The Shaggs

I bought Philosophy of the World 15-20 years ago out of curiosity. My first reaction was shock at the musical ineptitude — "How did this ever get released?" — and then laughter. I'd play it for friends as a joke. I don't subscribe to the notion that I simply don't understand what the girls were trying to do — that it's this free jazz concept carried over to pop, as a poster stated up thread. (I listen to, and enjoy, plenty of free jazz.)
However I do find the music fascinating, partly because it does seem to make sense to the people playing it. I also find some of the songs to be truly moving, even sad. Maybe that's because I read the Susan Orlean essay first; I'll never know for sure.

Sometime around 1998 or 1999, someone posted about The Shaggs on the Loud Family mailing list. I was intrigued by the descriptions (no audio clips were to be found online at that point) but couldn't find the album anywhere. When my parents went on vacation to California (I think it was), I sent along a list of CDs for them to look for that I couldn't find back home (as was my tradition whenever my parents went somewhere) and one of the discs they returned home with was Philosophy of the World. Twenty seconds in to the title track, I was laughing my head off.

I've lent the album out to curious friends over the years, and I'm pretty sure I included "My Pal Foot Foot" on a couple of mix tapes/CDs back in the day. I still own the album; it even survived, as numerous objectively better albums did not, The Great CD Purge of 2015.

Think I must have picked it up on vinyl sometime mid 80s. Was just remembering talking about it in New York so must be by 86 at latest.
Read it reviewed somewhere possibly the NME for the Rounder reissue.
Have loved Pal Foot Foot since hearing it.
Picked up a cd version of it over Xmas.

Also interesting to read about the scam about the initial pressing as related in a recent Ugly Things that recounted the story of the scam artist.

It gets weird in places starts sounding like it is being done too well so it's being faked. So interesting to see video footage of the band at work at one of their gigs.

I'd read about them in the AMG books and occasionally in mags--a couple short bits in Mojo and/or Spin stand out (particularly a review of the partial reunion show in NYC w/a crying Georgia Hubley in the audience) alongside the write-up in The Secret History of Rock--but I never actually heard them until the DJs running a College Radio '60s show started spinning them in the mid-'00s. The drumming really stood out. I later picked up the BMG CD reissue of Philosophy... cheap on Amazon*. I haven't listened in awhile (all CDs in storage rn), but it always struck me as inside-out bubblegum with surprisingly strong hooks--and those accents!

*If I'd held out for a few more years, I could have picked it up for a fiver in person at Fry's when they had a huge budget music selection; how surreal it felt to walk into a massive big box store and see THE SHAGGS front and center rubbing shoulders w/80s Dylan and early Allman Bros. and other Classic Rock staples. Wonder how many copies the chain actually sold?

Really enjoyed this interview with Dot (by the person who introduced me to The Shaggs):
https://www.thetrapset.net/272-dot-wiggin-the-shaggs/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orcvDjy3fvs

As the band’s primary songwriter, she is the author of some of the most astonishingly unique, life-affirming music ever recorded.

I think the joke has run its course.