The Shaggs - Shaggs’ Own Thing
I first heard The Shaggs in a closet in Hadley, Massachusetts. My friend, Dan (a performer and artist as ragged and wild as the Wiggin sisters themselves), played them for me in the actual closet that was his bedroom in the old schoolhouse we lived in. I was sort of mid-journey from my highschool love of all things witchy and goth (Stevie Nicks, X, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, etc.) to falling HARD for something new. I reveled in the off-kilter, a lack of consistent time signature and new-to-me styles of discord. I spent nights listening to every Ornette Coleman record I could get my hands on, Sun Ra, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Frank Zappa, New York Art Quartet, and was blessed enough to see Professor Milford Graves perform several times. Something about The Shaggs really clicked together my love of actual songs, and pop, with this bonkers version of music I was learning to love. I'm not sure there's a more culty origin story. The Shaggs were created from a fortune, a palm reading. Their grandmother brought them into being by mentioning offhand to their father about having daughters who'd become a famous rock band. And in the tiny town of Fremont, New Hampshire, where most folks made their living sewing handkerchiefs at the textile mill, this was probably an intoxicating dream. For Dot, Betty, and Helen, it probably felt more like a nightmare. There's no way to talk about The Shaggs and their music without talking about abuse. They were forced to practice and practice and practice, as well as do calisthenics all day, every day. And on Sunday, church. The girls weren't allowed to date, and rarely to socialize. They did most of their performing at a local nursing home or the town hall talent shows.They stuck together, they wrote songs about what they knew. Their parents, their cat Foot-Foot, school. The brutal practice schedule inflicted by their father never quite materialized into skill. Or, maybe it bore them along. The result is a record full of bent, awkward, arrhythmic songs. Once they were deemed 'ready', dad shuttled them along to a recording studio and shelled out a fair amount of family savings to make 1000 copies of Philosophy of the World. Legend has it the recording engineer stole 900 of them and disappeared. Whatever the truth, the remaining physical copies made their way into the world and eventually became the darlings of the proto-punk and outsider music collectors. Zappa dubbed them 'better than the Beatles'. This new re-release is pretty special. It's remastered from the original tape from a 1982 release of Shaggs' Own Thing helmed by Terry Adams of NRBQ. That release brought together tracks that the sisters had re-recorded with several more years of independence and experience and growth. It doesn't matter how many times I listen to these songs—each time they feel new, awkward, guileless, imperfect. Hearing them for the first time around the age of 19 or 20 was a pivotal moment for me and those feelings don't go away. Letting go and leaning into a loose and spacious new way of listening. I just love this record.
- Briana Holt 8/1/20
Gloria Silva - Acevedo, Colombia
Oh man are we excited for these next few coffees, especially this one by our friend Gloria Silva Cordoba. Last year Gloria submitted her coffee to the Acevedo Cup, a friendly competition hosted by our mutual friends at Fairfield Trading and the Collaborative Coffee Source. The competition showcases coffees grown in Acevedo, which has unique geography that mimics some of the highest growing areas of Colombia while only averaging between 1,400 and 1,800 masl. We loved Gloria's coffee last year so much that we knew we'd be buying her coffee come what may this year. Fortunately, Gloria placed in the top 10 again this year, and we're so excited to continue this relationship. Her coffee has tart citrus, sweet stonefruit, and creamy chocolate flavors. It's a pretty small lot, so get it while you can!