The Shaggs Review

The Shaggs all girl band plays like it has twelve different sheets of music, everyone is playing, no one is leading, and everyone has started at a different time. They purposefully play their music a little bit off balance. It makes the listener unable to follow and unable to catch up.

They are playing as if they are running the race of the turtle and the hare. Half the band is the turtle and the other half is the hare. Their album is the entire race. The percussion stays on beat, they are the constant, ever persistent turtle and the vocalist and other instrumentalists are the hare. They start and stop without any constant rhythm.

The lyrics are so non-scensical that the band channels a 2-year old that is learning to walk and talk at the same time. You can’t do it all at once without stumbling.

Despite all the weird nuances of their music, they are doing something original. They are experimenting with sound and rhythm to produce an audience reaction. I would love to see them in concert at a Berkeley coffee shop.

The band Pastel Pasta was an experimental group that started at my high school. They also experimented with ridiculous lyrics and obscure instruments like the toy piano and a washboard. They entered the Battle of the Bands one year and got about last place. The next year they received second place because of their creativity in performance execution and lyrics that people could laugh at.

The Shaggs do the same thing. It is still entertainment, the listener just needs to go in with an open mind, laugh and have fun listening to something new.