Little Feat - "Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat"

"Thirty years of sophisticated music is often more than any modern rock band is expected to accomplish, but Little Feat has spent the bulk of the last three decades offering the unexpected. This "box set" dovetails nicely with the band's last retrospective, "Hoy Hoy", that came out two years after the band's founder, Lowell George, died (1979). Since then, the band has gone their separate ways, reformed, re-tooled, and have rejuvinated a sound as authentic to our culture as buffalo nickles and velvet art work. "Hotcakes and Outtakes" provides a common ground for old and new fans to observe the rich, musical talents of a band that bravely never quite fit into any programmable radio format. The first three cd's offer a rich menu of the band's talents, humor, and innovative sound. Replete with an 80 page history of the band, the Little Feat story makes both sense and nonsense out of the band constantly in conflict, but totally dependent on the emotional traction each player brought to the table. However, it is the fourth cd that the die hard Little Feat fan will find the most gratifying. Here, demos and outtakes rule the day. It is a poignant reminder of a time when an entire band shunned sleek studio wizardry and produced simple nuts and bolts rock and roll.
Lowell George, Billy Payne, Paul Barrer, Richie Heyward, Sam Clayton, Kenny Gradney, Shaun Murphy, Fred Tacket, and Craig Fuller all make up the tribe called Little Feat: a band intent on befuddling the record industry, and a band smart enough to go straight to their audience. Believe me, bands today could learn a few things from Little Feat (by Gene Bruner).