A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR Wayne Kramer, legendary guitarist and co-founder of quintessential Detroit proto-punk legends The MC5, tells his story in The Hard Stuff. 'As gripping as it is sobering.' THE TIMES 'Voyerustically dramatic.' NEW YORK TIMES 'Eye-opening.' GUARDIAN 'One of rock's most engaging and readable memoirs.' ROLLING STONE 'Inspiring and redempetive.' UNCUT 'An endearing read.' MOJO Led by legendary guitarist Wayne Kramer, The MC5 was a reflection of the times: exciting, sexy, violent, out of control - assuring their time in the spotlight would be short-lived. Kramer's story is a revolutionary one, but it is also the deeply personal struggle of an addict and an artist. From the glory days of Detroit to the junk-sick streets of the East Village, from Key West to Nashville and sunny Los Angeles, in and out of prison and on and off of drugs, his is the classic journeyman narrative, but with a twist: he's here to remind us that revolution is always an option.

Romantic drama starring William H. Macy as Bernie Lootz, a lonely middle-aged man with terrible luck who owes the Shangri-La casino in Las Vegas, owned by old-fashioned mob boss Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), over $100 000. To repay his debt, he works for Shelly as a 'cooler' - someone who plays alongside high rollers to stop them from winning too much. His life takes a turn for the better when he falls in love with cocktail waitress Natalie (Maria Bello), and he experiences real happiness for the first time in years. But when his luck starts to spill over onto the gambling floor, Shelly is none too impressed, and sets out to sabotage the most important thing in Bernie's life: his relationship with Natalie.

There are numerous bootleg packages that contain the same material included here, a blast-through-it-once set of originals and stage staples recorded at Herouville Castle in Europe in 1972. The big ticket here is the inclusion of "Thunder Express," an original the band never officially recorded. To round things out, the disc also features "I Can Only Give You Everything" and "I Just Don't Know," both sides of the group's first single. Both "Thunder Express" and "I Can Only Give You Everything" officially appear on the single-disc Rhino best-of. ~ Cub Koda