The Shaggs — an all-girl band featuring the three suburban Wiggin sisters from Fremont, New Hampshire — were always an acquired taste. Formed in 1965, they released one album, Philosophy of the World, in 1969, and disbanded in the mid-’70s. Almost all (around 900) of the original 1,000 copies of the album disappeared in mysterious circumstances, but the 100 that escaped to the outside world all found their way to the right people. Frank Zappa was one, playing several tracks from the album during a guest slot on the Dr. Demento radio show as early as 1973, declaring them “Better than The Beatles”. Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was also a fan, later declaring that “they were the real thing”.
However, as the intro to Ken Kwapis’s endearing documentary shows, not everybody would agree. Listening to a copy of Philosophy of the World on headphones, his test audiences describe the
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