Year: 1980 Genre: Punk Rock Label: Subterranean Records Tracks: 2 Length: 6 Minutes My Rating: 6/8
Flipper formed in the late '70s and were one of the weirdest, punk-est bands in the hardcore scene! This was before the Butthole Surfers, before Sonic Youth, before Die Kreuzen, before the Melvins, before all those fuckers, this was FLIPPER, A BAND NAMED AFTER A FUCKING FISH. While Black Flag and Minor Threat were at their peak and playing fast and tight became the popular thing to do, Flipper played slow, sloppy, and noisy. This was the first Flipper record ever, and already they've quite set into their sound. Imagine the Sex Pistols on LSD. That's Flipper for ya. Flipper sang about all kinds of things... this record has two songs on it, and a picture of a baby on the cover. Flipper was all about dead fish. Today there was a huge storm and there were a bunch of inch-thick balls of hail blasting down on the earth's surface if you live in Ohio. They weren't that hard but they fell that way! Anyways, time to talk about Flipper some more.
1. Love Canal I'm assuming a love canal is a pussy. I mean, like, it's a canal, and you can "love" it if you know what I'm sayin'... or you can actually love it. It's a pretty nice-looking little thingamajig that 50% of the world's population is equipped with. This song is slow, trudgey, mudgey, depressing, and it's about dying and all that other wonderful stuff. The music DOESN'T sound perfect musically, which is FUCKING AWESOME. The guitar riff sounds like a massive rock & roll dragon writhing through the arms of a merciless guitar player, breathing fire and ANNIHILATING, 'CUZ I'M ANNIHILATION MAN AND IT'S ANNIHILATION HOUR OF ANNIHILATION TIME 'CUZ IT'S MY WAR AND YER ONE OF THEM AND I'M AN NIHILIST TOO. Cool weird effects on Brucey Loosey's voice! Isn't that awesome. For the most part, the bass n' drums (not to be confused with drum n' bass) are the most stable part of the song. The guitar is insane and the vocals are just mad!
2. Ha Ha Ha Isn't life a blast... it's just like living in the past... we go downtown to do our shopping... and we live in suburbia... from the very beginning this song rules. It's one of the most well-known Flipper 'tunes... the bass riff is classic, the drum beat sounds awesome, the guitar riff is whacked-out, and I guarantee that you'll have these song lyrics memorized FOREVER... this song basically pokes fun at the suburban middle-class average lifestyle, going "ha ha ha" at its predictability, sterility, and occasionally ridiculousness. Tehehe. I'm still one of those fuckheads. HA HA HA HA HO HO HO HO EH HE HE HE HE HE AH HAHAHAHAHAHA... after that part of the song, Bruce laughs "hahahahaha", and it keeps on repeating and getting even faster. Then it's the end of the song. How's it feel to be laughed at by FLIPPER, KIDZ?
Well, that's the end of Flipper. This record, I mean. Flipper's still around and they released some new albums two years ago, but in my opinion '80s Flipper is the best. They throw punches in all the right god damn places... too punk for your average uptight dumbasses and too punk for your average uptight dumbass "punks"... they'll know punk when they hear Flipper, or anything remotely similar to Flipper. Flipper were drunk, drugged-up, knew when to laugh at themselves, and it costed the lives of a few of them. I don't really know where I'm going with this. Enough with my bullshit. Listen to these songs if you haven't already.
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Noise, Hardcore Label: Subterranean Records Tracks: 9 Length: 40 Minutes (Long) Style:Bleak/Weird/Mysterious My Rating: 7/8
It is March 1st. The snow is slowly starting to melt. A period of change is at hand. This period of change is known as Flipper. Maybe. Anyways, back in 1982, punk was starting to become a little less weird and a little more formulaic. You had your hardcore, "traditional" punk, and new-wave. Innovation was slowly being pushed out for these already-existing archetypes. And I think regular hardcore can still sound good even 30 years later. But by 1982, it was already known what was to be expected. Hard rhythms. Mile-a-minute tempos. Lyrics about suburban angst or politics. Leather jackets, shaven heads or spiked hair, metal studs placed anywhere applicable. Every punk and his brother (if he had one) wanted to sound just like the Sex Pistols or Ron Reyes-era Black Flag or the Circle Jerks. In other words, punk was becoming conformist in its own cliches and ideas and fashion. Then one band came along and challenged the norm. This was before "My War", or before the Butthole Surfers got REALLY weird, or grunge. Flipper. Described by critics of the time everywhere as "loser rock". Off-key vocals. Slow tempos. Little-to-no melody. This style of music STILL turns heads. A conformist will beg you to turn it off. Show no mercy.
Well, what I'm getting at here is that this iz the first full-length album by Flipper. The band had been releasing various 7" singles throughout the first few years of their career, and it finally culminated in this. It's the definitive Flipper album. These are the songs that come to mind when somebody hears of Flipper. The first deliberately slow-and-sludgy punk album. This paved the way for bands like the Butthole Surfers and the Melvins who were heavily influenced by this musical style. The album art is an intended parody of the art for "Yellow" by Gang of Four.
1. Ever This is a song for the listener. Like most of the others songs here, the slight melody is directed by the bass-guitar. It's a reassuring downer of a song for those of us who feel alone in life, sickened by the order of the world, all-but-completely hopeless for much good to come out of our lives. "Ever see a couple kissing and get sickened by it?" -- Yes. "Ever wish the human race didn't exist and then realize that you're one too?" -- Yes. It's a nihilistic song, but it's really comforting in that aspect. Will assures us that he has felt that way too so much. The hand-claps throughout the song help preserve the rhythm. The perfect song to listen to when you feel like shit.
2. Life is Cheap A more discomforting take on nihilism. This is seriously one of the most powerfully depressive basslines I've ever heard. Will Shatter sings in harmony with a sped-up version of his own voice. The song's premise is simple -- life is a scam. Unfair, dangerous, pointless, and just strange. The extra voice is like a deformity -- that extra part that didn't ask to be exist in the first place and cries out in the pain of its own existence harder than you ever could. I listened to this song a lot in the months before I left church because it perfectly described how I felt about life then.
3. Shed No Tears Beautiful melody (it's there, just maybe not to everyone's perception). Bruce Loose sings this one. The song reminds the listener to "shed no tears" for the person who has been killed for what they have chosen to be. The Martyr for choosing to die. The Cop for holding the gun and keeping the prisoners. The Nun for forcing darkness upon her 'flock'. The Suicide for finding greater peace in death. The second half of the song is completely instrumental.
4. (I Saw You) Shine This song is fucking long. Eight and a half minutes long. Dark, emotional lyrics. Like the song before it, the first half has vocals. The second half is without lyrics or vocals. End of Side 1.
5. Way of the World One of Flipper's most well-known songs. The bassline is actually somewhat catchy. The basic idea of the song is that the "way of the world" is unfair, biased -- not everyone will get their way in life. And it's not right. First Flipper song I ever heard.
6. Life A somewhat happy-sounding song that pretty much sums up my feelings on the meaning of existence. Life is about life. That's all. As the song says, I too believe that "Life is the only thing worth living for." -- so appreciate life, because it's the only thing that's real. Bruce sings here. Will joins in too sometimes. I really like the riff.
7. Nothing Faster than most of the other songs on the album. It's pretty much just a song about Nothing. The riff is pretty cool.
8. Living For the Depression The fastest song on the album. Only fast song here in a conventional sense, really. Catchy chorus with a neat bass in that part. I believe the song is supposed to uplift a simple lifestyle free from true collapse. The song ends with the shouted line "I'm Not Living My Life to Be... A REAL CHEAP FUCKER LIKE YOU, COP-OUT!!".
9. Sex Bomb Often said to be the most famous Flipper song. It's also the most experimental one, with lots of saxophone, screaming and yelling instead of vocals, no real lyrical content, and samples and weird sound-effects played over the main riff and beat. It's the second longest song after "(I Saw You) Shine", being over 7 minutes long. This iz where it ends.
A lot of people in the hardcore scene then and even today hated Flipper. They were awkward, depressing, slow, weird, and proud of it. However, Flipper helped save punk rock and keep it great in my opinion. They inspired a still-active onslaught of bands that preserved what in my opinion is the best interpretation of punk philosophy. That, and this music is just really cool. Hell, I have a Flipper button on my jacket (it says "Flipper Rules OK??!!"). This album is honest as hell. But all of this Flipper is starting to disorient my ability to write a coherent review so I think I'm just going to get to my final point now: kdjhadjaksdsal;dasaduhaslmasds,dmaskafsgdfasgd876qeyq3hqwagdasagdasadgjasdgjadgsahd sbd sa dbsab dsadnadbvsavdvadvnsabvdbsvadsandasndbsvan THE END GOOD BYE
LOVE CANAL (Single)
