This week, I had the pleasure of going to two concerts – to Explosions in the Sky and to Delivery. Neither of these bands are today’s topic, but I will link their music for you to enjoy anyway, for reasons that I think will become clear later.
Explosions in the Sky are an acoustic rock band, heavily leaning into drone elements and ambient soundscapes that manage to pack a surprising punch of emotional depth. The band is like a well-oiled machine, having played together for more than two decades.
Delivery are an Australian garage-punk band, who, by virtue of their genre, are far more off the cuff sounding – more lighthearted and playful, if you will.
If we imagine both of these bands on a spectrum, we might think of them as relatively far apart when it comes to their levels of production, professionalism and auditory synchronicity. One sleek and in tune, the other more scrambled and DIY-ish. However, we would be somewhat amiss, because a little, small town band shows us where that spectrum actually ends (on one side, at least).
Back in the 60s, family father Austin Wiggin aimed to make true what his mother predicted: His daughters were to form a band and become famous. And so, he took the girls out of school, bought a bunch of instruments, and set them to write, play, learn, rehearse and perform as a band: The Shaggs.
Later hailed (by some) as outsider artists that captured a quasi proto-punk, blending atonal singing of naive lyrics with counter-intuitive song structures, the three sisters in truth had just never had the chance to experience much music that could have helped shape more tried and true methods. Additionally, none of them had chosen to play music, music was cast upon them.
“Philosophy of the World” (1969) – an album that, arguably, would have never seen the light of day under other (read: normal) circumstances – got a limited release into obscurity on a local record label, but managed to capture broader audiences by chance as the album was passed around in artist circles. More and more, this was a thing that you would play to your friends at parties for its idiosyncrasy.
Frank Zappa supposedly called The Shaggs “better than the Beatles” and Kurt Cobain named “Philosophy of the World” his fifth favorite album of all time. I guess you could call that quite some success, but The Shaggs disbanded as soon as their father Austin passed away, with only one of the sisters sticking somewhat with music as part of a church choir.
One man’s trash… as they say. Give them an honorary listen, but know that I won’t be upset if you don’t get through the full record. And feel free to check out the other two bands I mentioned, if you need something to clean the palate.
Coryphe 