The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World (1969)

It is getting late but I wanted to get something up for today. The best thing I could summon is a band I fond re-listen to every several weeks and love to show to friends if I can get them in a situation where they are forced to hear me ramble about music near my computer (my pal Bebop had to suffer the treatment this week). The Shaggs were a real outsider band at one point, though as time has passed they're far less obscure among music nerds and indie kids. Composed of three sister, eventually four, of the Wiggins family from New Hampshire shepherded into music by their father, the Shaggs created some real weird shit. Before they days of the punk ethos of DYI, the girls' dad "encouraged" them to make band and then record an album called Philosophy of the World without any knowledge of songwriting. This album had only an 100 copies ever come to light, though supposedly a thousand were pressed. Now, this music wasn't just misunderstood. For the time it was genuinely ridiculous in the most sincere sense of the word. These girls didn't know how to play their instruments let alone have the wherewithal for rhythm or structure. They don't even sing in harmony well. But this is the appeal of the Shaggs. They're not something that would have happened normally, and it has really made some folks scratch at their heads over the years. How did these sisters forced to make music by a strange father make something so innately enjoyable? The curious and anomalous nature of the sound this untrained group worth hearing for yourself as it as inspired many avant-garde, eccentric and experimental musicians.

To be had here:
The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World [192 kbps]