First New MC5 Album in 53 Years Announced: Listen to New Song “Boys Who Play With Matches”

Over two years ago, Wayne Kramer promised that a new MC5 album would see the light of day. He also shared a preview of a new track with Tom Morello, “Heavy Lifting.” Today, about four months after Kramer’s death at age 75, the details of the new MC5 album have been revealed. The full-length, Heavy Lifting, is out on October 18 via EarMusic. Listen to the new single “Boys Who Play With Matches,” produced by Bob Ezrin, below.

Heavy Lifting features guitar and vocals from the late Kramer, who co-wrote 12 of the album’s 13 songs with Oakland musician Brad Brooks. Guests on the LP include Tom Morello, Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, William DuVall, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, and the late MC5 drummer Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson.

Heavy Lifting is the first new MC5 studio album since 1971’s High Time. Later this year, the Detroit proto-punk band will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Heavy Lifting:

01 Heavy Lifting [ft. Tom Morello]
02 Barbarians at the Gate
03 Change, No Change
04 The Edge of the Switchblade [ft. William DuVall and Slash]
05 Black Boots [ft. Tim McIlrath]
06 I Am the Fun (The Phoney)
07 Twenty-Five Miles
08 Because of Your Car
09 Boys Who Play With Matches
10 Blind Eye [ft. Dennis Thompson]
11 Can’t Be Found [ft. Vernon Reid and Dennis Thompson]
12 Blessed Release
13 Hit It Hard [ft. Joe Berry]