Forty-four years after its recording and thirty-three years after its release, the Shaggs Philosophy of the World remains one of the strangest and most beguiling examples of outsider music ever put to tape. The Shaggs, three sisters who only started a band at their father’s insistence, wrote bizarre, non-repeating melodies that often veered from saccharinely poppy to nearly atonal and back again over the course of single song and transcendently earnest, straightforward lyrics about imaginary friends and how much parents really care. Imagine a cross between Beat Happening and Deerhoof (who covered the Shaggs) that’s somehow infinitely weirdly than both.
Now, Shaggs’ lead singer Dot Wiggin (real name) is releasing her awesomely-titled first solo album Ready! Get! Go! next month. If this live version of album-opener “Banana Bike” (recorded at the Bell House in Gowanus) is any indication, the record won’t disappoint Philosophy of the World‘s cult of fans. Listen below.
