the shaggs

[janaskorgen]

although underground music isn't really a genre, it's more like 'music without any genre'. Though the Shaggs are at least trying to be pop. The Monks on the other hand ... a world that has forgotten The Monks is a strange one indeed.

[OWRBtheo]

In a world of over-produced bullshine, The Shaggs are like a breath of fresh air.

[mollyandbenb]

it's very easy to be mean, and it's also easy in an uncritical forum such as this to think that your insults to the shaggs are interesting or anything other than insipid retreads of the same hamfisted, stilted pablum. so what if you don't like it? that's your right, but it's waaaaaaay cloddish to denigrate it.

[KeKeKedhvsc]

beats muse

[doriankilledsibyl]

@KeKeKedhvsc what happened to them!? I loved their earlier stuff...so sad, this newage techno pop bull...

[cholocharile]

and beat happening

[unclegusyo]

hahaha i love the description

[mugwamp4]

was in a record bar a while back in OZ.. couldnt believe it a SHAGGS tribute album ...wtf????

[ianshann]

haha! these guys are so terrible its actually almost impossible to fine any of their cds

[Judex]

Yeah, and your spelling is pretty terrible, too. Maybe if you could read the labels on the CD bins, you could find them.

[KitFallapart]

Thankyou The Shaggs, for helping me purge my stomach of everything I had eaten today.

[youropinionsbad]

are you kidding this is hidden genius! do a drug or something you recycled pop listening consumeristic morons!

no offense :)

[slackdave]

none taken.. ...lolzzzzzzzzzz

[HALEYeww]

so in order to not be 'recycled pop listening consumeristic morons,' we have to listen to this terrible shit? it's not even music!

[rockonwalrusbaby]

this made me lol :p

[meddle71echoes]

An anti-consumerism Friend?

We've become friends!

[danielcm81]

I heard the shaggs for the first time last night. A buddy of mine played them for me. I was blown away. Some of the weirdest music I've ever listened to. R Stevie Moore covers the shaggs.

[doughboycod2]

@youropinionsbad It is genius if you like atonal "music." I don't like mainstream music, but I expect the musicians to at least play in a particular key and not sound so dissonant. I guess I am a consumeristic moron that loves real artists like Nick Drake and Alexi Murdoch.

[1MrNobody1]

OH GAWD FAVED!! ITS SO MUCH FAIL ITS WIN

[ALCHOHOLIQUE]

foot foot for ruler of the universe!!!

[rocketface]

It's genius. I love it!!!!!

[greenrate]

How you feel about the Shaggs . . . tells you whether you really know anything about Music or not.

[spekkie12]

You love it or you hate it.

If you hate it... I understand.

But... I love it!

[Moldova]

You don't have to either love it or hate it.

[lijkert]

listen to philosophy of the world. if you don't like it, fine. it's secretly the best song ever though.

[Bagmen3]

I looked up that song just now and It's hella good. Thanks for the recommendation!

[desu38]

ಠ_ಠ

[yogachela]

Three singing nuns who've been sniffing lighter fluid, accompanied by rhythms sounding like a peg-leg stumbling through a field of bald uniroyals.

[eartant]

they ought to have this on that "Rock Band" game, it's TIGHT!

[knate08]

People actually like this? I mean honestly. I'm not being mean. I like obscure music... but this isn't obscure... this is just bad. Can anyone justify listening to this?

[momwentcrazy]

Didn't you ever watch Ripley's Believe It or Not as a kid? This is the musical equivalent of a guy missing half his head.

[wallish]

this is hauntingly addictive.

[fuzzfoot]

wow...trippy...brilliant...the best, of the worse, that I have ever heard, and i'm glad i did, but didn't...

[HombreBeauregard]

my understandiong is they were kinda forced to make music by there dad who wanted to get rich off em.

didnt work.

[gothmog665]

Crap

[deadlyyams]

Someone tried to break their instruments to try to get them to stop recording.

...they failed :(

[AdamJaffer]

..now lets all smoke some weed lol

[19ADband]

I would like to see a group of traditionally competent musicians try to replicate any Shaggs songs.

[yazy1108]

this sucks..

[lcswoosh]

this music is terrifying

[LSweet2007]

eggbertsmith,

you hit it right on the nose!!!

[ScreenFlavour]

i think its cool that they're so different but anyone can play out of tune. i think whoever listens to a whole album of this is pretty sad.

[DameEdithDivine]

I love what you've done with this!

[thehorizon]

Not that bad, actually. Kind of reminds me of something off of TMR.

[CofCGuy]

Great animation! The Shaggs are awesome. They are the heart of punk and innovators on a genius level.

[HotKebab]

Have heard worse. This is alright.

[greencouch18]

wo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o­0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oooo000­00000t!

[tonydominoactor]

Thier album liner has a quote from Frank Zappa,"better than the Beatles" who am I to argue?

[fragmenaetherium]

Xiu Xiu at a new level!

Who knew it was possible?

[eggbertsmith]

They are sublime artists!!!! Dont you butt-monkey DARE speak badly of them! Fools!

They are so good, that they transcend all the little typical stupid things that common artists rely on,

...like tuning their instruments

...singing in key

...having a sense of rhythm (or even following the drums at all)

...talent

Those things are crutches for the amateurs. This group is miles ahead of that. Most of you buffoons dont get it. Why? Cause it's GENIUS!

:-)

[s0348953]

one of the funniest things i've ever read

[wwdvd]

fuck you its just shit and u bastards think its cool to suck, even if the whole point of this band is rebelling, im sure there are like hundreds of bands who rebel and play better than these pieces of shit

[300hotboy]

the teller said they'd be famous-she didn't say they'd be good.

[webwillie1]

@300hotboy Exactly!

[MadMudProductions]

I agree with you! these girls can't sing or play guitar or drums. They SUCK LEARN THAT!

[theHappyFungus]

They're doing what they want, but it doesnt change the fact that they cant play.

[3investigators]

Yes, it is horrifying but that's why it is fascinating.  Amazing!

[fredcheeseworthy1]

i love it

(khem sattaur)

[fredcheeseworthy1]

? heemonster (omar khaliel)

[goshglabby]

This is an embarrassment to music. please goa way shaggs

[Kaironzet]

nothing is an embarrasment to music, if you knew how to appreciate it, you'd know people express in different ways..

if music of this type, outsider music, was shit, then the genre wouldn't have been created..

[goshglabby]

sorry, that was my moronic friend mark. he doesn't know what music is. by the way, outsider music isn't really a genre, it's a classification for music created by those whose lack of talents did not stifle their creative impulses.

[tuturura]

gosh i love the shaggs!

[quiensoy1]

Just because most peolpe don't get this doesn't mean this isn't good...this is outsider music.

[clutchkirby]

Don't "get" it? It's a few kids who don't know how to play music.

[Thewhitewookiee]

this is the worst shit i've ever heard!!

[premiumunlegend]

dude i rocked out to this

[Aethah121]

They come across as one of those bands that no matter how much boos & vegetables are thrown at them, they'll just keep playing on.

And when their done they'll still say 'thank you'

[Cachaito]

Honestly, what the fuck is this? It doesn't make sense, vocals suck ass, there's no coherent beat to follow- by the way, who the fuck is Foot Foot???

[Manusturbo]

Square.

[fmiller747]

Foot-foot is a pet cat.

[jmen4ever]

A long defunt 1989 group of young girls,with a HUGE cult following. Weird shit indeed!!

[fmiller747]

Correction: the 3 teenage Wiggins sisters released their sole album in '69 - not '89 - and disbanded shortly after.

[jmen4ever]

opps! Ment to say 69. Too much time watching you tube late into the night!

[luisdile02]

GFAQS ftw.

[booyakasha128]

Indeed

[OwNZorZ]

WTF FUCK GFAQS...

[qwerty31194]

what is this? I don't even...

[blackplastic7]

You don't even what! Don't leave me on that cliffhanger!

[qwerty31194]

to finish

I don't even know what this is

seriously

there;s no drum beat

[JAMES6FRANK]

wa wa

i can't tap my foot to it blah wa wa

pfft

[starwarez73]

Panda se influencio en ellas definitivamnete

[RonaldVaughan]

So bad it's good....inspired Shonen Knife,

though...

A better try at early female alternative

rock was by THE INFLATABLE BOY CLAMS.

[Cachaito]

I can't even follow the fuckin' beat!

[warbread]

They're still better than Good Charlotte.

[annyloveseddy]

HAHAHA!!!!

[sergiosamgenio]

I guess if you don't get it now, you never will.

[MANCVSO]

dissonant, horrible

[10846]

i miss harvey korman

[crowman1979]

This is what happens when Meg White drums for "The Dead Milkmen"

[qlap10]

LOL

[crowman1979]

This is the birth of Alternative music! It's best to listen to this album while high on weed or hallucinigenics.

[Zebrizz]

this song makes me want to stab my eye with a RUSTY FORK!

[mycornu]

don't listen to the shaggs in a dark room

they're all dead you know

[gypsynoodles]

dorothy wants to wrap her cold green hand around your neck and betty will be suspended from your ceiling

[bloodspatteredgroom]

Makes Nico look as talented as Dylan...

[groovyastrodude]

Somehow the singer's tuneless, discordant singing is completely irresistable.

[JohnFordDanceTroupe]

This is what if Captain Beefheart couldn't make music, yet still went on to make "Trout Mask Replica".

It's that weird. I love it. I play it on my iPod a lot, especially the first two tracks on the 1999 remaster.

Don Van Vliet should listen to this to see how weird his music was.

[Scyllax]

I heard this on Dr. Demento. Segue into "Fish Heads".

[xreddemon]

THIS SONG ROCKS! BOOBS!

[mjmcnult]

In 1976, Zappa told Playboy magazine that the Shaggs were "better than the Beatles--even today," and he named Philosophy of the World as his third favorite album of all time.

[yanagi302]

woah. for how much their dad made them practice, it doesn't show at all.

[greekperson0305]

It just goes to show that beating your children won't make them musicians.

Especially if you beat them when they're still in the womb.

[PennyOz]

I only found out about 'The Shaggs' on an Australian show called 'Collectors', where this woman collected albums (vinyls) that were seen as a bit 'trashy' and 'The Shaggs' were amongst them. The lady on the show said It was "the worst album she had ever heard", but she asked her viewers what they thought. so this got me curious and had to find out for myself what 'The Shaggs' were like.

I have to add that 'yes', this band is terrible, but at the same time theres something about it too!

[mo0tube]

shite

[eastweymouthchris]

Odd meter rhythms, unintentional tritone subbing, pentatonic primal melodies, you can study music for decades and only dream of playing like this.

[Zackkbum]

Haha totally. Everyone was saying how bad this is... but I've listened to it 12 times and I still am amazed at how.. raw it is. People try to copy this with years of music theory and college and it sounds completely pretentious, but a bunch of girls try to make music and come out with this stuff while trying to make "legitimate pop music."

And then I hear the Juno soundtrack and hear something almost exactly like this and it's shocking. :O

[cdadave83814]

I'm kinda thinkin the Dad got tired of working his life away and sought instant income from his daughters' fame (such as it was). I actually have one of their CD's. I can't bear to get rid of it. Why, I don't know.

[stoningtonj]

rock on

[DevSodDribble]

Does no one even bother to look into the story of this record? In the layte 60's, The Shaggs' daddy invested his life savings into this record, despite the fact they couldn't play. Stations like WBCN (Boston) started playing it as a joke, yet it caught on with people. They were not 'alternative' or 'experimental.' They were just...bad. Yet so haunting. It was all an accident!!

[Rumplestiltskin16]

They are terrible but at least it's not pretentious like most pop music today. The only difference between The Shaggs and, say, Snow Patrol (and other formulaic soft rock, punk rock pop and rap) is that Snow Patrol is tighter. They both lack creativity, but at least The Shaggs have the humility to write about basic human feelings without dramatizing them. Snow Patrol must think that it's some kind of musical godsend, because they say absolutely nothing interesting.

[Powerfacemaster]

retard

[jhamtes]

this is just some people who realised they were terrible at their instruments and thought 'lets disguise it as experimental alternative music'. There is absolutely NO desirable quality about this.

If anyone disagrees, don't just say 'you're just jealous that you don't understand the underlying subliminal mesages of this genius music' please tell me WHY it is genius.

[dexterdot]

it isn't genius - these people aren't experimental at all, they're just very bad at playing music. but for some reason it works out, and that's what people like about their music. 'experimental' is just an interpretation, as opposed to the original intention.

and: you're just jealous

[Manusturbo]

Yup. It's like outisder art, it's the musical equivalent to a dubuffet or darger painting.

The people comparing this to contemporary alt music or calling them pretentious don't know what they're talking about.

[incuvana]

i want to see this video for the rest of my life

[SteadyHaze]

dreadful is correct. this isnt music and should not be accepted as such

[SteadyHaze]

you call this genius? listen to this crap, then go listen to some hendrix, sinatra, joplin, clapton, beethoven, mozart...these people were great and knew music really well, music was their life and their music reflected this fact..you can't put some bs like this, with people who can't even play instruments and don't understand rythym in the same league...they think this is art? that its cool cause its not the norm? its not, it just plain sucks.

[DanWars]

maybe you're just too square or uptight to enjoy or appreciate this. If you hate this, you should check out your local top 40 radio station and avoid anything by Hasil Adkins, Daniel Johnson, The Boredoms, anything on any Killed By Death Comp, etc.....

[jappie72]

So funny that people just don't get this. I can't imagine myself be so limited.

Read the story about the shaggs, it's entertaining.

[RichiBitch]

20th century art :D

[stressedlizard]

I actually like it a bit, but I don't think it deserves the attention it gets. Imagine if all bands formed by teenage girls who can barely play their instruments were this famous.

Also, I think Zappa was just being Zappa when he named them one of his favourite bands.

[piafounet]

only syd barrett is like that isn't it?

[mojavemoog]

cerebral sister frequency. total logic. artless. i love the shaggs!

[timothypillowcase92]

Who cares that they had no talent, they had passion and sincerity, they genuinly enjoyed playing and some people genuinly enjoy listening to them. That's no bad thing.

[iloveriver111]

i would suggest reading the Susan Orlean article about the members of the Shaggs before you tell people that "they genuinely enjoyed playing." They played because they were forced to by their emotionally abuseive father. It's not a pretty story. This is not only the worst, but also the saddest music ever produced.

[timothypillowcase92]

I knew their father made them play, I didn't know he was abusive. I have read a chapter about them in 'Songs of the Key of Z' by Irwin Chuisid. It's a book about outsider music. Anyway, I enjoy the music. So there. Har.

[The656]

lol

[RobinMetrocolor]

Worst Band Ever. I'm glad they flopped.

[Incognegroes]

Actually, this album is highly respected and is considered a classic by many musicians. For instance, The Shaggs were one of Frank Zappa's favorite bands. And the worst band ever is Panic at the Disco!

[dexterdot]

the man has a point

[AmericanApostate]

Greatly disturbing or disturbingly great?

[pierrot666]

The difference between THE SHAGGS and anybody else who did not play a musical instrument is that anybody else didn't bother to try. For The Shaggs, their manager(daddy) thought they were ready to record after some weeks (or months) of playing. More Fascinating than their music, is the fact that there are people who analyse, respect and consider it a great piece of art.

[Incognegroes]

And why don't they deserve to be analyzed? Simply because they could barely play their instuments? They still managed to make an album that sounds like nothing else and has gone down in history as a classic. Let's see you do that.

[tubulard]

haha, great animation.

It's almost like terry gilliam animated a shaggs video.

[AmericanApostate]

I thought that too. This looks like it would be the perfect fit into an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

[lijkert]

philosophy of the world and i'm so happy when you're near are two of the greatest songs ever. the ultrasloppy performance only adds to it.

[GoodDharma5]

the shaggs are one of the best bands ever.

think about this: no band can ever cover a shaggs song.

EVER.

it's impossible to play it like them.

GENIOUS.

[osseogirlie20]

hahahaha

but.., would anyone ever WANT to cover a shaggs song?

haha

[GoodDharma5]

only in our deepest hopes and dreams...

haha

[alexct]

Deerhoof covered this very song, and they did it well.

[ibox1]

Beautiful.

Foot foot.

[Will0431]

Ahh my ears

[handlinsd]

Sounds like Trout Mask Replica

[sussydog123]

you've got to be fucking kidding me

[MEESHENATOR1]

god they weren't wrong about them being horrible

[GalliumGnu]

Tani you were right. They are worst band ever. May they all rest in peace

[JellyBeanzzz]

See I told you!!!!!

[kives1985]

This is AWFUL. I love it.

[john66]

are the shaggs the greatest group so far? well, that's hard to say. are the shaggs as good as the monkees? that's a hard one.

they make me proud to be from NH, and i don't get proud easily.

[jonk77]

Its what happens between the beats that counts

[ghackett91]

So terrible it's awesome!

[AtOdinsCall]

What... what is this? And why are my ears bleeding?

[gmrios]

Move over Bittany whatever your name!  Here cum the SHAGGS!!

[c4ha2na9]

Lost cat.

[tofudujour]

Pure Garage Rock legends! I love the shags. This song is about a lost dog right?

[giantgorillastudios]

A lost cat, actually, but close enough.

[megstoriches]

So utterly horrific yet so insanely fascinating. I hate it but I can't stop listening to it. I highly recommend reading the article "Meet the Shaggs" by Susan Orlean whether you love the band or hate them, it's very interesting. Betty Wiggin actually said, "God its horrible!" in reference to their song Philosophy of the World. Kind of leaves you wondering if they were truly free creative artists or just a bunch of tone deaf, musically challenged teenagers.

[pascale5659]

Hearing the Shaggs for the first time several

years ago really put a bend in my skull-only

somthing as honest as this could be so fuct,

apparently Zappa loved this abuse of perfectly good notes too...

[ZombiedustXXX]

They sound as if they are playing their instruments with their feet feet!

[Skullakuma]

so gooooooooood!

[boomchuckaboom]

I fell off my chair! What Joy!

Love the Shaggs!

[chromebrainpan]

Pure fucking genius.

[keramikk]

There is no denying the band STUNK. But think about it; This stuff was recorded in 1969. That same year Captain Beefheart recorded the notorious "Trout Mask Replika", and The Shaggs are galaxies more far out than anything Beefheart did! They at least deserve some credit for it.

[Moldova]

The difference was Beefheart was listenable - I think. And that's endlessly important.

[SeattleJunkieQueen]

No, the difference is that Beefheart knew exactly what he was doing, and his band was actually able to play the songs live. The Shaggs were actually trying to be a pop band. They just failed miserably.

[dyonker]

This is so terrible its awesome, I'd love to find a copy of this record

[themaxxfan]

I got a copy at Amazon for like 9 bucks. They probably still stock it.

And yes, every song is just as bad as My Pal "foot foot" :)

[FuzzyCabesas]

Wow, this is actually pretty good. Where's the other Wiggin sister though? Good job.

[teiscoxx]

Captivating Music!!! It seems random but it "glues" together somehow. The vocals are quite tuneful..I sure as hell would not want to transribe the Shaggs music!!!!!

[magicbard22]

Genius! Brilliant! Outstanding! I listen to the Shaggs everyday and most "normal" people think I must be a freak--yet I cannot help but wonder...is it not possible that they're the ones who are the real freaks? Long live the Shaggs--the greatest rock-n-roll band in the history of this ever expanding universe!!!