Dot Wiggins Band- Ready! Get! Go! (2014)

Dot Wiggins Band- Ready! Get! Go!  (2014)

As people who have been following this humble blog for almost 10 years may know,  I’m a big fan of the mighty Shaggs, that trio of teenage girls (The Wiggins sisters) who barely knew how to play their instruments but managed to create an innocent record (at insistence of their manipulative father) full of creative and anarchic freedom which ended up becoming a cult favorite, reaching near Captain Beefheart vanguardist status, is admirable how pure were the Shaggs, free from outside influence, their instrumental naïve set them apart from copying other acts and that shaped their dynamics in a very distinctive way, obviously odd sounding to the common people, they ended up dubbed “the world’s worst rock band”, although I completely differ and people like Frank Zappa  and Lester Bangs also differ, so I might not be so wrong adoring these youngsters.   

Curiously, I was thinking recently why the Wiggins sisters haven’t come up with a new record? They broke up in a matter of years after their classic record, the legendary Philosophy Of The world,  after their manager run away with the whole run of pressed records, although that amazing and sonically amazing record latter surfaced and it was edited on Cd for the newer generations to appreciate it, I wouldn’t say people hate the Shaggs, but is more exact to say people don’t understand them, they sound so weird, like Captain Beefheart Magic Band, or Ornette Coleman amazing Quartet, with lots of different things going on at the same time, quite a sonic show, then the Wiggins got together a few years ago, they played with the same naïve attitude they had in the past, because they never played together after the sixties, so they still sounded odd and untrained, there was a Broadway like show based on them, and I think even a movie, so it was kind of natural that they’re started their act, but they didn’t. 

Now we have Dot Wiggin Band, it’s almost miraculous how Dot, the front woman of the legendary act is back in the music world, and what is also magical about this is the fact that she manages to conjure the same childish sense of wonder and weird dynamics than in the past, of course, she sounds now like she has rehearsed a lot more than in the past, but the mighty spirit of her weird and beautiful old band is present.

Ready! Get! Go! Sounds like a Shaggs record, Dot the main voice in the might sisters band manages to conjure back that great odd magic, the record is not exactly comprised of new tunes, as some of this were written in the past an rearranged recently by Dot, Banana Bike, the opener has that powerful drumming, along nervous guitars and Dot out of tune vocals, she knows the weird strengths of her old band and she does her best bringing it back, The Fella With a Happy Hearts regains the innocence from old times, and also the ultra-weird dynamics, strange stop starts and those amazing sonic detours from the past, and so does the even shakier Speed Limit, a cute psychedelic tune that kind of reminds me to Yoko Ono or some hot new wave music.

If I Could Be Your Hero is an upbeat tune, just like the old songs the Wiggins used to crank up, with surprising chorus jumping when it wasn’t expected, Love at First Sight is forgettable all the way, but You Best Friend kind of mends the way, and reminds me weirdly of some crazy Zappa sonics, Eh is amazing, paranoid and wonderfully confusing, making us think is those weird fade form the past were a result of their poor instrumental progress or a really out there musical sensibility, while Speed Limit 2 sounds like something that could be conceived by Sonic Youth at their poppiest.

Ready! Get! Go! Amazingly recreates in a good manner a powerful and weird myth of the past, the Shaggs live on! And Dot without doubts reminds us why she was a part of one of the most legendary bands of all time, a beautiful strange creature that refuses to die and that Dot manages to show they weren’t so bad after all, they were simply weird and people weren’t ready for their abstract sonics to be unleashed at the time.