During the 1960s and early 70s, the MC5 helped kickstart the early stages of punk in the U.S., alongside fellow Michigan boundary-pushers the Stooges. With their loud, fuzzed-out sound and radical politics, the MC5 laid the groundwork for generations of noisemakers to come. Their song "Kick Out the Jams" has been covered by Bad Brains, Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Jeff Buckley, and countless others.
When the MC5 disbanded in the early 1970s, Davis played with the experimental group Destroy All Monsters (artist Mike Kelley, one of the founding members of Destroy All Monsters, also recently passed away.) MC5 members Fred "Sonic" Smith and Rob Tyner passed away in the 90s. In the early '00s, Davis, guitarist Wayne Kramer, and drummer Dennis Thompson reunited and toured.
Davis had a scare in 2006 when he injured his back in a motorcycle accident on a Southern California freeway. He later co-founded the non-profit Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools.
In the last few years, Davis also returned to a love of painting, fostered when he first studied fine arts at Wayne State University in Michigan. He dropped out of the program in 1964 to play music, but started studying art again recently in Oregon and California, with the intention of finishing his bachelor's degree in fine arts.
Davis is survived by his wife, their three sons, and a daughter from a previous marriage. Memorial plans were pending, said Angela Davis.
http://pitchfork.com/news/45481-rip-mc5 ... ael-davis/
