One
of Minneapolis' most popular '60s bands, The Litter are best known
for their classic 1967 garage rock single "Action Woman." With its
demonic fuzz/feedback guitar riffs and cocky, snarling lead vocal,
it was an archetype of the tough '60s garage rock favored by fans
of the Pebbles reissue series. In fact, the single, which got some
airplay in Minnesota in early 1967 and then was largely forgotten,
didn't reach an international audience until it became cut one,
Side One on Volume One of Pebbles in the late '70s. It now has a
place of honor on the Nuggets box set. The Litter were a little
more successful and long-lived than the average regional garage
band, recording a few albums, the last one for a major label, and
evolving into a more progressive hard rock outfit around the end of
the '60s.
The Litter was formed by members of two Minneapolis area mid-'60s
groups, the Victors and the Tabs. (A few songs
recorded by the Victors in late 1965 can be heard on the
compilation The Scotty
Story.) Heavily influenced by the fiercest British Invasion
bands, such as the Yardbirds and the Who, they recorded their debut
single, "Action Woman"/"A Legal Matter," with local producer Warren
Kendrick in late 1966. Bill
Strandlof, who had played the searing guitar lead on "Action
Woman," was replaced by Tom "Zippy" Caplan in the spring of
1967, just before they recorded most of the tracks that comprised
their debut album. Leaning heavily on covers of songs by British
bands like the Yardbirds, the Who, and Small Faces, Distortions
was nevertheless a prime example of sixties garage rock at its most
powerful. With the garage rock revival this local release became a
coveted collector's item, and has since been reissued several
times.
Like many bands in the late '60s, the Litter subsequently went into
a more psychedelic/hard rock direction. Their second album,
$100 Fine, put more weight on original material. Around this
time the Litter appear in a 1968 Chicago psychedelic nightclub
scene in political filmmaker Haskell Wexler's classic movie Medium
Cool, but only super-briefly; although they're shown playing
onstage, the soundtrack includes none of their music, with the
Mothers of Invention's "Flower Punk" overdubbed onto the scene. By
the time they did get onto a major label for the 1969 album
Emerge
(on ABC), Caplan and original lead singer Denny
Waite had been replaced, and their hard rock sound had
become less distinguished. The Litter have reunited and continue
to play and record. |