RIP Mary Weiss of the incredible Shangri-Las - the toughest, most bad-ass girl group around - whose vocals often resonated with vulnerability and anguish as much as strength, sass and lust. Like so much great pop, their songs managed to convey a remarkable depth of emotion - most often, a sense of sadness.
It was the likes of the Jesus & Mary Chain and the Ramones that first alerted me to the Shangri-Las. This piece for Please Kill Me by Louis Jordan recounts the perhaps surprising intersections and mutual love and respect between Weiss' gang, as well as fellow outsider girl group the Ronettes, and some of the bands in the first wave of US punk.
But the Shangri-Las should be celebrated not only for the extent of their subsequent influence on others, but as a superlative force in their own right. The quality of their Best Of album is as consistently high as any other I can think of - and it'll be getting a lot of play round these parts over the next few days.
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