{{Short description|American rock band}} {{redirect|Dot Wiggin|her band|Dot Wiggin Band}} {{good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}} {{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians --> | name = The Shaggs | image = The Shaggs.JPG | caption = The Shaggs in 1968 | image_size = | landscape = yes | background = group_or_band | origin = Fremont, New Hampshire, US | genre = Outsider music | years_active = {{Flatlist| * 1965–1975 * 1999 * 2017 }} | label = {{Flatlist| * Third World * Fleetwood * Red Rooster * Rounder * RCA Victor * Light in the Attic }} | current_members = | past_members = * Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin * Helen Wiggin * Betty Wiggin * Rachel Wiggin }}
'''The Shaggs''' were an American rock band formed in Fremont, New Hampshire, in 1965. They comprised the sisters Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin (vocals, lead guitar), Betty Wiggin (vocals, rhythm guitar), Helen Wiggin (drums) and, later, Rachel Wiggin (bass guitar). The Shaggs wrote seemingly simple and bizarre songs using untuned guitars, erratic rhythms, wandering melodies and rudimentary lyrics. Their only album, ''Philosophy of the World'' (1969), has been described as both among the worst of all time and as a work of unintentional brilliance.
The Shaggs formed at the insistence of their father, Austin Wiggin, who believed that his mother had predicted their rise to fame. For several years, he made them practice every day and perform weekly at the Fremont town hall. The girls had no interest in becoming musicians and never became proficient in songwriting or performing. In 1969, Austin paid for them to record their debut album, which was distributed in limited quantities in 1969 by a local record label. The Shaggs disbanded in 1975 after Austin's death.
Over the decades, ''Philosophy of the World'' circulated among musicians and found fans such as Frank Zappa, Lester Bangs, and Kurt Cobain. A 1980 reissue on Rounder Records received enthusiastic reviews for its uniqueness in ''Rolling Stone'' and ''The Village Voice''. According to ''Rolling Stone'', the sisters sang like "lobotomized Trapp Family Singers", while the musician Terry Adams compared their music to the free jazz compositions of Ornette Coleman. A compilation of unreleased material, ''Shaggs' Own Thing'', was released in 1982.
The Shaggs are important to the history of outsider music (music created by self-taught or naïve musicians). They became the subject of fascination in the 1990s, when interest grew in outsider music, and they are credited with influencing twee pop. Dot and Betty reunited for shows in 1999 and 2017; Helen died in 2006. In 2013, Dot released an album as the Dot Wiggin Band, containing previously unrecorded Shaggs songs.
== History == === 1965–1968: Formation and first years === The Shaggs were formed in 1965 by the teenage sisters Dorothy ("Dot"), Betty, and Helen Wiggin in the small town of Fremont, New Hampshire.<ref name="Orlean-1999">{{Cite magazine |last=Orlean |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Orlean |date=1999-09-22 |title=Meet the Shaggs |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/09/27/meet-the-shaggs |access-date=2022-08-13 |magazine=The New Yorker |publisher=Condé Nast |language=en-US}}</ref> Dot wrote the songs, played lead guitar and sang; Betty, the youngest, played rhythm guitar and sang; and Helen, the eldest, played drums.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /><ref name="Cp3" /> Their younger sister, Rachel, sometimes joined them on bass guitar.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /><ref name="Cp3" />
The Shaggs formed at the behest of their father and manager, Austin Wiggin Jr.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Austin worked as a mill hand in Exeter, and the family was poor.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> A Fremont local described him as a humorless man who rarely smiled.<ref name="Ronson">{{Cite episode |title=The Fine Line Between Good and Bad |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y002 |series=Jon Ronson On |first=Jon |last=Ronson |network=BBC Radio 4 |station= |date= |season= |series-no= |number= |minutes= |time= |transcript= |transcript-url= |quote= |language= |author-link=Jon Ronson}}</ref> He did not allow the girls to attend concerts or have social lives, friends, or boyfriends.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Betty said the girls "missed everything", and she fantasized about getting a car and leaving home.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Some accounts indicated that the girls suffered parental abuse,<ref name="Cp3" /> and Helen said her father was once "inappropriately intimate" with her.<ref name="Orlean-1999" />
When Austin was young, his mother read his palm and made three predictions: he would marry a strawberry-blonde woman, he would have two sons after she had died, and his daughters would form a popular band. When the first two predictions proved accurate, Austin set about fulfilling the third.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> According to Dot, he occasionally had the family hold seances in an attempt to communicate with his mother.<ref name="Gentle-2013" /> Dot later said the sisters thought their father was "nuts", but they did not want to do anything to insult their grandmother in his eyes.<ref name="Grow-2016">{{Cite magazine |last=Grow |first=Kory |date=2016-09-30 |title=Shaggs' Dot Wiggin reflects on divisive ''Philosophy of the World'' album |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/shaggs-dot-wiggin-reflects-on-divisive-philosophy-of-the-world-album-115348/ |access-date=2022-08-13 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref> She said Austin had no interest in music and only created the band to fulfill the prediction.<ref name="Gentle-2013">{{Cite web |last=Gentle |first=John |date=6 November 2013 |title=Dot Wiggin of the Shaggs has a new album and it is glorious |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/dot-wiggin-of-the-shaggs-is-back/ |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=Vice |language=en}}</ref> Their mother, Anne, supported their father and did not express her feelings.<ref name="Hodgkinson">{{Cite news |last=Hodgkinson |first=Will |date=March 29, 2026 |title=How three sisters made the worst album of all time |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/music/article/how-three-sisters-made-the-worst-album-of-all-time-3stcqt735 |access-date=2026-05-11 |website=The Times |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="Magee-2026">{{Cite news |last=Magee |first=Tamlin |date=2026-03-23 |title=‘The most stunningly awful wonderful record’: how the Shaggs became rock’s most divisive band |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/23/the-most-stunningly-awful-wonderful-record-how-the-shaggs-became-rocks-most-divisive-band |access-date=2026-05-13 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
Austin withdrew his daughters from school, bought them instruments and arranged for them to receive music and vocal lessons.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> He named them the Shaggs after the shag hairstyle, which was popular at the time, and in reference to the 1959 film ''The Shaggy Dog''.<ref name="Cp3">{{Cite book |last=Chusid |first=Irwin |title=Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music |title-link=Songs in the Key of Z – The Curious Universe of Outsider Music |publisher=A Cappella |year=2000 |isbn=1-55652-372-6 |location=Chicago |pages=1–12 |chapter=The Shaggs: groove is in the heart |author-link=Irwin Chusid}}</ref><ref name="Grow-2016" /> He designed their schedule, with several hours of calisthenics and band practice every day.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> The sisters had no interest in becoming musicians and did not enjoy the rehearsals. Dot later said: "[Our father] was stubborn and he could be temperamental. He directed. We obeyed. Or did our best."<ref name="Cp3" /> Although Austin oversaw their rehearsals, he left the songwriting to the girls.<ref name="deadline" /> Dot said later she would have been happier writing only lyrics.<ref name="deadline" /> The girls sometimes went to the lake when Austin was out, then arranged their instruments to appear as if they had been practicing.<ref name="Ronson" />
The Shaggs made their first public performance at a talent show in Exeter in 1968, which was met with mockery.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Following a performance at a local nursing home,<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Austin arranged for the Shaggs to play at the Fremont town hall every weekend, joined sometimes by their brothers Austin III and Robert on percussion and drums.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Their mother sold snacks.<ref name="Hodgkinson" /> The shows attracted up to a hundred adolescents, who would heckle and throw junk. Rumors spread about the girls' controlling father,<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> and Dot said Rachel, who attended high school, was bullied.<ref name="Grow-2016" /> The sisters felt they were poor musicians and found the performances embarrassing.<ref name="Ronson" /> Footage of one concert emerged in 2015, with the Shaggs playing from handwritten charts and performing rudimentary choreography.<ref>{{cite web |last=Blevins |first=Joe |date=November 2, 2015 |title=Ultra-rare live footage of outsider rockers the Shaggs unearthed |url=https://www.avclub.com/ultra-rare-live-footage-of-outsider-rockers-the-shaggs-1798286002 |accessdate=July 12, 2021 |website=The A.V. Club}}</ref>
=== 1969: ''Philosophy of the World'' === {{Main|Philosophy of the World}} In March 1969, Austin took the Shaggs to record an album, ''Philosophy of the World'', at Fleetwood Studios in Revere, Massachusetts.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /><ref name="Moreland-2016">{{Cite web |last=Moreland |first=Quinn |date=14 October 2016 |title=The Shaggs: ''Philosophy of the World'' |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22404-shaggs-philosophy-of-the-world/ |access-date=2021-05-13 |website=Pitchfork |language=en}}</ref> The studio was mainly used to record local rock groups and school marching bands.<ref name="Cp3" /> The sisters did not think they were ready to record, and one engineer recalled that they looked "miserable".<ref name="Ronson" /> Austin dismissed an engineer's opinion that they were not ready, saying: "I want to get them while they're hot."<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> He insisted that their guitars did not need to be tuned as he had purchased them at Sears.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pond |first=Steve |date=2026-03-13 |title=''We Are the Shaggs'' review: the band is awful, but the movie isn't |url=https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/we-are-the-shaggs-documentary-review/ |access-date=2026-05-13 |website=TheWrap |language=en-US}}</ref> One producer, Bobby Herne, recalled that the studio staff shut the control room doors and "rolled on the floor laughing" after they performed.<ref name="Cp3" />
''Philosophy of the World'' was recorded in a single day.<ref name="Ronson" /> Herne and another Fleetwood employee, Charlie Dreyer, were enlisted to remix the recordings. They hired session musicians to rerecord parts, but they were unable to follow the Shaggs' erratic tempos.<ref name="Cp3" /> Austin paid to have Dreyer's record company, Third World, press 1000 copies of the album.<ref name="Cp3" /> The liner notes, written by Austin, said the Shaggs "loved" making music and described them as "real, pure, unaffected by outside influences ... The Shaggs will not change their music or style to meet the whims of a frustrated world."<ref name="Orlean-1999" /><ref name="Hodgkinson" /> The songs "My Pal Foot Foot" and "Things I Wonder" were released as a 45 rpm single on Fleetwood Records.<ref name="Cp3" />
According to many accounts, Dreyer delivered only 100 copies of the album and disappeared with the remaining 900.<ref name="Cp3" /> Dot said that Dreyer had stolen her father's money and could not be traced.<ref name="Cp3" /> However, according to the music executive Harry Palmer, Dreyer said Austin had refused to distribute the extra copies because he feared someone would copy the Shaggs' music. Palmer said that Dreyer kept boxes of the records in the studio and would give them to anyone who asked.<ref name="Cp3" /> The journalist Irwin Chusid argued that it was unlikely Dreyer had stolen the records, as they were valueless at the time.<ref name="Cp3" /> The record producer Joe Chiccarelli, who had a teenage job at Fleetwood Studios, said he found boxes of the records while sweeping the studio basement.<ref name="deadline" /> ''Philosophy of the World'' received no media coverage and the Shaggs resumed performing locally.<ref name="Cp3" />
=== 1970s: decline and disbandment === Palmer, who had been given several copies of ''Philosophy of the World'' by Dreyer, was intrigued and wondered if he could find the Shaggs an audience. In 1970 or 1971, he attended one of their Fremont performances and was amazed to see locals dancing awkwardly to the music.<ref name="Cp3" /> Palmer approached Austin about promoting the Shaggs, but stressed that people laughed at them and asked if this was a problem. Austin responded with resignation. Palmer decided he was in danger of exploiting the Shaggs as a freak show and did not pursue them.<ref name="Cp3" />
In 1973, the Shaggs' weekly town hall shows were halted by the Fremont town supervisors.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> The sisters were relieved, as they were now adults and had tired of their father's control. When Austin discovered that Helen, then 28, had secretly married, he chased her husband with a shotgun. After the police intervened, Helen left the family home to be with her husband,<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> but rejoined the band later.<ref name="Grow-2016" />
In 1975, Austin took the Shaggs to Fleetwood Studios for another recording session.<ref name="Cp3" /><ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Though they had become more proficient through hundreds of hours of practice, the engineer wrote of their poor performances and felt sorry for them.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> He said they did not notice their out-of-tune guitars or disjointed rhythms when he played the recordings back to them.<ref name="Cp3" /> The recordings went unreleased.<ref name="Cp3" />
Shortly after the recording session, Austin died of a heart attack, aged 47.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> The Shaggs disbanded and sold most of their equipment. A few years later, Betty and Dot married and moved out, and their mother sold the family house.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> The new owner became convinced that the house was haunted by Austin's ghost and donated it to the Fremont fire department, who burnt it down in a firefighting exercise.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> The Wiggin sisters had never profited from their music and took blue-collar jobs to support their families.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /><ref name="Moreland-2016" />
=== 1980s: cult following and reissues === [[File:Terry Adams NRBQ.jpg|thumb|Terry Adams of the band NRBQ (pictured in 2007) became a fan of the Shaggs and helped reissue ''Philosophy of the World'' in 1980.]] By the 1980s, copies of ''Philosophy of the World'' had circulated among musicians.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> It developed a cult following,<ref name="Zoladz-2013">{{Cite web |last=Zoladz |first=Lindsay |date=2013-09-06 |title=The philosophy of the Shaggs |url=https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/61-the-philosophy-of-the-shaggs/ |access-date=2022-08-17 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref> with fans including Frank Zappa, Patti Smith, Bonnie Raitt, Jonathan Richman, Carla Bley and Terry Adams of NRBQ.<ref name="Cp3" /><ref name="Ronson2">{{Cite episode |title=The Fine Line Between Good and Bad|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y002|series=Jon Ronson On|first=Jon|last=Ronson|network=BBC Radio 4|station=|date=|season=|series-no=|number=|minutes=|time=|transcript=|transcript-url=|quote=|language=|author-link=Jon Ronson}}</ref><ref name="Magee-2026" /> Zappa is often quoted as having called the Shaggs "better than the Beatles", but this may be apocryphal.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tsioulcas |first=Anastasia |date=2017-02-17 |title=The best — or worst — band of all time is back |language=en |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/02/17/515775669/the-best-or-worst-band-of-all-time-is-back |access-date=2022-08-20}}</ref> Tracks were played by the Boston radio station WBCN-FM.<ref name="Orlean-1999" />
Adams said he saw beauty and originality in the music, that it was "outside of the normal thinking process for songwriting at the time", and that there was an audience for it.<ref name="Ronson2" /> He traced the Wiggin sisters and convinced them to reissue ''Philosophy of the World'' in 1980 under NRBQ's record label, Rounder Records.<ref name="Sullivan-20202">{{Cite web |last=Sullivan|first=James|date=15 July 2020|title=Even if their album was the all-time worst, the Shaggs still have plenty of fans|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/15/arts/it-turns-out-shaggs-strange-sound-wasnt-worst-thing-world/|access-date=2022-08-20|website=The Boston Globe|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Ronson2" /> According to Adams, the sisters were hesitant to reissue the album and initially assumed they would have to pay for it themselves.<ref name="Sullivan-20202" /> They had no idea of the following it had attracted.<ref name="deadline3">{{Cite web |last=Wise|first=Damon|date=March 14, 2026|title=Ken Kwapis and the stars of his documentary ''We Are the Shaggs'' reflect on the legacy of the rock world's most unlikely cult band|url=https://deadline.com/2026/03/ken-kwapis-documentary-we-are-the-shaggs-dot-and-betty-wiggin-1236753520/|access-date=2026-05-11|website=Deadline|language=en-US}}</ref> According to the filmmaker Ken Kwapis, who later made a documentary about the Shaggs, Adams became their archivist.<ref name="deadline3" />
Reviewing the reissue for ''Rolling Stone'', Debra Ray Cohen described ''Philosophy of the World'' as "the sickest, most stunningly awful ''wonderful'' record I've heard in ages".<ref name="RS #3292">{{cite magazine |last1=Cohen |first1=Debra Rae |date=October 30, 1980 |title=''Philosophy of the World'' |magazine=Rolling Stone |publisher=Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. |issue=329 |page=56}}</ref> In another ''Rolling Stone'' review that year, Chris Connelly suggested it was the worst album ever recorded.<ref name="RS #3323">{{cite magazine |last1=Connelly |first1=Chris |date=December 11, 1980 |title=Is rock ready for the Shaggs? |magazine=Rolling Stone |publisher=Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. |issue=332 |page=19}}</ref> ''Rolling Stone'' awarded it their "Comeback of the Year" honor.<ref name="RS #338">{{cite magazine |date=March 5, 1981 |title=''Rolling Stone's'' 1980 Rock & Roll Awards |magazine=Rolling Stone |publisher=Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. |issue=338 |page=31}}</ref> In ''The Village Voice'', Lester Bangs wrote: "How do they sound? Perfect! They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all rock 'n' roll's ever been about from day one." He wrote that ''Philosophy of the World'' could stand with albums by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as "one of the landmarks of rock 'n' roll history".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bangs |first=Lester |author-link=Lester Bangs |date=28 January 1981 |title=Better than the Beatles (and DNA, too) |url=http://www.keyofz.com/vvoice.htm |journal=The Village Voice}}</ref> In 2004, ''Pitchfork'' observed that the Shaggs had been "embraced by the exact opposite audience Austin desired: the longhaired avant-garde intellectuals".<ref name="Moore-2004" />
Adams and Ardolino curated a new release, the 1982 compilation ''Shaggs' Own Thing'', comprising unreleased recordings made between 1969 and 1975.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bachner |first=Susan |title=''Shaggs' Own Thing'' review |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/shaggs-own-thing-mw0000198919 |website=AllMusic}}</ref> The title track is a duet between Austin and his eldest son, Robert. ''Pitchfork'' described it as "particularly disturbing" and unintentionally oedipal, noting that Austin sings of catching another man, his son, "doin' it" with "his girl".<ref name="Moore-2004" /> In 1988, ''Philosophy of the World'' and ''Shaggs' Own Thing'' were remastered and rereleased by Rounder Records as the compilation ''The Shaggs''.<ref name="Moore-2004">{{Cite web |last=Moore |first=David |date=23 August 2004 |title=The Shaggs: ''The Shaggs'' |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/7088-the-shaggs/ |access-date=2021-05-13 |website=Pitchfork |language=en}}</ref>
=== 1990s: media attention and first reunion === In the 1990s, interest grew in outsider music (music created by self-taught or naïve musicians).<ref name="Cp3" /><ref name="Stanley-2000">{{Cite web |last=Stanley |first=Bob |author-link=Bob Stanley (musician) |date=2000-07-27 |title=A family affair |url=http://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/jul/27/tvandradio.television1 |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref> The Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain named the Shaggs as a favorite band.<ref name="Britton"/> The ''Deadline'' writer Damon Wise said the trends of 1980s pop music, "over-produced and synthesized almost to death", had made ''Philosophy of the World'' more vulnerable to criticism.<ref name="deadline" /> However, this endeared them to 1990s musicians such as Cobain, who were "more inclined to embrace noble failure than mindless success" following the "shallow" 1980s.<ref name="deadline" />
In 1999, RCA Victor reissued ''Philosophy of the World'' with the original cover and track listing.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Joe Mozian, a vice president of marketing at RCA Victor, said: "It's so basic and innocent, the way the music business used to be ... It is kind of a bad record — that's so obvious, it's a given. But it absolutely intrigued me, the idea that people would make a record playing the way they do."<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Despite the increasing interest in outsider music and airplay on college radio stations, the reissue sold poorly. Mozian speculated that "people are a little afraid of having the Shaggs in their record collections".<ref name="Orlean-1999" />
In 1999, ''The New Yorker'' ran a profile of the Shaggs by the staff writer Susan Orlean.<ref name="newyorker2017" /> Dot said she did not listen to their music or feel sentimental about it, and Betty was surprised that Orlean enjoyed it, saying, "God, it's horrible."<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> The sisters did not like Orlean's article, and Dot objected that Orlean had written that Betty's hair was not in place.<ref name="newyorker2017">{{cite magazine |last=Fishman |first=Howard |author-link=Howard Fishman |date=August 30, 2017 |title=The Shaggs reunion concert was unsettling, beautiful, eerie, and will probably never happen again |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-shaggs-reunion-concert-was-unsettling-beautiful-eerie-and-will-probably-never-happen-again |magazine=The New Yorker |publisher=Condé Nast |access-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref> Soon after it was published, the actor Tom Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner optioned Orlean's article for a film.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Oliver |date=1999-12-17 |title=Cruise in tune with 'Shaggs' project |url=https://variety.com/1999/film/news/cruise-in-tune-with-shaggs-project-1117760122/ |access-date=2022-08-16 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref>
As of 1999, Dot was working as a cleaner, Betty was a school janitor and a warehouse employee and Helen was living on disability benefits with severe depression.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> Only Dot remained musically active, playing handbells in a church choir and writing lyrics.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> That November, Dot and Betty performed four songs at NRBQ's 30th-anniversary celebration at the Bowery Ballroom in New York, with the NRBQ drummer Tom Ardolino filling in for Helen.<ref name="Sullivan-2020">{{Cite web |last=Sullivan |first=James |date=15 July 2020 |title=Even if their album was the all-time worst, the Shaggs still have plenty of fans |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/15/arts/it-turns-out-shaggs-strange-sound-wasnt-worst-thing-world/ |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=The Boston Globe |language=en-US}}</ref> The performance was attended by fans from around the world. Dot said later it was the first time she realized the following the Shaggs had amassed.<ref name="Weisbard-1999">{{Cite web |last=Weisbard |first=Eric |author-link=Eric Weisbard |date=November 23, 1999 |title=Fancy a Shagg? |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/1999/11/23/music-6/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805133430/https://www.villagevoice.com/1999/11/23/music-6/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=The Village Voice}}</ref> Reviewing the performance for ''The Village Voice'', Eric Weisbard wrote that Dot seemed comfortable in front of the audience but that Betty appeared nervous.<ref name="Weisbard-1999" />
=== 2000s–present: tributes and second reunion === In 2001, the label Animal World released ''Better than the Beatles'', a tribute album with covers of Shaggs songs by acts including Ida, Optiganally Yours, R. Stevie Moore, Deerhoof and Danielson Famille.<ref name="Pitchfork-2001">{{Cite web |date=October 3, 2001 |title=Various Artists: ''Better Than the Beatles: A Tribute to the Shaggs'' |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/7087-better-than-the-beatles-a-tribute-to-the-shaggs/ |access-date=2021-05-13 |website=Pitchfork |language=en}}</ref> A stage musical about the Shaggs, ''Philosophy of the World,'' opened in New York City in 2011 in a co-production between Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop.<ref name="Isherwood-2011">{{Cite news |last=Isherwood |first=Charles |date=2011-06-07 |title=Three sisters, a deluded dad and some wretched rock |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/theater/reviews/the-shaggs-philosophy-of-the-world-at-playwrights-horizons.html |access-date=2022-08-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' described it as "quirky but dreary" and "hamstrung by tonal uncertainty", with the girls' lack of talent made clear but the script hesitant to "turn their lives into a loopy joke".<ref name="Isherwood-2011" /> Rounder Records reissued the ''Shaggs'' compilation in 2004.<ref name="Moore-2004" /> Helen died from suicide in 2006.<ref name="Hodgkinson" />
In 2012, Dot and Betty attended a Shaggs tribute show in Brooklyn organized by the musician Jesse Krakow. Krakow endeavoured to remain faithful to the recordings, saying, "Everybody says the Shaggs are impossible to play, but we're going to do it as is."<ref name="newyorker2017" /> After Krakow discovered that Dot had unrecorded Shaggs songs, he assembled a group, the Dot Wiggin Band, to record them with her.<ref name="newyorker2017" /> They released an album, ''Ready! Get! Go!'', on Alternative Tentacles Records on October 29, 2013,<ref name="dotw">{{cite web |last=Minsker |first=Evan |date=2013-09-04 |title=The Shaggs' Dot Wiggin announces debut solo album ''Ready! Get! Go!'' |url=http://pitchfork.com/news/52155-the-shaggs-dot-wiggin-announces-debut-solo-album-ready-get-go/ |access-date=2013-09-05 |website=Pitchfork |publisher=}}</ref> and toured in support of Neutral Milk Hotel in April 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 April 2015 |title=Dot Wiggin playing NYC on Sunday before tour w/ Neutral Milk Hotel; Sunflower Bean playing 2 shows this weekend |url=https://www.brooklynvegan.com/dot-wiggin-play/ |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=BrooklynVegan |language=en}}</ref> Dot said she had not been interested in recording and was only motivated by royalties.<ref name="Gentle-2013" /> ''Philosophy of the World'' was reissued again in 2016 by Light in the Attic Records.<ref name="Moreland-2016" /> By this point, original copies were selling for up to $10,000.<ref name="Weisbard-1999" />
In 2017, Dot and Betty performed a reunion show at the Solid Sound Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by the band Wilco.<ref name="newyorker2017" /> Their band comprised Krakow, Brittany Anjou and the drummer Laura Cromwell, who spent hours studying Helen's rhythms.<ref name="newyorker2017" /><ref name="Park-2017">{{Cite web |last=Park |first=Jennifer |date=1 March 2017 |title=How I fell in love with a band considered by many to be the worst of all time |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-i-fell-in-love-with-a-band-considered-by-many-to-be-the-worst-of-all-time/ |access-date=2022-08-17 |website=Vice |language=en}}</ref> Dot was disappointed that Krakow did not correct the mistakes in the music, but acknowledged that "everybody seems to like it the way it was".<ref name="newyorker2017" /> She and Betty sang but did not play instruments, and relied on cues from the band on when to come in.<ref name="newyorker2017" /> Cromwell said that Dot had shown willing in rehearsals, but that Betty was passive and "bewildered".<ref name="newyorker2017" /> Dot said Betty only performed for the money,<ref name="Grow-2016" /> and Betty said she had no interest in performing again.<ref name="newyorker2017" />
According to the musician Howard Fishman, reporting on the 2017 show for ''The New Yorker'', the Wiggin sisters did not seem at ease on stage and did not engage much with the audience.<ref name="newyorker2017" /> He wrote that "watching the Wiggins being led through a zealous re-creation of music they'd never been particularly proud of was a jarring experience".<ref name="newyorker2017" /> Though he acknowledged that Krakow and his band clearly respected the Shaggs' music, he asked: "What did it mean to celebrate a mistake? If accidental art is recreated on purpose, what is it?"<ref name="newyorker2017" />
At the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the theater company In Bed With My Brother performed ''Philosophy of the World'', a play based on the Shaggs. It attacks the patriarchy and celebrates the Shaggs as "an inspirational failure to conform – whether by accident or design".<ref name="Fisher-2025">{{Cite news |last=Fisher |first=Mark |date=2025-08-05 |title=Philosophy of the World review – an anarchic ode to ‘the world’s worst band’ |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/aug/05/philosophy-of-the-world-review-summerhall-edinburgh-in-bed-with-my-brother-the-shaggs |access-date=2025-08-16 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> It received positive reviews in ''The Guardian'', ''The Telegraph'' and ''The Stage''.<ref name="Fisher-2025" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cavendish |first=Dominic |date=2025-08-08 |title=From a Bonnie Blue-based drama to the Fringe's buzziest show, the best plays at Edinburgh 2025 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/edinburgh-fringe-festival-best-plays/ |access-date=2025-08-16 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tripney |first=Natasha |date=4 August 2025 |title=''Philosophy of the World'' at Summerhall, Edinburgh: inspired by the Shaggs |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/philosophy-of-the-world-summerhall-edinburgh-the-shaggs |access-date=2025-08-16 |website=The Stage |language=En}}</ref> As of 2026, Dot was no longer performing.<ref name="deadline2">{{Cite web |last=Wise|first=Damon|date=March 14, 2026|title=Ken Kwapis and the stars of his documentary ''We Are the Shaggs'' reflect on the legacy of the rock world's most unlikely cult band|url=https://deadline.com/2026/03/ken-kwapis-documentary-we-are-the-shaggs-dot-and-betty-wiggin-1236753520/|access-date=2026-05-11|website=Deadline|language=en-US}}</ref> She said she would not repeat her music career given the choice, but was proud of what it had become and the following it had attracted.<ref name="Magee-2026" /> A documentary by Ken Kwapis, ''We Are the Shaggs'', premiered at the South by Southwest festival in March 2026.<ref name="deadline">{{Cite web |last=Wise |first=Damon |date=March 14, 2026 |title=Ken Kwapis and the stars of his documentary ''We Are the Shaggs'' reflect on the legacy of the rock world's most unlikely cult band |url=https://deadline.com/2026/03/ken-kwapis-documentary-we-are-the-shaggs-dot-and-betty-wiggin-1236753520/ |access-date=2026-05-11 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref> Asked what their father would think of the film, Betty replied: "I told you so."<ref name="Hodgkinson" />
== Style == thumb|right|A clip of "Who Are Parents?", released on the 1969 album ''Philosophy of the World''
Though the Shaggs attempted to write traditional pop songs, they instead created unconventional music that many found unpleasant.<ref name="Park-2017" /> They were unaware that their music was unusual and did not understand the critical discourse it attracted.<ref name="Cp3" /> The journalist Irwin Chusid described it as "100 percent authentic", free of irony or "self-conscious indie-rock trendiness".<ref name="Cp3" /> ''NME'' described them as proto-punk,<ref name="Britton">{{Cite web |last=Britton |first=Luke Morgan |date=17 February 2017 |title=One of Kurt Cobain's favourite bands reunite |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/one-kurt-cobain-favourite-bands-the-shaggs-reunite-1979663 |access-date=25 August 2023 |website=NME}}</ref> while Wise identified elements of surf music, girl group pop, rockabilly, lo-fi music and garage rock.<ref name="deadline" />
The Shaggs used noncoherent chord progressions<ref name="Moore-2004" /> and played cheap Avalon guitars that were unintentionally out of tune.<ref name="Cp3" /> Their melodies, sung in unison, appear random;<ref name="Moore-2004" /> Adams compared them to the free jazz compositions of Ornette Coleman.<ref name="RS #3323" /> The musician Howard Fishman wrote that Dot and Betty's vocals had a "sort of intuitive, spooky closeness" similar to sibling acts such as the Delmore Brothers and the Blue Sky Boys.<ref name="newyorker2017" /> The ''Rolling Stone'' critic Debra Ray Cohen wrote that they sang like "lobotomized Trapp Family Singers".<ref name="RS #3292" /> Their songs move unintentionally between different unconventional time signatures.<ref name="newyorker2017" /> Helen, the drummer, was often detached from her sisters' playing, and instead played rudiments she recalled from school drum lessons.<ref name="newyorker2017" /> Krakow identified unusual musical elements such as hemiola, decrescendos and ritardandos.<ref name="Magee-2026" />
Dot wrote lyrics based on her experiences, such as the disappearance of her cat and her longing for straight hair.<ref name="Grow-2016" /> The ''Vice'' writer Jennifer Park likened the lyrics to "dilapidated nursery rhymes, fables with overriding messages, and odd Christian songs".<ref name="Park-2017" /> In ''Rolling Stone'', Kory Grow wrote that while some Shaggs songs are happy, others "have an inexplicable sadness about them".<ref name="Grow-2016" /> Kwapis likened the lyrics to those of Brian Wilson.<ref name="Magee-2026" />
Ron Eyre, the head of the international division of United Artists Records, likened ''Philosophy of the World'' to aboriginal music and music he had heard in China.<ref name="Cp3" /> The ''Pitchfork'' critic Quinn Moreland found the songs intriguing and catchy, and said that the "chaos is negated in the same way that after enough contemplation the violent splatters of a Jackson Pollock painting become calming".<ref name="Moreland-2016" /> The musician Cub Koda observed an innocence in the Shaggs' music that he found "both charming and unsettling".<ref name="Cub">{{cite web |last=Cub |first=Koda |author-link=Cub Koda |title=''Philosophy of the World'' review |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/philosophy-of-the-world-mw0000602385 |access-date=21 December 2018 |website=AllMusic}}</ref>
After recording ''Philosophy of the World'', the Shaggs' technique improved, though they never mastered their instruments.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /><ref name="Moreland-2016" /> The ''Pitchfork'' critic David Moore characterized their later material, released on the compilation ''Shaggs' Own Thing'', as "amateurish bubblegum country".<ref name="Moore-2004" /> Moreland felt it was "playful and free of anxiety", and that the covers of songs by acts including the Carpenters were "faithful, even graceful".<ref name="Moreland-2016" />
== Legacy == The Shaggs' music has been described as both among the worst of all time and a work of unintentional brilliance.<ref name="Orlean-1999" /><ref name="Sullivan-2020"/><ref name="RS #3323" /><ref name="Park-2017" /> ''The Guardian'' described them as "one of the most divisive bands in rock history, provoking wonder and horror in equal measure".<ref name="Magee-2026" /> Chusid noted that many listeners wondered if ''Philosophy of the World'' was the worst album ever recorded.<ref name="Cp3" /> Orlean wrote that "depending on whom you ask, the Shaggs were either the best band of all time or the worst ... Such a divergence of opinion confuses the mind."<ref name="Orlean-1999" /> The ''LA Weekly'' critic Bruce D. Rhodewalt wrote: "If we can judge music on the basis of its honesty, originality and impact, then the Shaggs' ''Philosophy of the World'' is the greatest record ever recorded in the history of the universe."<ref name="Cp3" /> The ''Pitchfork'' critic Lindsay Zoladz said the Shaggs' music was "inscrutable" and challenged listeners to consider what good and bad music is.<ref name="Zoladz-2013" /> Koda said it would cause "any listener coming to this music to rearrange any pre-existing notions about the relationships between talent, originality, and ability".<ref name="Cub" />
The Shaggs are important to the history of outsider music (music created by self-taught or naïve musicians). Chusid described them as "the legendary—if unwitting—godmothers of outsider music".<ref name="Cp3" /> Alan McGee, the founder of Creation Records, wrote that they were "ground zero in the spurious world of outsider music" and "created possibilities" for unheard acts including Daniel Johnston and Wesley Willis.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McGee |first=Alan |author-link=Alan McGee |date=2007-07-20 |title=Forgotten punk: Little-known records with big influence |url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2007/jul/20/forgottenpunk |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref> Moreland argued that the Shaggs were not outsider musicians, as outsider music "is meant to come from an undisturbed place". She quoted the art brut founder, Jean Dubuffet, who said: "[In outsider art] we are witness to the artistic operation in its pristine form, something unadulterated, something reinvented from scratch at all stages by its maker, who draws solely upon his private impulses." By contrast, Moreland noted that the Shaggs were forced to make music by their father. She identified a claustrophobia and trauma in their music that she argued was negated by calling them outsiders.<ref name="Moreland-2016" />
''Pitchfork'' wrote that the Shaggs had "laid the groundwork" for the "faux-naivete" of twee pop.<ref name="Pitchfork-2001" /> According to the journalist and musician Bob Stanley, they inspired "a wave of faux-naive groups", such as Beat Happening.<ref name="Stanley-2000" /> Reviewing the Shaggs' 1999 reunion for ''The Village Voice'', Eric Weisbard wrote that they now seemed less unusual, likening their out-of-tune guitars to Sonic Youth and their "mixture of repression and cutesiness" to Shonen Knife. He concluded that their music provided "rough sketches for the future of underground rock".<ref name="Weisbard-1999" />
== Members == * Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin – vocals, lead guitar <small>(1965–1975, 1999, 2017)</small> * Betty Wiggin – vocals, rhythm guitar <small>(1965–1975, 1999, 2017)</small> * Helen Wiggin – drums <small>(1965–1975; died 2006)</small> * Rachel Wiggin – bass guitar <small>(1965–1975)</small>
== Discography == === Studio albums === * ''Philosophy of the World'' (1969)
=== Compilations === * ''Shaggs' Own Thing'' (1982) * ''The Shaggs'' (1988)
=== Singles === * "My Pal Foot Foot" / "Things I Wonder" (1969) * "Sweet Maria" / "The Missouri Waltz (Missouri State Song)" (2016)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sweet Maria B/W The Missouri Waltz (Missouri State Song) |url=https://lightintheattic.net/releases/2302-sweet-maria-b-w-the-missouri-waltz-missouri-state-song |access-date=17 July 2023 |publisher=Light In The Attic Records}}</ref>
=== Tribute albums === * ''Better than the Beatles'' (2001)
=== Various artists compilations === * ''Songs in the Key of Z – The Curious Universe of Outsider Music'' (2000)
== Notes == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{AllMusic |class=artist |id=p5400 |label=The Shaggs}} * {{MusicBrainz artist |id=57a3905f-9a3b-40fb-aa35-70cf174b69a1 |name=The Shaggs}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaggs, The}} Category:Sibling musical trios Category:Family musical groups Category:Garage rock groups from New Hampshire Category:American outsider musicians Category:Musical groups established in 1965 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1975 Category:Musical groups reestablished in 1999 Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2017 Category:People from Rockingham County, New Hampshire Category:American all-female bands Category:American protopunk groups