C&L's Late Nite Music Club with Flipper
Despite the fact that Flipper are, well, not for everyone is one way to put it, they were an incredibly special and innovative band. People do tend to have strong opinions about them though, mine running to the extremely positive.
The San Francisco band never really intended on having people like them very much (and they certainly succeeded at having quite a few people hate them), but ultimately they were the first punk band to be slow and dirgelike, providing the raw, harsh ingredients that Mudhoney, Nirvana and Sonic Youth would later refine into something more palatable. It's clear when listening to and watching early footage of the band, long before the death of lead singer Will Shatter, that they had no intention of being any part of rock history.
Either way, they are, and their lack of self-awareness just makes them sound ten times better. Generic Flipper, the album which features this song and the classic 'Sex Bomb' is one of the only records of the era that still takes a listener by surprise when hearing it for the first time. Though there's a tough exterior on songs like "Way of the World", there's a stark and pure flavor underneath.
Update: Flipper are releasing a new studio album called Love and a live album called Fight on Tuesday, May 19th. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic handles the low end and co-writing on both.
had a music lesson in their life. Or are they deliberately trying to sound terrible?
Or do they allow you to do that on the rest home communal computer?
I've got the original 7" of Sex Bomb, a classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WD2pUTO9uU
Flipper was a great band. I first heard them listening to John Peel's Radio 1 show while living in West Germany. I still have my Generic Flipper album too. Back in 1985 they performed in Washington DC at the old 9:30 club. They were totally shit-faced drunk, and they didn't care. They could barely play a chord or sing. Lots of fun though, beer and spit were flying around. Under-appreciated at the time, as were most bands in the punk rock/hardcore scene of the early and mid eighties.
Uh oh, I have Love Canal from 1980 not Sex Bomb. But I found a single of this guy next to Love Canal, unfortunately can't find Mean Mr. Mommy Man on utube but this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeehPLaI_NU&fe...
PLease mean mr mommy man, not the butt pliers.
Generally speaking I don't trust anyone making over 150K a year.
Exactly, I had totally forgotten that song.
when "sacrifice" hit the radio. still their greatest, imho.
Well, thats 27 seconds I'll never get back.
What were you doing that took you only 27 seconds to finish? Or should I not ask?
for posting this, you released a flood of memories from the early 80's when the punk band I was in, Pet Products, did sex bomb and some dead kennedy's covers along with our own shit. Man, I lived through some crazy shit.
Generally speaking I don't trust anyone making over 150K a year.
WOW Fugazi a couple weeks ago, now Flipper. Great political coverage and great music as well. I love this website!
I remember when i was a teenager (10 yrs ago) I bought this album b/c I read that Kurt Cobain liked them. Anything Cobain liked, I had to like. I bought a video of Flipper on some public television show. It was really interesting. At one point the singer, played drums, and as I recall the drummer played guitar. Flipper was cool, definitely.
...I couldn't help but think of The Stooges during this.
... I saw them do their thing on stage several times back in the day, and it *always* reached people and it was always amazing in some fashion.
To those who are turned off by this clip... OK, fine, you're right... they're not particularly "good musicians" but obviously that's not the point. It's not really any different than the musicianship of the original Stooges or the directorial skills of Andy Warhol in films like Vinyl or Chelsea Girl. I've read that early on in the career of the Sex Pistols a few fans would invariably yell "you can't play!" and the band would reply "so what?!"
This is a good question. So what? You don't have to think of what Flipper is doing here as music if you don't wanna. Just consider it sound. Sound which by the way is actually about something and that has a point of view and an attitude. Sound that is delivered by people who are intelligent and are genuinely trying to create something subversive and original. In the face of all that, what difference does it make if they can play their instruments "properly".
Also and BTW, the recorded versions of songs by Flipper, especially on the "Generic" album, are pretty much all great. Powerful and twisted and funny and pointed. The fact that the members of Flipper often performed live while out of their minds and/or bodies due to the intake of various substances could be frustrating to anyone who came to hear them sound like they did on the records, (and sadly it ultimately destroyed the band and killed a couple of it's members) but it was still interesting to see and hear what would happen.
Anyway, I think this clip is pretty great and for what it's worth I also love Indian Raga music, Miles Davis, Ravel, The Beatles, Bernard Hermann, etc. etc.
=)
"Brainwash" was really it for me. The Flipside of the red vinyl 7" of "Sexbomb". As recorded, these sides were extremely popular in Boston on college radio, and they were played TO DEATH. I loved the way they ran the scratch into a natural skip at the end...
."...N-Nevermind, Forget it,.......You wouldn't understa---"
Love canal was a great topical song, and is still relevant in subject matter.
Of course, "HA HA HA" is a towering work of artistic achievement. It has this stirring economy of language, but it seems to express so much.
Arthur Alexander - "Go home Girl"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeCkiQJ0Fu4&fe...
Arthur Alexander - You better move on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOT7OwcbK-k
Arthur Alexander - Anna - 1962
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihsfVEFvrxA&fe...
One of my favorite bands. People will listen to this band with puzzlement. Thanks for posting this.
Anybody who is going to check out the video to hear some kind of lame ass rock and roll song with all the chords hit correctly, technically proficient playing, or any other stodgy, tired, boring reason are going to be very, very confused as to why so many people like Flipper.
If you don't get it, we can't explain it, so go away.
To any one interested, in addition to reissuing their back catalog, Flipper have a brand NEW double album (one studio one live) titled "LOVE" and "FIGHT"! These were both recorded with Krist Noveselic on bass. The bits I have heard sound like pure unadulterated Flipper-style genius. They have a new bass player named Rachel Theole (sp?) for the upcoming tour of Australia in May,
followed by some summer dates in the US and then, thankfully, Europe in September.
Three important things happened when I was about 14: Reagan Won, John Lennon was assassinated, and I discovered Punk rock.
And for those of you who say Flipper is a shitty band, well its a bit of a shitty world, no?
Back in the 80's, I was really deep into the hardcore scene in Boston and saw every band I could when they came to town. I will never forget the show Flipper did in a dingy bar in the Fenway back then. I don't think the establishment's management knew what they were getting into when they booked Flipper, but after just a few songs, I think they cut the power to the stage. Too much slam dancing and chaos. Flipper was unperturbed. They stood up together, arm in arm, and sang, a cappella, at the top of their lungs, the old Bacharach classic:
What the world needs now, is explosives and guns
'Cause that's the only thing that's really fun
Soon, the whole audience was singing it (bear in mind this was like 20 people) and eventually the power was turned back on and they finished their set. Ah, good times, good times.
To Temple Beautiful and the Mutants, the Offs Flipper, the Nuns, the Avengers, the Bags, the Alley Cats, Nervous Gender, suburban lawns...good times.
i love the fact that they do not seem to be aware of a verse, chorus, or a bridge for that matter.
so, is j.f.a. going to be on the board next week?
Life isn't boring enough for you that you want to make it worse by listening to J.F.A.?
i kept hearing them in april on kxlu, i think they were just rereleased.
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