The Fugs was a rock band formed in 1965 in Greenwich Village. The original group was made up of non-musicians who were part of the avant-garde art scene of New York City. They formed the rock group for non-musical reasons and had no financial motivation for becoming a rock group; they simply felt that this was the best way to communicate their messages. The purpose of the group was to shock for the sake of shock; they caricatured American society and used gross obscenity to shock society into realizing what "truth" was. The music was chaotic, but it did have some influence on other groups who carried the philosophy further. After touring the country in a VW van, they toured Europe then went their own ways. The band regrouped in 1984 for a reunion concert and continued to stage annual reunions and release records through the end of the 1980s.