Proto punk
Related: garage rock - proto - punk
Bands: MC5 - Stooges - Velvet Underground
Definition
Protopunk is a term used to describe a number of performers who were important precursors of punk rock, or who have been cited by early punk rockers as influential.
Most protopunkers are Rock and Roll performers of the 1960s and early-1970s, though some earlier performers have been cited. Garage rock in general has been cited as quite influential.
Protopunk has been proven difficult to define, and many widely different groups have been so dubbed. Most had a certain attitude or appearance seen as important, and not any specific musical tendencies. Significant examples include Love, MC5, The Velvet Underground, the Stooges, The Modern Lovers, The Monks, 60's Yoko Ono and the New York Dolls.
Some protopunk bands also fall into the categories of glam rock or UK pub rock.
See List of forerunners of punk music. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-punk [Mar 2005]
Kick Out The Jams (1969) - MC5
Kick Out The Jams still sounds astonishingly powerful after almost 30 years. Recorded live at Detroit's Grande Ballroom in 1968, this relentless, aggressive set offers the frenzy of politicized garage punks blasting through giant stacks: a blitzkrieg of hard rock ignited from the dueling guitars of Wayne Kramer and Fred Sonic Smith and of the throttled vocals of Rob Tyner. The Stooges with barricade-busting ideals, the Five turned the Motor City into a Mecca of sonic excess and shattered the dazed dreams of hippie America. From the pounding of the title track to the eight-and-a half-minute weirdout of "Sun Ra's "Starship,"" Kick Out The Jams will rip your head to shreds. --Barney Hoskyns
Stooges (1969) - Stooges
Everything the peace and love vibe of the '60s wasn't the Stooges 1969 debut record was: dangerous, violent, chaotic, mean-spirited, and sex crazed. Iggy Pop's monotone birthday lament, "1969" ("War across the U.S.A. / Another year for me and you / Another year with nothing to do"), pretty much sums up the band's coldly disaffected outlook. Producer and Velvet Underground second banana John Cale lends the proceedings an appropriately ominous feel, although his attempt to transform the Stooges into V.U. clones on the 10-minute-plus "All Fall Down" is the band's weakest studio moment. But Iggy Pop and company more than make up for that misstep with the mind-numbingly ugly-and-great "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and the distortion-drenched "Real Cool Time." --Percy Keegan for amazon.com
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