Girls go Zonk

It was the logical extension of two of the most important and enduring pop music tributaries of the 1960s – the girl group sound and the garage band explosion, respectively – but the distaff garage rock scene has earned precious little documentation on record or in history books over the years. Romulan's long-running Girls in the Garage series has done much to rectify that oversight, however, compiling an astounding amount of prime crunch – the first CD volume in the series is also its strongest, adding 11 tracks to the 16 that made up the original vinyl. Like all garage collections, there are equal amounts killer and filler, and the joy of discovery is alone worth the price of admission – Denise & Co.'s "Boy, What Will You Do Then," the Belles' "Come Back," and Lydia Marcelle's "The Girl He Needs" are top-shelf by any standard, however, and the Continental Co-Ets' blistering instrumental "Melody of Junk" dismisses once and for all any lingering misconceptions that the girls couldn't rock as hard as the boys.

It was the logical extension of two of the most important and enduring pop music tributaries of the 1960s – the girl group sound and the garage band explosion, respectively – but the distaff garage rock scene has earned precious little documentation on record or in history books over the years. Romulan's long-running Girls in the Garage series has done much to rectify that oversight, however, compiling an astounding amount of prime crunch – the first CD volume in the series is also its strongest, adding 11 tracks to the 16 that made up the original vinyl. Like all garage collections, there are equal amounts killer and filler, and the joy of discovery is alone worth the price of admission – Denise & Co.'s "Boy, What Will You Do Then," the Belles' "Come Back," and Lydia Marcelle's "The Girl He Needs" are top-shelf by any standard, however, and the Continental Co-Ets' blistering instrumental "Melody of Junk" dismisses once and for all any lingering misconceptions that the girls couldn't rock as hard as the boys.

It was the logical extension of two of the most important and enduring pop music tributaries of the 1960s – the girl group sound and the garage band explosion, respectively – but the distaff garage rock scene has earned precious little documentation on record or in history books over the years. Romulan's long-running Girls in the Garage series has done much to rectify that oversight, however, compiling an astounding amount of prime crunch – the first CD volume in the series is also its strongest, adding 11 tracks to the 16 that made up the original vinyl. Like all garage collections, there are equal amounts killer and filler, and the joy of discovery is alone worth the price of admission – Denise & Co.'s "Boy, What Will You Do Then," the Belles' "Come Back," and Lydia Marcelle's "The Girl He Needs" are top-shelf by any standard, however, and the Continental Co-Ets' blistering instrumental "Melody of Junk" dismisses once and for all any lingering misconceptions that the girls couldn't rock as hard as the boys.