Wipers
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The Wipers are a punk rock group formed in Portland, Oregon in 1977 by guitarist Greg Sage, drummer Sam Henry and bassist Doug Koupal.
Is This Real?, The Wiper’s first album, was first released in 1980 and quietly gained a cult following. The Wipers became better known after the wildly popular grunge band Nirvana covered two songs from Is This Real?. Nirvana’s frontman, Kurt Cobain, spoke of being heavily influenced by the band. The Wipers were a major influence on the grunge music scene in general, and 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.
While the Wipers began by pioneering the tight, catchy punk rock that Nirvana and others would later perfect, the band quickly evolved into producing guitar-solo soaked, labyrinthine punk rock epics. 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.
In 1992, the tribute album Eight songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers (Tim Kerr Records) was released on 4 colored 7-inch records, and included Wipers songs performed by Nirvana, Hole, Napalm Beach, M99, Crackerbash, Poison Idea, 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 Hazel, Calamity Jane, Saliva Tree, Honey, Nation of Ulysses, and Thurston Moore-Keith Nealy.
In 2001, Greg Sage’s Zeno Records [link] released a 3 CD box det of the Wipers' first 3 albums, which by that time had been long out-of-print.
Sam Henry is still an active musician in Portland, Oregon, and continues to play with popular Northwest songwriters like Pete Krebs and Morgan Grace.
Discography
- Better Off Dead (single), (1978) Debut Single
- Is This Real?, (1980)
- ''Romeo/No Solution (single), (1981)
- Youth of America, (1981)
- Over the Edge, (1983)
- The Wipers, (1985) Live album
- Land of the Lost, (1986)
- Follow Blind, (1987)
- The Circle, (1988)
- Best of the Wipers and Greg Sage, (1991)
- Silver Sail/Never Win (single), (1994)
- Silver Sail, (1995)
- Insane/Resist (single), (1995)
- The Herd, (1996)
- Power in One, (1999)
- Wipers Box Set, (2001)
- Complete Rarities, German bootleg
External links
- [Official homepage]
- [Sam Henry]
- [Official Interview with Greg Sage]
- [MP3.com Discography, Info and Reviews]
- [Interview about recording]
- [Sound Clips from Power in One]
- [Biography and Info about The Wipers]
- [Another Interview with Greg Sage]
- [Short Interview with Greg Sage]
- [Another Rare Interview with Mr. Sage]
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