Welcome to Your Next Rabbit Hole: WE ARE THE SHAGGS [SXSW 2026]

[L-R] Dot and Betty Wiggin

Foretold from a prophecy, mocked by their contemporaries, admired by younger generations, The Shaggs are like nothing you have ever heard before. At one point, they were declared the worst band in rock history. Others have named them as unintentional geniuses or early adopters of punk music. Prolific comedy writer and director Ken Kwapis sets out to showcase the various opinions in his first ever documentary. What starts out as a simple conversation with the sisters becomes a thought piece about art and its boundaries. Who decides what's good and how? Where's the boundary between noise and music? After watching WE ARE THE SHAGGS, you may not have firm answers to these questions, but you will certainly find your next YouTube obsession and much to ponder.

For those uninitiated, The Shaggs started a band in the 1960s. Inspired by his mother's predictions that he would marry a redhead and spawn famous musicians, Austin Wiggin decided his three eldest daughters should drop out of school and start a band. For young people that share these same aspirations, such instructions from a father might sound like a dream scenario, but for the Wiggin sisters, the situation felt more like boot camp. Austin forced them to spend all of their time practicing music and doing calisthenics. They had no interest in starting a band but as dutiful daughters from a rural New Hampshire town, they obeyed. They played shows in their town community center, created a catalog of songs, and released a record with 12 songs, PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD.

[L-R] Betty Wiggin, Helen Wiggin, Dot Wiggin

Here's the catch. By normal standards, the music is perplexing and chaotic. The girls played their guitars out of tune. The singers and the drums are keeping different time signatures, and the lead guitar often doubles the vocals. There's no attempt to create harmonies or counterparts; the two singers both sing the melody with pure tones and a slight lisp. Listening to the record for the first time is a confounding experience; you don't know whether to laugh or cry. But as you listen more, you start to hear other things. Those "out of tune" chords sound a lot like the way Angelo Badalamenti applied heavy reverb to a Duane Eddy style twang in TWIN PEAKS. The guitar doubling the vocals is reminiscent of "Blister in the Sun" by the Violent Femmes. The lyrics and cadence flow in almost a stream consciousness way, with a cross between childlike innocence and existential crisis. The more you listen, the more you discover things to appreciate. You realize they aren't bad so much as unrefined.

Kwapis begins the documentary by interviewing the surviving sisters, Dot and Betty. Eldest daughter Helen, who played the drums, passed away in 2006. Middle child Dot played the role of songwriter, lead guitarist, and vocalist. Betty, the youngest sister, doubled on the vocals and played rhythm guitar. Kwapis collects their memories of living by their father's strict rules and what inspired each of the songs. Even if Dot was a reluctant musician, she certainly had things she wanted to say and remembers writing the songs in her journal. Normal, every day events inspired her songs, such as a neighborhood cat going missing or speeding on a back highway in a sports car. Far from being cries of teen rebellion, The Shaggs even wrote "Who are Parents," an appreciation of familial love and "We Have a Savior," a call for the world to stop fighting and rely on God. One might even suspect their father had filtered their song topics and lyrics, but nothing of the kind is said in the documentary.

These animated sequences by Drew Christie recreate moments from the girls' music career

 
Listening to the memories of Dot and Betty is a head-scratching experience. Much of the time they speak with little expression or affect. Their memories or blunt and matter-of-fact, as if they are reporting what happened to someone else. They don't seem to look back on the time with fondness or loathing. Luckily, we hear from other voices, because if this just centered the voices of the sisters, it would be hard to muster enough enthusiasm as a viewer to sustain a full-length film. It's an odd sensation, though, seeing other people more pumped about an artists' work than the artist themselves. Which begs the question, if they never marketed themselves or attempted to become famous, why are people still talking about their music 65 years later?

To answer that question Kwapis collects an impressive collection of figures. Local historian Matthew Thomas gives us a tour of the town hall where the girls played as teens. Eric Lyon, a music composer has arranged several of The Shaggs songs for a violin duo named Two Strings. Russ Hamm, Erik Lindgren, and Bob Olive were all present at Fleetwood Studios when the family came in to record their album. These professional musicians share their utter dismay at the unorthodox sounds coming out of The Wiggin sisters' instruments and a kind of begrudging admiration at the girls' rejection of any attempts made to tune their guitars. WBCN radio programmer Joe Rogers, who went by the name "Mississippi Harold Wilson" made PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD part of his regular rotation. A station that became a notable launching pad of underground radio, their choice to include The Shaggs music on their playlist gave credence and distribution to exactly the kind of listeners that would enjoy the unconventional sounds.

Perhaps most interesting of all, we hear from The Shaggs Tribute Band. Helmed by Jesse Krakow, the band consists of Laura Cromwell on drums, Krakow on lead guitar, Rich Bennett on rhythm guitar, and Brittany Anjou on vocals. Amazingly, they attempt to perform the songs faithfully, exactly as recorded. The existence of a cover band dedicated to The Shaggs music offers a measuring stick that few bands achieve. And it takes an admirable level of devotion to recreate chords that no man has ever played on purpose, tempos that change constantly, and vocal lines that meander in unexpected ways. Philosophically, the tribute band may also unintentionally undermine the very thing they admire about The Shaggs. The girls played a style all their own, so isn't attempt to copycat the original antithetical to that cause?

[L-R] Dot and Betty Wiggin during one of their interviews

 
Krakow and his band certainly aren't the only people who have covered The Shaggs music, but they are the best known, since all of that devotion eventually leads to them playing as backup band for The Shaggs at presumably their final reunion concert in 2017. The documentary includes segments from that show, again making for an odd experience. While the backup band looks thrilled, the sisters sing with the hands folded in front of them in the fig leaf position, eyes down. Watching the tribute band having to guide to sisters through their own music makes for an awkward experience.

Anyone who loves music and analyzing how fame begins and catches hold will find much to appreciate in WE ARE THE SHAGGS. The logline made it sound like the intellectual equivalent of a Ripley's Believe It or Not exhibit: "Step right up folks, don't be shy. Come behold this weird band that made records." But the story is far more thoughtful than I expected. Regardless of the intentions or desires of the father or the girls, they have made their mark on music history. And seeing Dot and Betty in their older years becomes a sort of meditation on aging and memory. In an age where fame is fleeting, it's fascinating that three sisters who never wanted to be musicians have a fanbase that wants to honor their unique sound. Music has rules, and many achieve fame by breaking rules. But The Shaggs never broke the rules; they never knew the rules and made their own. That's a level of artistry that few ever achieve.

Screening in its World Premiere during SXSW 2026 in the 24 Beats per Second section. See film details page for more information. 

Final score: 3.5 out of 5

Just for Fun 

My Pal Foot Foot rehearsal for the "Still Better than the Beatles" tribute album. We have a room full of 10 people attempting to recreate what three girls did by their lonesomes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIAiAPYyY40

Andrew Thoreen interprets The Shaggs music and attempts to emulate their feeling and musicality while bringing the elements into greater cohesion. View a playlist of Andrew's covers