Dot Wiggin of the Shaggs Has a New Album and It Is Glorious

About 50 years ago Austin Wiggin Jr.’s mother gave him three predictions via palm reading: one, he would marry a strawberry blonde; two, he would have two sons after she died; and three, his daughters would form a popular music group. After the first two predictions came true, he forced his four daughters, Dot, Betty, Helen, and Rachel, into a band called the Shaggs, named after the popular haircut.

Austin was a strict father and determined to make his daughters’ act a success. He pushed the girls through grueling practices six days a week when he got home from work and made them play teen sock hops at the local town hall on Saturdays. Soon after the marathon practices began, he had the girls record an album called Philosophy of the World. Despite the long rehearsal hours, the album was not what most people who have heard music before would consider “good.” It was, however, undeniably unique. Dot sang off key with bizarre pauses that made it seem almost as if she were reading the lyrics for the first time. The entire band was out of tune, and each sister played at a different speed. Some representative lyrics would be: “My pal’s name is Foot Foot / He always likes to roam / My pal’s name is Foot Foot / I never find him at home,” and, “And the skinny people want what the fat peoples got / And the fat people want what the skinny peoples got.”

It was a train wreck. But somehow, miraculously, the band never quite jumped the tracks. Instead, they shambled along in a glorious, clanging, chaotic mess just barely holding it together. And if you really listen to the album—really listen—you’ll find something there that you haven’t ever heard before. It’s not just four teenage girls with little musical training assaulting their instruments (though there’s plenty of that). Between Dot’s ode to her cats and her tribute to the concept of parents, there’s something utterly deceptive about the band—almost as if some alien force were trying to mimic 60s AM radio.

After Austin paid a significant fee to a shady guy who promised to press 1,000 copies of the record, the man disappeared with the money and 900 albums. While an optimist might have argued that the fact someone thought they could sell 900 copies of Philosophy of the World was a testament to its worth, like most self-released records, it seemed destined to die a quick death.

But somehow, probably because of its bizarre nature, it gained a cult following. Frank Zappa said the Shaggs were “better than the Beatles.” Terry Adams and Tom Ardolino of NRBQ reissued Philosophy of the World on their own dime. Kurt Cobain said that the Shaggs were “so obviously the real thing.” Jello Biafra is a huge fan.

After 44 years of not recording a single note, Dot Wiggin has just released her follow-up, Ready! Get! Go! It has unrecorded Shaggs lyrics as well as some other new songs. The music is a little more proficient, but Dot is still Dot.

VICE: The band started after your grandmother made three predictions and two of them came true. Did you think that was weird?
Dot Wiggin: I thought it was unusual. My father did believe it, but I thought it was very unusual.

You were 16 at the time?
That’s about right.

What was your father like?
He was strict. But he was also nice.

Did you want to start a band?
Starting a band and the music and all that was my father’s idea. It was his dream. I did enjoy playing and writing the music. We did enjoy playing the dances.

It’s strange that a strict and conservative father like Austin was interested in putting his teenage daughters in a rock band.
Right. He probably wouldn’t have been interested in it if it weren’t for his mother telling him about his future.

Is it true that your father once held a séance to ask your grandmother more questions?
Yes. My father held a séance with all of us at the table.

Did he do that a lot?
He didn’t do a lot. He did a couple of séances.

What happened at that one?
My sister Helen basically passed out at the table and we didn’t think that we were going to revive her. We broke hands and I said that I would never be involved in another séance again, and I have not.

Did your sister say anything unusual afterward?
No. She didn’t even remember it.

Do you look back fondly on Philosophy of the World?
I think it could have been done a lot better. I don’t think we were ready to record when we did.

Are you glad that it exists?
I am now.

Why do you think the record has had so many revivals?
I think it’s the story behind it. The story behind the Shaggs—the album itself, the honesty of it… the honesty of the lyrics. I really don’t know. It’s more popular today than it was way back when.

When you were recording, did you think that the Shaggs sounded like bands on the radio, or did you know something was different?
I’m sure we looked at it as “We’re not as good as the ones on the radio.” We had our own style in our music. I don’t know how deeply we looked at it. We just did it.

What were the practices preceding the album like?
We practiced five days a week when my dad got home from work. Saturdays we had the dances and then Sundays we got back to practicing again. It was pretty much every night, two to three hours.

Was it fun?
We would repeat a lot. So it wasn’t what I would call fun. It was fun writing the lyrics. It was fun at the dances, but the practices weren’t that fun.

Do you think people like the Shaggs simply because of the ineptitude of the music, or is there something more there?
That’s a good question. I don’t really know. I haven’t really thought about it. I hope they heard something else in it. It’d be nice for people to hear something unique.

I think it’s special because it’s so completely removed from influence. There’s nothing else quite like it.
Yeah, that sounds good to me.

By contrast, some people say Philosophy of the World is the “worst album ever made.” Does that hurt?
It doesn’t exactly make my day. I get used to it and blow it off. It is what it is. I try to forget it. I once was told that bad publicity is still publicity.

In some reviews they even commented on your sisters’ hair and clothes.
I know. They even said that we were ugly!

Why do you think the album caused people to get so catty?
I don’t know. I feel like I wanted to tell them to look in the mirror… but that’s not nice, either.

The new album was organized by Jesse Krakow, a guy who organized a Shaggs tribute concert.
It wasn’t my idea to record. I just had some lyrics that I had from way back. Basically, I was looking for someone to record the music. I just wanted to get the music out there and get the royalties. I wasn’t looking to record or anything.

Does the new album and the recent Shaggs resurgence represent a sort of redemption?
I… I don’t really think of it that way.

Buy Ready! Get! Go! right here right now.

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