The Crystals sure are the group I love!

What with all the angsting online recently, I thought it would be nice to post something everyone can agree on. It's hard to deny the power of radtacular of The Girl Group Sound. Not just for middle-aged secretaries dancing during happy hour, it's actually a sound so sweet and infectious that even the crustiest of punk and most hesher metal dude can get down with. Everyone loves this shit, because it's awesome and a huge reminder that pop music doesn't have to be meth addicts writhing around onstage in front of children.

Whenever I'm blue or burnt out on barre chords and grunted punk affectations, I fire up the One Kiss Can Lead to Another boxset, which if you don't own/illegally pirate is fucking crucial.

And it doesn't get much better than Phil Spector's stable of groups he molded into hit song factories. Despite a revolving lineup that shifted based on things like pregnancy and flight times from the East Coast, the songs recorded under the Crystals banner still stand up pretty strong. He never gave them the attention that he gave his other groups for various reasons. They didn't have as big hits as the Shangri-Las, he was fucking Veronica from the Ronettes, the response to the BATSHIT INSANE song "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)," etc. This just means he didn't coax the radio-perfect performances he demanded from his other groups. It gives it a charming, relatively ragged and lo-fi take on his normal perfectionist output. "Girls Can Tell" is a perfect example of this, and probably the best song they ever did.

Despite having a massive hit in "Da Doo Ron Ron," they've been kind of relegated to second-tier status of the big girl groups. Like contemporaries the Shirelles and Martha and the Vandellas, they are richly deserving of a modern exhumation and examination. True fun fact - "He's Sure the Boy I Love" will always sound great on mixtapes next to Dead Kennedys songs. I'm not joking.

Does everyone feel better?

What a Nice Way to Turn 17 - http://www.mediafire.com/?mi8i6nd0dty

He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss) - http://www.mediafire.com/?cmccg2yxezy

He's Sure the Boy I Love - http://www.mediafire.com/?lw20nc9gtpc

Da Doo Ron Ron - http://www.mediafire.com/?4e4tyda3lmx

Girls Can Tell - http://www.mediafire.com/?pdztxdi05j4