I realize it's been a while since the last report but we're upgrading the site and it's put us on hold temporarily. I originally wrote this report at the end of the year and, thus, had to edit and update it a bit. More news as it happens...

Here's the latest:

The end of another year has come and gone and what a year it's been. Everything has changed, politically, culturally and personally for me. The landscape we all have been cruising through has been altered forever.

Change can be painful but it's a fact of life. Change can also open new doors and be the beginning of something better than anything we could have ever imagined. And it can come in many forms.

Getting a record label off the ground has been a true eye opener for your intrepid reporter. After being in the music business at various levels for 30-plus years, I've discovered that I had to go to school (literally and figuratively) to really learn business. I've been attending a business course set up by the Small Business Administration to learn basic business principles. It's been a ball. I'm finding it to be really fascinating stuff.

I never really knew why people buy the stuff they do. I used to think it was all about the price. Not true. If it were, I guess we would all eat at Taco Bell and drive a Yugo. The good news is, MuscleTone Records is up and rolling as a record company and moving swiftly ahead in 2002.

"The Hard Stuff" is ready for a late March, 2002 release. I've included 3 bonus tracks that didn't make the original record. I transferred the original 2" studio master tapes into Pro Tools and have been combing through them. It's been fun really taking a close look at what we were playing on those sessions back in '94. The new tracks are "God's Worst Nightmare" (the original version), "Till The Police Come" and "Going to the Wasteland."

We've also expanded the original artwork to include new notes and candid photos along with Mackie Osborne's original artwork. We also now have the technology to put videos on the disc and we've included director Lech Kowalski's videos for the songs "Junkie Romance" and "Crack in the Universe." "Junkie" in particular is very rough in subject matter and is very graphic at one point. Needless to say MTV hid in horror from this clip.

I had an excellent time just before Christmas at the Roxy with The International Noise Conspiracy (I)NC and the Hives. (I)NC are fellow travelers politically and really understand the connection between music and change. They're a hard grooving outfit and don't play down to the audience. Instead, they raised the bar. They were uplifting and weren't afraid to challenge old ideas and behavior, like slam dancing. Lead vocalist Dennis Lyxzen told the wide-eyed and bushy tailed LA crowd: "[slamming] That's not dancing, hurting your brothers and sisters by bashing into them isn't fun. Dancing starts down in your hips, not with your fists flying up in the air." That was good to see.

The Hives just might become the biggest band in Europe. Word has it they've sold over 200,000 copies of their latest record. Who knows, maybe they can make some noise on this side of the Atlantic, too. Pelle, the Hives lead singer hits the stage with a joy and confidence that could not be beat. I haven't seen this kind of spirit in a long time. I love to see a band come on with the attitude that they OWN THE STAGE. That's what I'm talking about. Their set was a celebration of the pure joy and release that music can bring when it's done right. There's nothing wrong with fun.

There's a trend forming that both these bands are part of. It's a growing worldwide movement that could be the start of a new chapter in popular music. In Europe, 12-year olds are looking to bands with spirit and originality, not pre-packaged acts, not Korn/Bizkit knuckleheads. Not techno or rap. And not a moment too soon. You can see it in the White Stripes and the much missed, At the Drive In.

That same new energy is exploding here. More of this same new light is emanating from two L.A.bands the Bellrays and Mother Superior. Both out-play, out-write, out-sing and out-perform anything that's on the horizon. I know you hear hype all the time and I know that the menu is almost always better than the meal, so I'm just carrying the message and will let the bands speak for themselves. They will do it more powerfully and eloquently than I ever could using mere words.

All of these bands represent a future that looks to be very exciting. The world of music seems to move ahead in starts and fits. We've been in a real valley, creatively and it's time for a change. And as Sam Cooke said, "Change is gonna come."

I'm looking forward to this New Year. We have some interesting plans and projects scheduled, including a new solo record from Yours Truly in June 2002 and the debut of the documentary film "The MC5: A True Testimonial." I've seen a portion of it and it's a motherfucker. Early screenings have generated a response bordering on ecstatic. I am very happy for the filmmakers. It's been a long, ling haul for them. We first started work on it over 5 years ago and it's truly been a labor of love for director David Thomas and producer Laurel Legler. These folks have gone to the mattresses on this project and the result is that the world will finally get to learn the story of the MC5 in the best possible way.

I find it all very exciting and more than a little strange. I've been through so much from the early days of the band through till today, that when I watch footage of me and the band back in the day, it doesn't seem like I'm the same person that's on the screen. It's like I'm watching someone else's story. But if I dig a little deeper into this feeling I know that, today, I'm actually not the same person that I was then. That would be an impossibility.

Even though I am Wayne Kramer from the MC5, my time in the MC5 was a long, long time ago. It was a time in my life that happened and ended. It took a long time for me to accept that fact; that it came to a close and will never happen again is, in the end, a good thing. I'm proud to have been part of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, but that was then and this is now.

So I'm back to the subject of change. Change is something I need to stay in touch with. Things fall apart and reorganize themselves into a new order. The center will never hold. Never has, never will. Change is the one thing I can count on. Old ideas can be a fatal trap for me because they have the power to close my mind. If my mind closes, I start thinking that I know something absolutely or that I'm some kind of authority for my own life and wham! I'm in trouble. So it's a good thing that I'm not the same character I was at 18 or 28 or 48 for that matter.

I have much to be grateful for here at the beginning of 2002. I have a dear friend who describes the New Year as a clean sheet of paper. Pristine and flawless. Unmarked by the past and open to possibilities that are, as yet, unknown and unexplored.

Sounds good to me.

Wayne