Label: Jackpot Records
Year: 2009, Reissue
Format: Vinyl LP
The Wipers from Portland, Oregon are in many people’s books one of the best kept secrets in music history. And I can only succumb to this opinion due to the fact that Greg Sage and his men have written so many unbelievably great songs. It must therefore come as a big surprise why I have waited all these years to obtain this masterpiece of an album. Well first and foremost it was relatively hard and potentially expensive to track down the original and it wasn’t until last year it was reissued again. There might have been a German pressing on Weird System but I might be wrong here. Anyway I do remember hearing this years and years ago on tapes friends would pass around so I was familiar with many of the tracks on it but have not heard them in a long time. What can I say – each one of the songs is a killer on its own and there is not one single letdown on this album. How many albums of this quality exist? Originally released in 1983 – at a time in history where many US hardcore punk bands tried to sound as fast and pissed off as possible it was quite the opposite with the Wipers. They had the capability to turn anger and frustration into gloomy yet highly melodic anthems. Songs like “Over the edge”, “Romeo” or “This time” just to name a few, are perfect examples that a band does not have to play at a speed close to derailment in order to bring across a message. And to end this I can only recommend anyone to get their sticky fingers on a copy of this, one of the best records ever.