Little Feat

There was a time when Little Feat were way cooler than the too-jammy festival circuit band they became in the '80s, no lie. Their first record bumps and grooves with the ghosts of the past in the same way the best stuff by the Band does. "Snakes On Everything" and "Hamburger Midnight" are the highlights, but don't miss their note-perfect take on Howlin' Wolf's ".44 Blues."

Little Feat first came to my attention with the release of their incredible powerhouse single
"Strawberry Flats" b/w "Hamburger Midnight," and, as expected, those two cuts are the
standouts on the group's debut album. But that doesn't mean, as it so often does, that this is
a weak album. Little Feat is quite a complex group, with many extraordinary things to say,
and the little taste they give us here will, hopefully, be expanded upon in the fu... More >

Lots of "tight" groups are influenced by the Band these days, but these guys could almost pass for them. The sensibility is freakier ("Strawberry Flats" is a weary state-of-the-counterculture song, like Mother Earth's "Then I'll Be Moving On"), and there are shades of the country Stones ("Truck Stop Girl" is a more empathetic "Dead Flowers") as well as a convincing Howlin' Wolf imitation. But the dark instrumental interweave and pained vocals are right off Music From Big Pink. And I've always admired that album from a distance. (Grade - B)