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Don McLeese has written about rock for the alternative weekly Chicago Reader, as the award-winning pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and Austin American-Statesman and as a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone, Request and other national music magazines. He is now an associate professor of journalism at the University of Iowa, and a senior editor at No Depression. He continues to contribute to national music, literary and general-interest publications.
Of all the 33 1/3 books that I've read to date, McLeese's is the most personal, expressing insight based on his own experiences and knowledge of the various musical and political currents surrounding the Kick Out The Jams album....he manages to nail not only the band's short and hurried history but also capture the zeitgeist of late-60s/early-70s Detroit. More than a history lesson or critical reappraisal of an influential album, McLeese documents the spirit and hopes of both the MC5 and the Detroit/Ann Arbor area '60s counter-culture. Written with an easy, entertaining style, McLeese comes across like a friend sharing stories from back in the day. For an admitted Motor City rock & roll fanatic such as myself, McLeese's Kick Out The Jams provides an important dimension to this often overlooked chapter in rock history. * Alt.Culture.Guide, 2006 *
