Shagg

Shagg started humbly with apartment jams and coffeehouse performances. As our lineup grew, our writing evolved from folksy, roots-based songs to full-blown compositions borrowing liberally from jazz, funk, soul, and world music.

We recorded our first demo in early 2000 with producer Stephen Shirk (Marc Ribot y los Cubanos Postizos, Michael Maxwell), whose apartment studio was the perfect setting for our homegrown sound. Those sessions resulted in the Peach EP, featuring the songs "Shade of Melancholy" and "Just Ain't Enough," both finalists in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest that year.

We returned to the studio in 2002 with producer Joe DeVico (Joe Elefante, Dave Murphy), best known for his work with jazz ensembles. The goal was to make a record that captured our live sound, with a minimum of overdubbing. The record took three days to record and three years to mix, but it worked out in the end! The result is Buh Ba Ba Ba, a set of 12 songs ranging from the exuberant funk of the title track to the aching "Shade of Melancholy."

Based on rough mixes from the Buh Ba Ba Ba sessions, we were selected by the editors of CMJ to compete for the 2003 Coca-Cola New Music Award, which was the unsigned artist category of Dick Clark's American Music Awards.

In 2006, the editors and fans of mtvU chose us to compete for a recording deal with Definitive Jux Records. We made the Top 10, but alas, we lost again.

Shagg is currently writing new music and will be right back after the break.