THE LITTER – 100$ FINE – 1968 (US) garage rock/heavy psych

The Litter came from Minneapolis, Minnesota and recorded two of America's finest psychedelic punk albums. Distortions and $100 Fine are both strongly recommended. Distortions contained high energy psychedelic rock versions of many classic songs, including Action Woman and their amazing (if over the top) psychedelic rework of I'm A Man. Play it Loud! Feedback appears to have been one of the main weapons in their repertoire, and it is seldom used more effectively than on the aforementioned track. Also on the album are fine versions of Cream's I'm So Glad, The Small Faces' classic Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It, The Who's Substitute and A Legal Matter, Spencer Davis' Somebody Help Me, The Yardbirds' Wrack My Mind, Warren Kendrick's Soul Searchin' and Buffy St. Marie's much recorded Codine. Strandlof played lead on Action Woman, A Legal Matter, and Soul Searchin' but his attempts to steer the band in a folk-rock direction caused friction with Kane who wanted the band to become heavier. In the Spring of 1967, he was replaced by Zippy Caplan, freshly back from a sojourn in California.
By their next effort $100 Fine the group were writing much of their own material. For this reason $100 Fine is probably the better album. Opening track Mindbreaker features fine fuzztone guitar work and culminates in a psychedelic haze. Their driving electric guitar work is well represented in tracks like Tallyman and Here I Go Again which has a catchy guitar riff intro. More vintage psychedelic guitar work is evident on Morning Sun and (Under The Screaming Double) Eagle. The side culminates with a piece of psychedelic nonsense Apologies To 2069, which ends with the intro to Action Woman - a track on their first album. However, the stand-out track is their cover of Procol Harum's Kaleidoscope on Side Two, featuring an early use of 'phasing'. The remainder of this side is comprised of an impressive extended version of The Zombies' She's Not There and the self-explanatory Blues One. If you ever get the chance to hear either of these two albums, take it!
Bad management decisions hampered the band's progress during 1968. Both Elektra and Columbia made offers to the band but were knocked back because of heavy touring commitments. In August 1968 they recorded numbers for the film 'Medium Cool' but only made about 20 seconds of the final cut with the Mothers Of Invention dubbed over them. Soon after, Waite (who was burnt-out) and Caplan (who formed White Lightning and then Lightning) dropped out of the band.

JIM KANE bs, moog
TOM MURRAY drms
DAN RINALDI gtr, vcls
DENNY WAITE vcls, organ
TOM 'ZIPPY' CAPLAN ld gtr
01. Mindbreaker
02. Tallyman
03. Here I Go Again
04. Morning Sun
05. (Under The Screaming Double) Eagle
06. Apologies To 2069
07. Kaleidoscope
08. Blues One
09. She's Not There
10. Angelica
11. For All The Times I'm Happy
12. Where Is She Now
13. I Can't Forget You
14. I'm Really Not Used (To Being Treated Bad)
15. I Love My Love
16. Oh, So Sad
17. I Lost Another Girl Today (Version 1)
18. Second Hand Woman
19. Only Love
20. He Couldn't Find One Anywhere
21. I'll Never Love Again (The Egyptian)
22. Let Me Feel It Too
23. Candy
24. (Because) I Need Somebody (To Love)
25. (Because) I'm Taking All Your Happiness (Away)
26. For All The Times I'm Happy (Version 2)
27. I Lost Another Girl Today (Version 2)
28. He Couldn't Find One Anywhere (Intro)

60s Minneapolis Band (it’s nice to hear what my ancestors were up to). It grows on you – especially the vocals and the drums. “Mindbreaker” and “Morning Sun” are my favorites. Performance-wise, it’s not perfect, but you gotta keep in mind that studio time was very expensive back then - bands like this just didn’t have the time to spend hours and hours on a take.

Highly recommended!
Rip from CD 256@ (full artwork included)
Download links
http://link-protector.com/276954/
http://link-protector.com/276956/