really show off anything in its best light, most of it is a wall of noise mixed terribly, incomprehensible vocals, and just really really bad. No idea why it's apparently so widely revered. 1/5.

Garage rock? More like garbage schlock.

I can see every pretentious poser in my high school raving about how this album was so great, and influential. It’s not. It’s garbage. Trash. Was this band even successful at sucking? Never heard of them before now, and this will simply be the most forgotten album I listen to on this list. They suck so much I won’t even remember how much they suck. I’m thankful that they suck that much at least.

Never been a punk rock jam kinda gal...That's all I will say...

Basically just loud noise.

This was poor, loud, and pointless noise with over sexualized lyrics. With reagrds to the tracks nothing stood out. I am guessing this made the list as its very early punk and at the start of the era. Favourite song: None Least favourite: All of them, its a poor album Album artwork: meh

The fuck was that

Not for me. 1/5

Absolutely not

This is garbage but I can see the good parts that make up the whole. The guitar work is impressive. The drums are high energy. The zeppelin style guitar hooks. Good message in the rants between songs. I can see the influence they would have had on future punk acts. Fav Track: Rocket Reducer No. 62 - Talk

Awful, just awful

something is wrong with my earbuds.

I don't get why this album is as praised as it is. I didn't find it interesting, and I really don't see how this was important for the revolution of punk rock. Really, I don't know why people like it as much as they do.

This is far too rockist for me - a '60s audio equivalent of Banksy, a shallow caricature of political rock posturing. Often lumped in with Stooges, Iggy's band were so far ahead of this. There is no real light here, just macho shade. I would have liked this kind of thing when I was 14 and angry, but it just sounds obvious and one-dimensional now.

Funky; impressive. Not for me.

Finished Eagles - Eagles just before this and this was basically like listening to the same album but worse

Sounds like a bootleg to me. I generally like this kind of music and I´m sure it was a hell of experience to attend this concert 🤘 but neighter the recording quality nor the quality of the performance of the singer and the band matches my nowadays demands. Because I generally question live albums on this list I rate it down further one star. 1,5

Unpolished, aimless, and mostly unremarkable other than maybe (if I'm being generous) "Motor City is Burning." Ends on the 8-minute "Starship" which is a weird sort of almost performance art piece. That kind of track usually works well for me, but even it wasn't really compelling.

Eh, not impressed by this. It might be ahead of its time but it's still stodgy, uninspired rock. And there's something vaguely cultish about the performance which doesn't do it any favours. I'm probably being overly harsh, but... 1.5 stars

Were they a proto punk pioneer? Yes. Does that mean their album belongs on this list? No. With the exception of "Kick Out the Jams" there is nothing else of value on this album, except for the forward thinking intro of the psychedelic "Starship" at the end of the album. It should be noted that pretty much every cover of "Kick Out the Jams" by anyone else is performed and recorded better than the original. My favorite was a collaboration between Henry Rollins and Bad Brains from the PUMP UP THE VOLUME film soundtrack. By the way, that entire record is amazing. This on the other hand is a terrible recording of live performances carried out over two days in 1968.

Gesangs- und Gitarrenlärm

Did not enjoy.

Really?

Gear: Fostex TH610 Artwork: 👨‍🚒 Mix: 🧏 Musik: 🤷‍♂️ Wertung: 👨‍🎤(👨‍🎤)/5

Underneath all the screaming there were some good riffs but no. 1.5.

The punk rock I've learned to respect was either political (The Clash) or tongue in cheek (Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys). This band is neither, they do love to compose songs about sex or the lack of.

Glad to hear that punk had cemented its iconic repetitive and annoying nature early on in its lifespan by giving a live album full of the same song six times in a row, only to end with frankly disturbing mouth noises and a rock space odyssey somehow just as meandering and dull as the rest of the album. Sure, you could argue that the raw energy is what fuels this record's angst and influence, but by '69 I could've certainly found that within another album, live or otherwise. The instrumentation is sloppy, the vocals are poor, and the message is ham-fisted. Must be a punk record! A bad one, at that.

It's got plenty of energy, but this one’s not for me.

Proto Punk, nix für mich

Not enough there for me at this exact point in my life.

1969 Hard rock / punk. No thanks.

This album sucked

Too loud. Too much yelling. Too much punk and not enough proto.

Pretty balsy to record your debut live. My score sheet says one of my lowest rated album genres is punk so I’m going to save myself the time on this one.

1. ramblin roze - 0 2. kick out the jamz - 1 3. come together - 1 4. rocket reducer - 1 5. borderline - 1 6. motor city - 0 7. uuant you - 1.5 8. ztar zhip - 1

I stopped listening. It was just noise. I couldn't get into it.

Wenn da nicht 1969 stehen würde, hätte ich eher auf Punk Mitte 70er getippt. Musste mich erstmal schlau lesen. Ok, Detroit und Sex, Drugs, Rockn'Roll. Ist bestimmt für viele Leute ("68er") ein wegweisendes Album gewesen. Wer dieser Nostalgie nicht folgen kann (so wie ich) ist raus. Das zeigt aber ein grundsätzliches Problem auf. Wer mit einer Musik ausfgewachsen ist, wen eine Musik als Jugendlicher geprägt hat, der wird so ein Album vermutlich besser bewerten als jmd. dem diese Sozialisation fehlt. Ok, ist ein Thema für eine Masterarbeit oder nur eine Binse, keine Ahnung.

Don't like the album, but do like the song Kick out the jams (Dad Band will play instead of Gardener of Eden)

Not great

I did not enjoy this at all - didn’t make it past the third song.

It's a live album so it sucks by definition. Any of the shouting annoyed the hell out of me and attempts to sing weren't much better. Guitar riffs were doing at least something to push it towards two stars but that last abomination of a song killed such attempts.

Didn’t enjoy it.

Erm, I wasn’t much impressed. Found it just kinda… noisy?

Not really my type of music

I listened to 3-4 songs and just couldn’t do it longer

Live albums are rarely good and this one is not an exception

I did not enjoy this. The songs all sounded the same (except the last one, which just sounded bad). The singer's voice was awful. And if I had to hear the band say "thank you! thank you!" or "rama lama" one more time, I was going to lose it. It all just sounded like noise to me. I don't mind punk rock if it is a little more deliberately crafted, but this just didn't sound good IMO. Worst album so far I think.

I don't know, I didn't love it. A little loud/screamy for me I guess. I'm sure it was super cool to be at the concert live in 1969, probably a real rager. It's just not doing it for me as a casual listener in 2023.

It doesn't matter if people tell me this album is important because its the original punk album. There is so much wrong with it, it was hard to listen to. One dang star. My face after listening to this is the same as the guy's face on the album cover. 1 star for kick out the jams

nah, I don't get this one. Maybe if I listened more carefully I could enjoy the themes, but right now, this isn't worth finishing.

Not great not great. Just kind of noise

Totalt forgettable

Poorly played, uninspired and just not very good. Can't think of any redeeming qualities.

Gillar inte live-plattor. Än mindre med grupper jag enbart känner till namnet på. Dessutom är det här pissdåligt.

Такое се, не могу поверить что это написано в одном жанре с битлз. Ритм сопровожления иногда не совпадает с ритмом текста 0/5

говно "протопанк ебааа фазерс оф панк хуйня ебаная

The album is good, but 1 star for being live

Pretty flat for a live punk album

hated it lmao, i dont understand what they're saying.

Not for me.

I do NOT like the falsetto in the first track, and no matter if I like some of the punk music that follows, this recording quality is shit and the vocals are unintelligible.

Too much noise. Not enough music. Read it's important in punk music history, but it was more painful than pleasurable to listen to. Sounds of chaos but not in a good way

Sound quality is terrible... I generally don't go in for live albums from the '60s for this reason. I really dug the opening speech though. Got me pumped!

Af en toe een leuke gitaarsolo, maar verder gewoon een berg takkeherrie. Het zal vast mensen hebben geïnspireerd, maar als hier iets goeds uit is voortgekomen, dan luister ik daar liever naar. Je eet toch ook liever friet dan rauwe aardappels met de schil er nog om en de kluiten aarde er nog aan.

I usually don’t like live albums. This was no exception. I hated this one. Terrible sound. Terrible songs.

I understand it’s foundational, but it just doesn’t lend itself to my ear. Nothing redeeming here, from lyrics to instrument work to vocals.

This one gave me a headache.

Oh wow, I’ve heard of MC5 and the phrase Kick out the Jams through a local night, but had no idea what kind of music it was, so I was interested to hear how this actually goes. Unfortunately, it was talentless, god awful noise. Maybe ahead of it’s time but not an enjoyable experience at all. How disappointing.

I didn't enjoy this. Dated and messy.

An interesting listen! I learned some about early punk and MC5 today, but primarily I learned it just isn’t for me.

Horribly produced, you can barely tell what’s going on. The band playing noise doesn’t help.

de vraag is, wat heeft deze man genomen om dit bij zijn top albums te zetten? I don't feel it

Production quality leaves a lot to be desired. Seems like there's some good songs in here, but it just sounds like noise, or is too quiet most of the time.

Not for me at all. 1/5 stars.

2 nummers geluisterd, maar kon het niet meer aanhoren.

meh

I did not "come together" on yet another live album. Maybe if I were there I'd get into it more but this is just another "look what you missed" album and it doesn't even really sound like I missed much.

awesome energy. tunes meh

not my style

Good vibes never heard of these guys