The Shaggs

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.