Back to Back - Garage Classics

Here’s an interesting conceptual compilation in where Detroit’s MC5 is pitted against Minneapolis’ the Litter back-to-back, in a “battle of the bands” style. “Kick Out the Jams” gets the party started with fist-pumping, ‘fro-flying, Motor City punk ‘n’ roll before the Litter’s 1967 single “Action Woman” gets that guitar fuzz distorting over a stomping drum beat and some furious tambourine shaking. Still, it can’t compete with the feral snarl of Fred “Sonic” Smith’s guitar on a rare 1966 recording of MC5 covering Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Litter rock the maximum R&B thing on a groovy version of “Rack My Mind” before MC5’s “Shakin’ Street” somehow manage to make a jangly folk-rock song still sound like a heavy rocker. But then the Litter pump some of that Byrds-y 12-string chime into a solid cover of “Hey Joe.” And although they do some solid justice to the Small Faces’ “Whatcha Gonna Do About It,” MC5’s stellar “Gotta Keep Movin” suggests that this wasn’t a fair fight to begin with.