One of my greatest failures as a music lover is that I've never been able to get into The Beach Boys. Something about the vocals has always sounded like barbershop to me; it doesn't help that I was forced to sing "Sloop John B" and "California Girls" over and over again in my high-school show choir. But I may have found a way to better appreciate the band's music. The Aquarium Drunkard blog has posted some fantastic a cappella and stripped-down versions of several Beach Boys songs that were recorded during a rehearsal session in 1967. You can download all the cuts from Aquarium Drunkard for a limited time.

Here's one of the cuts: "Surfer Girl."