Sadly, drug problems ripped the MC5 apart in 1972. Wayne spent the next few years battling his own demons, and wound up doing two years in the penitentiary for dealing cocaine. Upon his release, he formed Gang War with erstwhile New York Doll Johnny Thunders. When that band collapsed after only one tour, Wayne signed on to play guitar with Detroit homeboys Was (Not Was). After an extended hiatus from the music biz, Wayne finally resurfaced in 1995, recording The Hard Stuff with members of Bad Religion, Clawhammer, Rancid and the Melvins. Released on punk imprint Epitaph, the record proved that Wayne’s singular vision and mind-blowing guitar excursions were even more relevant in the '90s than twenty-five years before.

Determined to make up for lost time, Wayne has released four albums in the last five years, including the amp-frying live classic LLMF. Recorded exclusively for MUSICBLITZ, “Crawling Outta The Jungle” sets a nightmarish vision of New Orleans to a claustrophobic electro-rock soundtrack. “I originally wrote the song for Chris Vrenna, the drummer from Nine Inch Nails,” Wayne says. “He was telling me these horror stories about what it was like to be stuck in New Orleans with Nine Inch Nails, so I put this little scenario together, kind of a cartoonish take on this poor guy imprisoned in New Orleans with this ‘evil master.’ I took a little poetic license here and there!”

Though the throbbing, atmospheric track represents something of a sonic departure, Wayne attests that it’s merely the natural result of an unquenchable desire to create.

“I just try to make the most beautiful music I can with the tools that I have available,” he says. “If I’ve got a band, I’ll use a band; if I’ve got a hard drive I’ll use a hard drive. They’re all variations on circular saws, power drills, hammers. They’re all tools, and I’m trying to build a masterpiece. I’m committed to making sounds that I think sound cool – and if I think it sounds cool, then I have faith that somebody else out there will think so, too!” Look for Wayne's first punk rock compilation -- Wayne Kramer Presents: Beyond Cyberpunk -- on MUSICBLITZ Records in 2001!

-- Dan Epstein

Dan Epstein is a Los Angeles-based journalist and pop-culture historian whose work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, BAM, Raygun, Guitar World and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. His first book, Twentieth Century Pop Culture, was published in 1999 by Carlton Books.