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Sunday, May 12, 2024

Dennis Thompson, last member of the MC5, has died


Dennis Thompson, back in the day. (Creative Commons photo, source.)

I wasn't planning to do another blog post on the MC5, the rock band mentioned in Illuminatus!, but I caught the sad news that the band's drummer, Dennis Thompson, had died. Here is the New York Times obit. 

1 comment:

Oz Fritz said...

MC5 was considered a seminal punk rock band. When offered their first record contract, they only agreed to sign it if the label also signed their friends, The Stooges, fronted by Iggy Pop. A few days ago, on the evening of May 7th, a legendary punk rock producer/sound engineer, Steve Albini, died of a heart attack in his studio in Chicago at the age of 61. Albini was known for his work with The Pixies, The Breeders and Nirvana among many others. He was very highly respected for his work ethic and no nonsense approach to recording music. His street cred was such that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant hired him to record their first studio album together after Led Zeppelin. I was uncharacteristically producing punk rock mixes the day Albini passed. I had a chance to meet him and see his studio through a mutual studio owner friend when I was working in Chicago but the producer I was working with didn't want to go so I didn't either. I now regret that unfortunate decision. Albini was one of a kind and is already greatly missed. Hopefully he's now got a gig in the great studio in the sky recording MC5, the Ramones and all the other punk rockers no longer with us.