Minneapolis was their home turf. But in the decades that followed, appreciation for Distortions swelled to tidal wave proportions among fans of amped-up, ramped-up, balls-to-the-wall rock’n’roll. Headlined by two red-hot, stone-cold killers, “Action Woman” and “Soul Searchin’”—both penned by producer Warren Kendrick—Distortions is arguably the greatest private-press garage band album of the era.
The Litter formed in 1966 as a merger between two popular Twin Cities combos, the Victors and the Tabs. They quickly established a reputation as the wildest, loudest band on the scene. Bill Strandlof was responsible for the incendiary, feedback-laced guitar work on “Action Woman”—a local hit for the band when released as a single in January 1967—but by the summer he’d been replaced by another fast-fingered guitar slinger, Zippy Caplan. Caplan’s fiery leads helped ignite the remainder of Distortions, including smoking interpretations of the Who’s “Substitute,” the Small Faces’ “Whatcha Gonna Do About It,” an intense reading of “Codine,” and a comprehensive reconstruction-destruction of “I’m A Man.”