Ice Pick Slim [EP]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
More than 30 minutes of previously unreleased material. This CD single includes a reprint of the original 1968 liner notes for Kick Out The Jams. Cool artwork. Alive Records. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Tracks:

Motor City Is Burning
Ice Pick Slim
I'm Mad Like Eldridge Cleaver

Album Description

More than 30 minutes of previously unreleased material. This CD single includes a reprint of the original 1968 liner notes for Kick Out The Jams. Cool artwork. Alive Records.

Customer Reviews:

Long, heavy Jams.......2004-06-04

This is longer than the average EP. "I'm Mad Like Elderidge Cleaver" starts out with audience interaction, moves to an updated & psychedelisized take on "I'm Bad Like Jesse James" from John Lee Hooker, then degenerates into some of the ugliest heavy electric guitar noises and vocal grunts imaginable and hangs out in that musical netherworld for one hell of a long time, ending with a slight wind down, then a SCREAM! This is the real deal if you are into free-form/metal/punk/ unclassifiable beautifully horrible music (?), and if you're a fan of the 5, there at least a 50/50 chance this is your thing. "Ice Pick Slim" is more reserved (well, you could say that about most any other music), but still long and plenty of jamming. I've heard it's based on the Instrumental "Tunji" by John Coltrane, but the 5 really make it their own. Flute solo in the middle, great sound (as with the entire EP), and this one is wild but maybe not so angry as "Mad like Eldridge".

MC5 previously unreleased Live Gold.......2003-03-23

Three tracks clocking in at a total of 40+ minutes, the "Ice Pick Slim" EP is the MC5 at the absolute height of their abilities. Capturing some of the "ferocious five's" most inspired live performances, the raw power contained within this single CD not only overcomes the confines of the studio, but also forcefully breaks down the very barriers of rock music itself. While most punk acts in the 60s had embraced the noble crusade of returning rock to its primordial, abrasive, fuzzed-out roots, the MC5, like the Velvet Underground, chose to use the wild energy of punk to aggressively innovate the stale state of popular music, not only shock. This unique goal of innovation has never been better represented than on the wildly original "Ice Pick Slim" mini-album. Surpassing rock, abandoning punk, and leaving the world of traditional music behind, this EP dives headfirst into a jarring collage of Sun Ra free jazz and Jimi Hendrix accelerated blues. Robin Tyner's horrifically anguished wails and the dueling guitars' rabid lust for mayhem are fueled by Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson's propulsive rhythms, raging ahead in an uncontrollable orgasm of adrenaline. Tyner's surprisingly melodic flute playing and John Sinclair's opposing tenor sax blats only add to the confusion, while the songs' stews of improvisation and rehearsed riffs swell to gigantic proportions which are no longer under the five's loose control. In every way, these two tracks are exactly how improvisational pieces and extended jams ought to be played. Referencing one idea after the next as each musician fights to prolong a groove for as long as it'll hold, The MC5 treats music as a living, breathing entity that can be shaped and changed at will. In fact, the title track and "Mad Like Eldridge Cleaver" push so far over the edge that they not only change the definition of rock, but actually redefine the entire approach to its creation. Simply a musical translation of the MC5's inborn abilities, "Ice Pick Slim" is less a musical end product than a true experience that the listener has been granted the privilege of sharing. The perfect compliment to the MC5's renowned live masterpiece "Kick Out the Jams," "Ice Pick Slim" completes the band's expansive vision, finally providing a full picture of the group's visionary 1968 sound.

mc5 alive.......2002-01-03

well this is one for collectors, 3 live tracks the last two being very long jams, its pretty cool, the covers nice too! I don't have the disc with me at the moment (I am at work getting out of doing anything!) but I think the disc is about 35 mins or so...the motor city 5 will rock yo' ass!!

Proto-Punk.......2000-03-15

The Mc5 paved the way for punk bands. Back in 1968 they shocked even the most liberal listeners. Pacaked with the punch of The White Panthers led by John Sinclair, anything by the 5 is worth a listenn.

Music:

Music

music

Music

South [Import]

A Still Subtler Spirit

All I Want

Best of the Crusaders [Import]

13 Cats

7 [Import]

A Room Full of Stories

20th Century Piano

You Sing The Hits Of Reba McEntire (Karaoke)

Vida Monotona [Import]

We Didn't See You on Sunday

Yiddish Mit Klezmer

World of Belly Dance V.3 [Import]

The Robert Johnson Songbook

Breakbeat Science: Exercise 3