The Litter's Emerge combines the sound of the Amboy Dukes with Blue Cheer - all while vocalist Mark Gallagher does his best at times to imitate Jack Bruce. Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Little Red Book" gets torn apart in the translation and is lots of fun. Lead guitarist Ray Melina takes the band to the world of British rock with his "Breakfast at Gardenson's," the light feeling here a total about-face, a transition that complements the huge sound on most of the record. Opening track "Journeys" is that Brit rock flair and West Coast vocal sound meeting the Amboy Dukes. This has all been heard and done before, but The Litter emulate it so well that their concoction is actually quite inviting. "Silly People" is the rock band toying with jazz and blues, light years away from the garage, but working on a level that eluded the Blues Magoos and Lovecraft when those ensembles strayed too far from their origins. The Jack Bruce inspiration comes in loud and clear here, not only in the voice but in what the band is doing. The tunes are mostly in the two- to three-and-a-half-minute range with only the Iron Butterfly-ish "Future of the Past" clocking in at 12-minutes-plus ending side two and an over-five-minute rendition of Stephen Stills' "For What It's Worth" closing out the first side. The band's own "Blue Ice" works better than the cover of Buffalo Springfield and, face it, that 1967 protest song was unique and difficult to re-interpret. The Litter actually do a great job of walking on this sacred ground till they give it a half-time Ramones/the Dickies jolt years before that concept would come in to vogue; the attempt goes only halfway but is interesting. The album cover uses a negative photo pastiche and they've got the Blue Cheer image down pat. Bassist J. Worthington Kane does a fine job of producing his group studying their heroes and getting an A on the exam. It's just too bad a Terry Knight or Colonel Tom Parker wasn't around these parts to bring this to the masses. [Some editions contain a ninth track, "On Our Minds."]
S**L
Nice For The Price
'Basement Rock' with good quality sound, mostly raw and up-tempo, not over produced. This album has its moments, I like the original material best. I feel some tracks were'nt arranged, embelished, and/or edited as well as they could have been, so I'd say 6.5 for music content. 'Blue Ice' is a heavier track but they fade out the ending way to soon. They could've jammed this song for 5 more minutes and finished side one in a storm. Instead they cover 'For What Its Worth' (an immortal song which I adore)...I feel this song would be better left to the encore list for the live performances, it has a much different impact in my view. This cover is totally reworked with the first part of the song played and sung mellow almost sad with acoustics. Then it shifts polarity 180 degrees and turns into Ted Nugent in heavy metal overdrive for the chorus, it gets redundant quickly, this is the main detractor for my ears. 'Red Book' the other cover is very solid, a nice opening to side two. Bass, drums two guitars and a lead vocalist comprise the band. The guitars are all well played. The lead vocalist is cool, a rock and roll screamer with a touch of jazz/soul...watchout for his J.J. Walker "HEY" on several songs, you'll lose a good bong-hit laughing if your not prepared. Don't buy this album for the drum solo, it's cool but the drumming on other tracks are a better measure of this drummers talent, solid work. The 5 minute drum solo finishes the album with a very short band reprisal at the end. It's a hard fight, some stick clicks along the way, working its way to a mid tempo quad, squeaking pedals, muffled bass drums: almost sound like ply wood. Drum sound is a science in itself and equipment costs a fortune. I'll give 'em A- for effort, B- for tecnique, and C- for drum sound. P.S. if your looking for lesser known drum solo's check out Chicago 3, 4 or 7 and Kansas 'Song For America'. Chicago 1 and 2 have killer drums as well just no elongated solos. [...]
K**T
Minnesota rock at its finest
"Emerge" was the third and final album by Minnesota's renowned rock band The Litter in their first life. The Litter released three albums between 1966 and 1969, then taking a long break before releasing their next album "Live At The Mirage 1990." The band's first two albums, 1966's "Distortions" and 1967's "$100 Fine" have long been available on Erik Lindgren's MA based reissue Arf Arf label. "Emerge" however, has long been out of print. Cleopatra Records has done a wonderful job in filling that void and adding the non-lp single side "On Our Minds" as a bonus track. For collectors, the two Arf Arf cds and "Emerge" include every side released by the Litter between 1966 and 1969. Not only was "Emerge" originally issued on a new label, but also with a new lead guitarist, with Ray Melina replacing Tom "Zippy" Caplan who moved on to two of Minnesota's best known rock bands, the power trio White LIghtning and the quintet Lightning. Melina not only does a great job on guitar but also helped write 3 of the albums 8 tracks. "Emerge" is probably best known for Tommy Murray's drum solo on the 12 and 1/2 minute opus "Future Of The Past" but includes many other highlights. In fact, all of the tracks shine save the band's take on Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth." In particular the band's cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Little Red Book" long considered one of Arthur Lee and Love's finest moments, is killer. Both singles culled from the album "Silly People" and "Blue Ice" stand out. Hats off to Cleopatra for finally making the missing link of The Litter's catalog available to fans. Plus the cd can be obtained from drop shippers rather inexpensively. Fans of the Litter familiar with "Emerge" will want to snatch this cd up before it goes out of print again. But the cd is desirable not only to complete Litter collections but as a fine album on its own merit.
E**Y
The Litter-Emerge
Released in early 1969, The Litter album "Emerge" is one of the great albums from the period when psychedelia merged into a heavier direction musically. I am reminded of a Lester Bangs article on heavy metal describing how mid 1960s garage bands transformed into hard rock/heavy metal later on and The Litter (much like MC5) fit this profile very accurately. The guitar distortion was still evident, but the tone was much sharper, guitar solos more abrasive and prominent, bass and drums, much deeper and the vocals are well mixed. The songs were longer (the epic "Future of the Past") and less radio friendly in a non underground FM sense, but are nonetheless memorable and powerful. The Litter could definitely hold their own among their American and British counterparts of the time when it came to raw energy and heaviness. I have had Emerge for decades on LP and was glad to finally get it on CD. A great find I have wanted to have on CD for years.
J**E
L I T T E R , the LITTER, Freak N' Amaz N'
Amazing Lost Classic.... the prime Time to have been making MUSIC... Here is a Band I just bought this for FIRST time for LITTER'.... GREAT GREAT Choice as recommended. Genuine Brilliant Guitar JAMMs, Straight up RIFF, Real Music with REAL Instruments.... Nothing artificial.... IF u like ANY Old School ROCK, HEEP, Zep, Purple, Atomic, Hairy Chapter, Frumpy, ETC..... LITTER will ROCK you to another Planet... LOUD N LOUDER.
G**I
RE-Emerge Tom Zippy Caplan
I corresponded with Tom "Zippy" he suggested I listened to "Lihtning and I did.I told him that I liked RE-Emerge better Songs are more of a hard rock similar "Led Zeppelin" Tom is similar to Jimmy Page or maybe more like Jeff Beck in playing style.Wonderful music catchy lyrics and song titles.If one likes Led Zeppelin or AC/DC or a hard rock fan,I suggest listening to RE-Emerge.
T**S
Four Stars
Saw them as one of the openers for Led Zep in '69.
A**R
Four Stars
Fun band--heard them live at Famous Dave's
J**K
great mpls psyh
I SAW THIS GROUP IN MPLS.THEY WERE HARDCORE-KICKASS BAND THIS BY FAR ONE OF MY MOST LISEND TO (L.P.)& cd.i have everything they recorded. starting with distorions.great music back then in mpls.5th&ceaderwas danya hall all hot bands played ther.sen e-mail to meon your thoughts&memeroies of this time&place. hey joe
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