- For the town in Belgium which was called 'Wipers' by British soldiers during World War I
World War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, see YpresYpres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...
.
The
Wipers were a
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
group formed in
Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
in 1977 by
guitaristA guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as acoustic guitars, electric guitars, classical guitars and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :...
Greg SageGreg Sage was the principal songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist for the influential Portland, Oregon-based punk rock band Wipers.Greg Sage's first recording was on the pro-wrestler Beauregarde's full length album in 1971 when he was age seventeen.Sage's dark lyrics were rife with references to...
,
drummerA drummer is a person who plays drums, particularly a drum kit , marching percussion or hand drums. The term percussionist applies to a musician performing on any percussion instrument, but usually refers to one who plays classical or Latin percussion. Most bands for Rock, Pop, Jazz, R&B etc...
Sam Henry and
bassistA bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
Dave Koupal. Wipers were one of the earliest American purveyors of the genre, and the group's tight song structure and use of heavy distortion has been hailed as extremely influential by numerous critics and musicians, including
NirvanaNirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, who covered several of their songs.
Origination
The idea behind the
Wipers started off as only a recording project. The plan was to record 15 LPs in 10 years without touring or promotion of any type. Sage's thoughts were that the mystique built from the lack of playing the traditional rock & roll promotion game would make people listen to their recordings much deeper with only their imagination to go by. He thought it would be easy to avoid press, shows, pictures, interviews. He looked at music as art rather than entertainment; with that concept in mind he thought music was personal to the listener rather than a commodity.
"I think I got that concept early on as a kid. I was very lucky to have my own professional record cutting lathe when I was in 7th grade due to my father being involved in the broadcast industry. I would cut records for friends at school of songs off the radio and learned the art of record making long before learning to play music. I would spend countless hours studying the grooves I would cut under the microscope that was attached to the lathe and loved the way music looked, moved and modulated within the thin walls. I might have spent too much time studying music through a microscope because it gave me a completely different outlook on what music is and a totally opposite understanding of it as well. There was something very magical and private when I zoomed into the magnified and secret world of sound in motion. I got to the point that I needed to create and paint my own sounds and colors into the walls of these grooves."
Greg Sage's first choice of instrument was bass guitar, because of the low tones that made larger grooves in the vinyl records due to slower modulations. Unfortunately, basses were harder to find and much more expensive when Sage was in grade school, so he had to go with guitar instead. After several years of playing and recording guitar he felt he wanted to do something different in music, and being labeled as a band seemed to be the first tradition and standard he should try to avoid.
He wanted to make his own recordings, manufacture and run his own label himself without anyone else's financing to keep it as pure and unfiltered as possible. In fact, in 1979, Sage approached several young Portland punk bands and asked them to record singles for his new Trap label. Some of those early bands were The Stiphnoyds, The Neo Boys and Sado Nation. Sage later re-released some of that material on a compilation record entitled The History Of Portland Punk.
It was soon found out that it was almost impossible to fulfill this idea: most labels did not want to accept this kind of a game as music was, first of all, business to them. Being such an independent artist was an oddity. Sage says he learned that it is almost impossible to be a true artist in the sense of the meaning he started off with and that survival was to learn to compromise. That was the reason why Sage wanted
The CircleThe Circle is the sixth studio album by the Portland, Oregon punk rock band The Wipers, released in 1988. This was intended by the band to be the last Wipers album.Released by Restless Records/Enigma Records on LP, MC and CD in 1988....
album to be the last
Wipers album.
In spite of the original idea,
Wipers used to play live shows and even released a live album, called
Wipers Live.
Career
Wipers' first single,
Better Off DeadBetter Off Dead is a 1985 teen cult black comedy starring John Cusack, written and directed by Savage Steve Holland. Originally released by Warner Bros. on October 11, 1985, it tells the story of high school student Lane Meyer who is suicidal after his girlfriend breaks up with him...
was released in 1978 on Sage's own Trap Records. Their first album,
Is This Real?Is This Real? is the 1979 debut album of the punk rock band The Wipers.Originally released on Park Ave. The band was cheated on the rights to the recording, and didn't get any royalties for it until over 20 years later when it was re-issued in 2001, then digitally remastered by Greg Sage and with...
, came out the following year on Park Avenue Records, a bigger label that the band hoped would get them wider distribution. Originally recorded on a 4-track in the band's rehearsal studio, the label insisted the band use a professional studio. Once released, the LP quietly gained a
cult followingA cult following is used to refer to a small or large group of fans that are either somewhat or highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture.-Cult media:...
, although the band was best known for their live shows around the Portland area.
In 1980, Park Avenue released the
Alien Boy EP, consisting of the title track and three demo outtakes. Released without the band's permission, the EP was the first of many unauthorized or bootleg Wipers records. In fact, Wipers never received royalties from these early releases until Sage's Zeno Records reissued them as a triple-CD in 2001. Sage has said regarding
Is This Real?Is This Real? is the 1979 debut album of the punk rock band The Wipers.Originally released on Park Ave. The band was cheated on the rights to the recording, and didn't get any royalties for it until over 20 years later when it was re-issued in 2001, then digitally remastered by Greg Sage and with...
: "Hell, that record was in print for over twenty years and we never received a cent for it." Following a dispute over the cover art for their second LP,
Youth of AmericaYouth of America is the second album by the punk band Wipers. The album marks a distinctive change in the band's sound. Compared to its predecessor Is This Real?, which was composed mostly of raw, sleek and relatively traditional songs, Youth of America features much longer and complex...
, Wipers parted ways with Park Avenue for good.
Though
Is This Real?Is This Real? is the 1979 debut album of the punk rock band The Wipers.Originally released on Park Ave. The band was cheated on the rights to the recording, and didn't get any royalties for it until over 20 years later when it was re-issued in 2001, then digitally remastered by Greg Sage and with...
defied categorization upon its release, its catchy, driving punk anthems are now regarded as post-punk classics. Uninterested in more of the same, Sage tweaked and evolved the band's sound with each subsequent release. Sage became known for not only his do-it-yourself ethic and guitar solos, but also for his domineering approach to the band’s creative process. With the new rhythm section of bassist Brad Davidson and drummer Brad Naish (ex-Styphnoids), Wipers' recorded a second LP for Park Avenue.
With its epically expansive, solo-driven title track and generally longer song lengths, 1981's
Youth of AmericaYouth of America is the second album by the punk band Wipers. The album marks a distinctive change in the band's sound. Compared to its predecessor Is This Real?, which was composed mostly of raw, sleek and relatively traditional songs, Youth of America features much longer and complex...
stands in sharp contrast to the short/fast punk approach of the time. The next LP, the militant, distortion-drenched
Over the Edge, was the first Wipers record to meet with immediate acceptance. The single "Romeo", which had already been released on 7" by Trap, actually got some airplay. The band then embarked on their first extensive tour, documented on the excellent 1984 Live LP.
Many of the recording techniques and musical equipment was designed by Sage and the band. The band members purposely relied on word-of-mouth advertising for their albums, often rejecting interviews, and played far fewer live shows than many of their punk contemporaries.
In the mid-80's, Wipers made the jump to
Enigma RecordsEnigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, from which it split off in 1985 to become its own company....
subsidiary
Restless RecordsRestless Records was a Hollywood, California based independent record label which was started by Enigma Records. In the 1980s to mid-1990s, it released primarily alternative rock/ indie rock albums...
, one of the biggest independent labels of the time signing punk-related bands. First to be released was Sage's solo album
Straight AheadStraight Ahead may refer to:* Straight-ahead jazz*Straight Ahead , 1968*Straight Ahead , 1984*Straight Ahead , 1999*Straight Ahead , 1985...
. Sage played all acoustic, electric, and bass guitar parts, and on many songs was backed by a drummer. The next few years saw three more LPs released on Restless, one being the 1986 classic
Land Of The Lost which featured the song "Let Me Know", which was used in the
Keanu ReevesKeanu Charles Reeves is a Lebanese-born Canadian-American actor, best known for his portrayals of a spaced-out metalhead in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and in two action films that were both financial and critical successes: the "ticking time bomb" thriller...
film,
River's Edge. Copies of this album are highly soughtafter collectables. In 1988, then-18-year-old drummer Travis McNabb joined the band for the tour for the album
The CircleThe Circle is the sixth studio album by the Portland, Oregon punk rock band The Wipers, released in 1988. This was intended by the band to be the last Wipers album.Released by Restless Records/Enigma Records on LP, MC and CD in 1988....
. He went on to join
Better Than EzraBetter Than Ezra is an American alternative rock trio based in New Orleans, Louisiana.-Current members:In addition to vocalist, chief songwriter and guitarist Kevin Griffin from Monroe, Louisiana, the other current members of Better Than Ezra as of February 2009 are bassist and background vocalist ...
and work with
Shawn MullinsShawn Mullins is a singer-songwriter who specializes in folk rock, instrumental rock, and adult alternative music...
,
Howie DayHoward Kern "Howie" Day is an American singer-songwriter. Beginning his career as a solo artist in the late 1990s, Day became known for his extensive touring and in-concert use of samplers and effects pedals in order to accompany himself...
and Beggars, members of which later formed
Black Rebel Motorcycle ClubBlack Rebel Motorcycle Club is an American alternative rock band from San Francisco, California, now based in Los Angeles. BRMC is known for its brand of garage rock, blues, folk revival, neo-psychedelia, and often religiously inspired lyrics, and its influences are groups and musicians such as...
.
Wipers broke up for the first time at the end of the eighties. In the early nineties, Sage relocated to
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
and released a second solo record. He revived Wipers to record 3 more albums with rotating line-ups in the 90's, although he turned down the offer to open for "grunge" mega-stars
NirvanaIn sramanic thought, Nirvana is the state of being free from suffering. It is an important concept in Buddhism and Jainism....
. Wipers' swan-song was 1999's Power in One.
Sam Henry is still an active musician in Portland, Oregon, and continues to play with popular
NorthwestThe Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. There are several partially overlapping definitions of the region, but they generally include the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and...
songwriters like
Pete KrebsPete Krebs is an independent musician from Portland, Oregon, best known as a member of the punk-pop band Hazel, and for a split record with Elliott Smith....
,
Morgan GraceMorgan Grace is a songwriter from Portland, Oregon. Mostly a solo acoustic performer, she released her first album The Rules of Dating in 2003 on Lady Lush Records. In 2004, she joined up with former Wipers and Napalm Beach drummer Sam Henry...
and Jimmy Boyer. Sam also continues to perform with
Napalm BeachNapalm Beach is an American punk rock band from Portland, Oregon. One of the longest-running punk bands from Portland, they are credited as being early innovators of the grunge sound...
, the band he formed with
Chris NewmanChris Newman is a three-time Academy Award winner and five-time nominee sound mixer/director. His film credits include The Godfather, Amadeus, The Exorcist, The Silence of the Lambs, and The English Patient.Newman resides in the U.S...
in the early '80s. Travis was replaced by Steve Plouf who continues to work with
Greg SageGreg Sage was the principal songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist for the influential Portland, Oregon-based punk rock band Wipers.Greg Sage's first recording was on the pro-wrestler Beauregarde's full length album in 1971 when he was age seventeen.Sage's dark lyrics were rife with references to...
and on other music projects. Steve operates a vintage goods/Zeno Records store in Portland Oregon appropriately named 'Zeno Oddities'.
Influence
Sage later remarked on their initial reception: "We weren’t even really a punk band. See, we were even farther out in left field than the punk movement because we didn’t even wish to be classified, and that was kind of a new territory. ... When we put out
Is This Real? … it definitely did not fit in; none of our records did. Then nine, ten years later people are saying: 'Yeah, it’s the punk classic of the ’80s.'"
Wipers became better known after the wildly popular
grungeGrunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
band
NirvanaNirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
covered two songs from
Is This Real?, "D-7" and "
Return of the RatReturn of the Rat is a song written by the Punk rock band The Wipers, and is the first track on The Wiper’s 1980 debut album Is This Real?. The song was later covered by the band Nirvana on a tribute album called Eight Songs for Greg Sage And The Wipers which was released in 1992...
". Nirvana frontman
Kurt CobainKurt Donald Cobain was an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the rock band Nirvana....
spoke of being heavily influenced by the band. "The Wipers were a major influence on the
grungeGrunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
music scene in general, with bands such as
The MelvinsThe Melvins are an American band that usually perform as a power trio, but as of 2006, have performed as a four piece with two drummers. Since 1984, Singer/guitarist Buzz Osborne and drummer Dale Crover have been the band's constant members. They are considered one of the godfathers of grunge...
, Mudhoney, and Dinosaur Jr. citing them. Wipers albums like
Is This Real? and
Over the Edge are now widely considered to be among the greatest and most influential punk albums of all time."
In 1992, a tribute album
Eight Songs for Greg Sage and the WipersEight Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers is a Wipers tribute album released on Tim Kerr Records in 1992. The album was first released as a box set of 4 colored 7-inch records....
(Tim Kerr Records) was released on four colored 7-inch records, and included Wipers songs performed by
NirvanaNirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
,
HoleHole was a Grammy-nominated American alternative rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1989 and disbanded in 2002. The band was fronted by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson. Hole achieved considerable commercial success...
,
Napalm BeachNapalm Beach is an American punk rock band from Portland, Oregon. One of the longest-running punk bands from Portland, they are credited as being early innovators of the grunge sound...
,
M99M99 or M-99 may refer to:* Messier 99, an unbarred spiral galaxy approximately 60 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices* Barrett M99, a sniper rifle* M-99 , a state highway in Michigan...
,
The Dharma BumsThe Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The semi-fictional accounts in the novel are based upon events that occurred years after the events of On the Road...
, Crackerbash,
Poison IdeaPoison Idea was an American hardcore punk band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1980. As their career progressed the band began to incorporate overt influences from hard rock. The band originally dissolved in 1993, but briefly reformed in 1998 and 2007.-History:...
, and The Whirlees. The CD release of the tribute album was called
Fourteen Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers, and expanded to include covers by
HazelHazel was an United States alternative rock band based in Portland, Oregon. The group was a quartet, consisting of Jody Bleyle , Pete Krebs , Brady Smith , and Fred Nemo ....
, Calamity Jane, Saliva Tree, Honey,
Nation of UlyssesThe Nation of Ulysses was a post-hardcore band from Washington, D.C. The band formed in Spring 1988 with four members and was known as simply "Ulysses." The original group consisted of Ian Svenonius on vocals and trumpet, Steve Kroner on guitar, Steve Gamboa on bass guitar, and James Canty on drums...
, and
Thurston MooreThurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running Ecstatic Peace! records.-Early years:Moore was born in Coral Gables, Florida, but was...
-Keith Nealy.
In 2001, Greg Sage’s
Zeno Records released a
Wipers Box SetThe Wipers Box Set is a compilation box set, and is a remastered re-release of the Wipers' first three albums: Is This Real?, Youth of America and Over the Edge with bonus material, including 26 previously unreleased tracks, and 6 other alternative recordings. It is the last release of the Wipers...
, which included the first three Wipers albums, which by that time had been long out-of-print, with additional never-before-released material.
Recently Jackpot Records and Greg have reissued
Is This Real?, Youth of America, and
Over the Edge on vinyl records, utilizing the original master recordings.
Albums
- Is This Real?
Is This Real? is the 1979 debut album of the punk rock band The Wipers.Originally released on Park Ave. The band was cheated on the rights to the recording, and didn't get any royalties for it until over 20 years later when it was re-issued in 2001, then digitally remastered by Greg Sage and with...
(1979)
- Alien Boy (EP)
Alien Boy was the 7th song on The Wipers first album, Is This Real? Park Ave records, released in 1979.Alien Boy is also a 1980 EP with this track on side A, and 3 outtakes from the Is This Real? album sessions on side B. The EP was originally released without the band's authority or knowledge...
(1980)
- Youth of America
Youth of America is the second album by the punk band Wipers. The album marks a distinctive change in the band's sound. Compared to its predecessor Is This Real?, which was composed mostly of raw, sleek and relatively traditional songs, Youth of America features much longer and complex...
(1981)
- Over the Edge (1983)
- Live (1985)
- Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost is an album by The Wipers. Recorded in 1986. The cover was drawn by Napalm Beach's Chris Newman.Originally released on Restless Records/Enigma Records in 1986 on LP, CD and MC...
(1986)
- Follow Blind
Follow Blind is a studio album by The Wipers, released in 1987. Recorded at 421 Sound, Portland, Oregon.
Released by Restless Records/Enigma Records on LP , MC and CD Follow Blind is a studio album by The Wipers, released in 1987. Recorded at 421 Sound, Portland, Oregon.
Released by Restless...
(1987)
- The Circle
The Circle is the sixth studio album by the Portland, Oregon punk rock band The Wipers, released in 1988. This was intended by the band to be the last Wipers album.Released by Restless Records/Enigma Records on LP, MC and CD in 1988....
(1988)
- The Best of Wipers and Greg Sage (1990)
- Silver Sail
Silver Sail is the first studio album by the Portland, Oregon punk rock band The Wipers since their reunion, released in 1993. After disbanding The Wipers in around 1988 and releasing a solo album, Sacrifice , in 1991, Sage decided to release a new album as The Wipers album. Recorded and mixed at...
(1993)
- The Herd (1996)
- Power in One (1999)
- Wipers Box Set
The Wipers Box Set is a compilation box set, and is a remastered re-release of the Wipers' first three albums: Is This Real?, Youth of America and Over the Edge with bonus material, including 26 previously unreleased tracks, and 6 other alternative recordings. It is the last release of the Wipers...
(2001)
Singles
- "Better Off Dead" (1978)
- "Romeo" (1981)
- "Silver Sail" (1993)
- "The Herd
"The Herd" is the first single by the Wipers to appear on compact disc. This single is a one track promotional item that features the album version of the song "The Herd". A limited amount of copies also included a wall poster of "The Herd" album cover. The single never had a retail release....
" (1996)
- "Insane" (1996)
External links