The Wipers, why do I never see discussion of this great band (psychedelic, punk)

[Odyshape]

I think it is about time we have a Wipers thread, I searched the forum and found very little about them, for people who don't know who they are they are a late 70s - 2000 or so Portland punk band. They have a very unique sound and a very peculiar musical ethic behind them (which is very strange to me because a lot of their music has a poppy sound to them). I have no idea what bands influenced them, I have looked up some interviews and it never really came up, the most notable and well known band that was influenced BY The Wipers would be Nirvana as Kurt Kobain was a huge fan. Greg Sage, the front man and producer created almost all of the music and did all the technical mumbo jumbo himself. What I find very strange is that he was obsessed with the technical aspects of music (like cutting records) far before he even thought of making music, I think this has an effect on the band creating quite a unique yet evolving sound over the course of their period together. I believe they made 9 Full length albums.

My favorite early album by them would be Is This Real, it has many great (some extremely catchy) songs that won't leave your head. I am not really sure what to compare it to or how to describe as I am quite awful at that so I will just post youtube link PM if you have difficulty finding the album. Recommended songs : Return Of the Rat, Mystery, Window Shop for Love, Wait a Minute, D-7


My favorite mid life span album by them is Follow Blind, this one is drastically different from the first three departing from its punk sound and going more in the light of post-punk and psychedelic rock, the opening title track is just fantastic and ill post the link for this one aswell. Recommended Songs : Follow Blind, Someplace Else, Against the wall, Loser Town


(I apologize for having the song title and all within the song name, for some reason my account was acting weird and was not able to upload it so I found the album on a BLOG)

Well I hope the Community of MUSICBANTER enjoys the Wipers as much as I did.

This is off of "Is this Real"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbHhd6epORU

This is Off of Follow Blind (sorry for the live recording usually not the best place to hear a song for the first song but it was the best I could do)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEs7y...rom=PL&index=5

[Odyshape]

bump

[Sneer]

Youth of America and Over The Edge are two of my favourite punk albums. Really underrated band.

[Odyshape]

Originally Posted by Stu

Youth of America and Over The Edge are two of my favourite punk albums. Really underrated band.

Now this may seem off topic (and actually related to another thread that no one seemed to answer) but are the wipers simply overlooked rather than underrated because of the few people who do know who the wipers are, almost unanimously love them? Errr so confusing if you do answer try to give a good explanation this is very annoying and is bugging my OCD.

[lucifer_sam]

i just started listening to them the other day. i thought Over the Edge was decent but got pretty repetitive, and Youth of America turned me off completely.

i suppose it emulates the three-chord structure way too tightly for me to get anything out of it. it's like early punk minus the pop hooks.

[Sneer]

Originally Posted by Odyshape

Now this may seem off topic (and actually related to another thread that no one seemed to answer) but are the wipers simply overlooked rather than underrated because of the few people who do know who the wipers are, almost unanimously love them? Errr so confusing if you do answer try to give a good explanation this is very annoying and is bugging my OCD.

I dont know about that, not everybody who has listened to The Wipers loves them - Sam is a prime example - in fact i know quite a few people who dislike them. That is why i think they're underrated, not because nobody has heard them, but because they dont generate the praise i think they deserve.

I personally think they were one of the most important and talented punk bands, their use of distortion and tight, at the time unusual song structures were influential to later alternative and grunge musicians. The fact they lacked the pop hooks appeals to me also, dont get me wrong, i love a good hook, but The Wipers just seemed more threatening and intense then most of the other early purveyors of punk.

[67Strat]

Like a great many 80's bands The Wipers seem to be stuck there, punk kids today tend to skip over a lot of that stuff and head straight for the Ramones or some other well known band. There were many great bands from that era that should have gotten more attention along with The Wipers. The Pandoras, The Leaving Trains, The Fluid etc.

[GravitySlips]

of all "punk rock" bands, the Wipers are BY FAR my favourite.

one of the best bands ever.

[someonecompletelyrandom]

The only song from the Wipers I have heard is Return of the Rat, any big Nirvana fans probably reconise it from the cover that Nirvana did of it. Its a great punk song, but I've noticed the version I've heard of it was quite low-fi. Does all of their music sound like that?

[Seltzer]

I actually only heard Youth of America for the first time recently and it's nothing short of fantastic, and downright haunting/dark at times.