Reviews: The Litter and the Sundays

Distortions is back on yellow vinyl, and the black vinyl repress of Blind is much improved.

Today we’ve got two quick vinyl reviews of some recent represses. The Litter's Distortions is a garage-rock classic, and the Sundazed label has re-upped their original 2013 Kevin Gray mono cut with a new yellow pressing. Not to be confused with Sundazed, ’90s Bristol band the Sundays have seen their three beloved albums all return to vinyl in the past two years or so, improving on some dodgy limited editions that were the only alternative to pricey originals. Their second album, Blind, got a 2-LP 45 RPM pressing earlier this year on “gold nugget” vinyl, but now it is available in a superior black vinyl edition without the problems that plagued the gold version.

• Review: The Litter: Distortions, yellow vinyl
• Review: The Sundays: Blind, 2-LP 45 RPM black vinyl

Tomorrow we’re launching the first in a series of preview posts for Record Store Day’s Black Friday, so be sure to come back for that. And if you aren’t already reading this in your inbox, please sign up for a subscription to The Vinyl Cut. It doesn’t just help support what we do but also offers you massive convenience, with new editions of this newsletter delivered straight to your email as soon as they’re published. We’ve got lots more on the way, and you don’t want to miss any bit of it.

The Litter: Distortions (Sundazed) - yellow vinyl variant

Review by Ned Lannamann

There’s only one thing any copy of the Litter’s 1967 debut album Distortions worth its salt needs to do: those three opening notes of “Action Woman” need to positively SHRIEK out of the speakers. 

Sundazed’s recent mono repress of Distortions delivers in spades. Timider hearts will lunge for the volume knob immediately. But those craving the heady madness of 1960s garage rock will instantly get that rush that led “Action Woman” to become a Pebbles- and Nuggets-sanctioned garage-rock classic.

The rest of the album is pretty great, too. It’s almost entirely covers, but when they’re of bands like the Who, the Small Faces, the Yardbirds, the Spencer Davis Group, and Cream, there’s little to complain about in terms of material. In fact, the Minneapolis band cribbed nearly the entire tracklist from British bands; the exceptions are the two superb tracks written by producer Warren Kendrick (“Action Woman” and “Soul-Searchin’”), Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man” (itself covered by a British band… or 50), and Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Codine,” which had become a favorite of the San Francisco scene. That track is the only time the band lets off the throttle, turning in a deliberately slow, tripping waltz that suggests the band was on the cusp of evolving from punky, R&B-informed garage rock into the psychedelic style that was hitting full flower in 1967.

In fact, there’s not a duff track on Distortions. The finale “I’m a Man” shows some real acid-rock fireworks, and the extended instrumental coda to “Substitute” suggests the adventurousness of the band’s live show. The group is tight throughout, but some of the most exciting playing comes from brand-new lead guitarist Zippy Caplan. He had taken over from Bill Strandlof, who quit after recording “Action Woman” due to his disagreement with the harder direction the band was taking.

Producer Kendrick, a mini mogul in his own right, released the “Action Woman” single and the Distortions LP on his own labels, Scotty Records in the case of the 45 and Warick Records for the full-length. They were released locally in the Twin Cities area (Distortions was not a private pressing, as Sundazed’s website states) but failed to take off nationally. The Litter kept plugging away, though, and released two more albums, including one on ABC Records’ psych/prog imprint Probe.

This is Sundazed’s third pressing of Distortions, and it’s a mono cut because the album was never mixed for stereo. A black vinyl version, with plates cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio, came out in 2013, and it was repressed on red vinyl with black swirls in 2019. This 2025 yellow version, pressed at RTI, uses the same Kevin Gray plates, because why fix what ain’t broke? The old Sundazed listing for the 2019 edition credits Sundazed label head Bob Irwin with mastering, so my hunch is that the source was a digital file Irwin created from what may have been a disintegrating or compromised analog master tape, and the file was then given to Gray for cutting. The fact that analog is not mentioned on the hype sticker or website also reinforces my hunch. But there is no additional information on the provenance so this cannot be proven or disproven without further info.

The sound is full and loud, if not exactly high fidelity. There’s a slight edginess to the high end—a sort of scraped-raw quality that is probably inherent in the overdriven guitar sound and the mix itself. Denny Waite’s lead vocal is well-recorded and clear throughout, while Jim Kane’s bass is centered and true-sounding. In fact, the ensemble playing is so good that one imagines Kendrick was able to provide all the guidance, time, and space the band needed to deliver excellent performances. It’s a noticeable contrast to the rushed and often sloppy sound of so many garage-rock recordings from the ’60s. To Sundazed’s (and Gray’s) credit, the sound is offered cleanly and transparently but maintains the rawness and vitality that makes Distortions so exciting and which any excess polish would undercut.

The packaging is minimal—almost desolately so. The original jacket is closely reproduced, but there are no liner notes, which undermines the philosophy of historical preservation otherwise suggested by the project. Unfortunately, you will need to go elsewhere to learn more about the Litter, producer Warren Kendrick, and the thriving Twin Cities garage-rock scene (which also included the Castaways and the Trashmen).

What’s here is loud, fresh (in both senses of the word), volatile, and ageless. For that reason, it’s heartening to see Sundazed keeping the Litter’s debut in print. There’s much more here than “Action Woman,” even if that track alone is worth the price of admission.

Sundazed 1-LP 33 RPM (unknown source [see above], lacquer cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearant, pressed at RTI) • yellow vinyl

Listening equipment
Table: Technics SL-1200MK2
Cart: Audio-Technica VM540ML
Amp: Luxman L-509X
Speakers: ADS L980

The Sundays: Blind (Geffen/DGC/UMe) - black vinyl variant

Review by Robert Ham

Regular readers of the newsletter might remember my comment in a previous review about the lack of liner notes in many recent reissues. (It's a recurring theme here at The Vinyl Cut.) The recent black vinyl re-release of Blind, the 1992 album by British dreampop group the Sundays, is certainly guilty of this, but somehow, I don’t mind so much this time around. 

That’s due to the almost complete silence the members of the Bristol quartet have maintained since they played their last gig at Islington’s Union Chapel in North London at the end of 1997. They’ve not released a note of music nor played live since. And the only on-the-record interview singer Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin have given in the ensuing years was for, of all publications, American Airlines’ in-flight magazine. Leaving a little mystery surrounding the writing and recording of their second full-length feels entirely apt. 

Besides, the music on Blind speaks volumes on their behalf. The album was the natural next step after the impressive success of their debut, 1990’s Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. The Sundays left indie label Rough Trade for Parlophone and, with their support and that of new producer Dave Anderson, expanded their sonic palette considerably. Each song on Blind is thick with layers of shimmery, jangly electric guitar, along with an acoustic guitar to bolster Gavurin’s astral melodies. A string section was brought in to add a warm gust through “Love,” one of the two singles plucked from the LP. The lyrics written by Wheeler and Gavurin may have gotten more abstract and impressionistic, but that only adds to the album’s overall intoxicating effect. 

Blind is given a further sonic boost with this new black vinyl pressing. (A “gold nugget” variant was released back in February as an exclusive at Interscope.com, but that version has gotten poor marks on Discogs.) With mastering from Justin Perkins at Mystery Room, the album was cut at GZ Media from Perkins’ digital files at 45 RPM and spread over two LPs. As the original running time is just shy of 41 minutes, turning Blind into a double album might have been pure indulgence, but the results prove worthy of the decision. Compared to previous single LP versions, the rhythm section pops like never before, with bassist Paul Brindley’s jazzy countermelodies given more brightness and bottom. Every striation of Gavurin’s guitar work is clear and present in the mix, too. At the right volume, it takes on the sensation of being pleasantly squeezed under a weighted blanket. 

The stretching out of the music over two discs also replicates the US tracklist, which ends with a luminous cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses.” It’s a song that was originally intended as a B-side for their “Goodbye” single, but has quickly become one of the Sundays’ most well-known recordings after popping up in a Budweiser commercial and a couple of choice film and TV placements. Though the group may have wanted Blind to wrap up with the splashy volume bursts at the end of “Medicine,” closing the album with “Wild Horses” feels like a more appropriate coda. It's a softer landing after 40 minutes of swirling, dynamic pop that rushes in and teases listeners with graceful, concentrated intent. 

Geffen/DGC/UMe 2-LP 45 RPM (unknown source, mastering by Justin Perkins, lacquer cut anonymously at GZ Media, pressed at GZ's Precision Record Pressing) • black vinyl (a translucent "gold nugget" edition also exists)

Listening equipment
Table: Cambridge Audio Alva ST
Cart: Audio-Technica VAT-VM95E
Amp: Sansui 9090
Speakers: Electro Voice TS8-2