Forget The Offspring, forget all British punk rock, if you want some
real hardcore grungy punk rock which is convincingly deafening and
has some real Led Zeppelin meat to it, then you might want to check
out a band called Flipper. They definitely are not sleek and elegant
like that dolphin by the same name. I normally hate punk, because it
usually sounds like an unfocused distorted noise with no melody and
structure. The kind of noise you get by putting a big lump of steel
through a wood lathe & having someone banging jam tins at the same
time. But in a weak experimental moment of spontaneous curiosity, re-
cently i bought a $5 CD, yeah i`m loaded by the way (jokes, jokes) of
the Flipper album `Love`, which was released in 2009, the bands first
album in 17 years. I didn`t have a damn clue who they were, but being
open minded like i am, i thought i could waste $5 on a CD which i be-
lieved i probaly wouldn`t like all that much. What persuaded me most
likely to buy it was the sticker on the front of the cover, which said
that Flipper were the godfathers of grunge-punk, and the name Krist
Novoselic, who i recognised as the bass man from Nirvana. I have al-
ways been a lot more tolerant of grunge than punk, and seeing that
the description was grunge-punk & not punk-grunge, i assumed that
grunge was the more dominant ingredient in the music of Flipper. It
is still a very unrefined and rudimentary punk rock affair for the
most part, but there is still a lot of grunge blues power down in
the mix which gives certain songs a lot more grit than average
run of the mill punk. The CD i purchased come with a bonus live
CD called `Fight` as well, i have listened to it from beginning
to end once and i must say it is not a rock album for the faint
hearted or somebody who is into Survivor or Toto. Very loud &
very unrefined, complete with on-stage swearing & buffoonery.
The last song off their new studio album Love which i think is
one of the most brutally heavy pieces of grunge power rock ever
is called `Old Graves`. Flipper might rate themselves as being
a grunge-punk band, but the epic two-chord grinding guitar riff
which guitarist Tedd Falconi puts to this song, along with the
flamboyant exuberance which drummer Steve DePace exerts,
turns what could have been just another 9 minute long garage
rock filler into something extraordinarily powerful and undeni-
ably inspired by the theatrics and primal raw intensity of the
old Black Sabbath. A number of other songs including `Why Cant
You See` & `Transparent Blame` were almost in the same sound
bracket but Old Graves really hammers, it is nauseating, bone
crunching and only for those who have a stomach lining. Krist
Novoselic on bass was obviously a new addition to Flipper from
the early incarnation of the band, and like Michael Anthony of
Chickenfoot and John Paul Jones of Zeppelin, Novoselic is great
on bass because you can actually hear him playing it. Maybe it`s
not worth 30 bucks, but `Old Graves` alone is probaly worth the
peanuts i paid for the whole album. Dont wait around for me to
write another blog on punk rock though, you`ll be waiting a bit.
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