M- 1969 Orig THE LITTER EMERGE POWER PSYCH GARAGE

$

75

1969 MINTY CLEAN FIRST PRESSING                       

 AMAZING HEAVY HARD PSYCH WINNER!!!                       

                     THE LITTER

                           EMERGE

                                                             USA - PROBE - CPLP 4504

CLEAN 1969 original first pressing in gatefold cover...THE LITTER, one of Minnesota's most popular sixties bands, these cats REALLY CRANKED it up anotch for this, their third album "EMERGE" ...a powerful driver into heavy, psych & prog veins...this is "stud" rock...

From the initial electronic echo waves which crossfade into a building ‘66 fuzz guitar snarl, side one’s opening “Journeys” is a blister burn. Tom Murray’s multi-tiered drum fills cascade all around the thicket of fuzz guitars and lead vocalist Mark Gallagher’s reoccurring cleansing phrase of “Time to rectify/All your sadness” acts as autosuggestion to what the music itself is actually doing: burning out all the bad things from your mind: the paranoia, confusion, low self esteem and self-doubt in your head and it wants you to go apeshit or maybe dance frenetically in front of the speakers or maybe get real high spirited and start to throw yourself against or over the wall. The other great line “And if you listen/We’ll show you how to open up your door” ain’t no lame claim either, since they’ve already busted down the door from the very beginning of the record to the end heaviness newly awoken and refreshed from its forays within the confines of ‘acid rock.’ “Journeys” IS that good, and the record just keeps getting better and better. At times it hints at a sexy Who “I Can See For Miles”-based slow hip shifting from side to side rhythm, but since those guys had been well ingrained in the collective Litter brainpan since ’66 or so it’s no surprise that it would be wind up becoming so deeply and unselfconsciously a large part of their riff arsenal. “Feeling” follows and here again it’s like an amphetamine version of “Heatwave” meets The MC5’s “Looking At You” played by a battalion of guitars strafing an ammo dump behind a setting of savage drumming, heavy on the tom-tom fills. “Silly People” starts oddly sedate and slips into a Quicksilver-type exposition complete with fake scat that gets kinda soppy until the warning cry “LOOK OUT!” cues a quick drum stomp and a mindrocking fuzz guitar bridge that detonates the previous mellow scene -- Which returns only to be re-ignited into oblivion. Simple and rock hard drums set up “Blue Ice” as its lyrics calmly deliberate a twisted psychedelic scenario: “Crystals white/I turn in pain/To escape/The shafts of light/Pursuing me/a window pane...” A scratching rhythm guitar keeps the tension coiled behind the rest of the guitar pandemonium. Soon, Gallagher finally cries out, “Feeling the color/of Beyonnnnnndddddd!!!” with echo that plunges him directly to the land of flashbacks. “Blue Ice” is almost the offspring of Arthur Lee’s “Feather Fish” both musically and lyrics-wise, so natch it’s one of the high-water marks of the LP. Ending side one is an unlikely cover of The Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” Unlikely because the original is pretty and gentle, and how could The Litter tone down far enough to do it justice? Easy: they shoot up to an alien, gut bucket tempo just for the chorus (as the rhythm guitar is scraped out harsh and swift) and just keep on gliding down to a practically Donovan level of intensity for the rest of the track. Much like the previous track, “My Little Red Book” is covered with practically no consideration for the original rendition, except for the lyrics. An opening wordless yelp of “Whougghh...!” great in its uncontrollably anxious and spastic fit tosses the signal for the twin fuzz guitars to break off in circuitous routes all over the place for the rest of the track. It tramples over everything the Love original is AND played at such a volume, it’s true punk in its own ability to lash out even snottier than Arthur Lee. A breather in the form of “Breakfast At Gardenson’s” is somewhere between the quietly reflective moods of The Watchband’s “Miracle Worker” or The Bob Seger’s System’s “Gone.” Which is to say it’s ballad of the album. That is: until they RAVE UP once more as drums deluxe are pounded out with twin fuzz guitars and a madly strummed acoustic racing to the finish...Hey: this was supposed to be the ballad, guys!

They spend the remaining twelve and a half minutes with “Future Of The Past” which opens with the most blaring guitar and lumpen heavy drumming unleashed in a spirit beyond bombast. But true to form it does fall away, clearing a sonic path for quiet intonations of “Marching burning empires/falling at my doggone feet” as it does. But then another air strike is called in and there’s a trembling explosion that once more shatters the once relative near-silence of the song with a loosely-based appropriation of “Hey Joe” at top speed, top volume, top heavy and top everything else that’s delivered with 1000% spirit. A drum solo breaks in and will wind up finishing off the track, serving more as a vehicle for extra energy discharge than anything else.

1. Journeys

2. Feeling

3. Silly People

4. Blue Ice

5. For What It's Worth

6. Little Red Book

7. Breakfast at Gardenson's

8. Future of the Past

CONDITION: The thick gatefold cover is clean, stiff and solid. M- front cover with the smallest bb drill at bottom that you might feel but not easy to see. The back cover is "EX" (excellent), so altogether a TOP display worthy cover and the vinyl isjust as clean:

The vinyl is all glossy clean, "EX" (excellent) to M- play graded clear and smooth, TOPS!!!

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record