In his liner notes to the 1995 reissue of FLIPPER’s Sex Bomb Baby compilation, Mudhoney’s Mark Arm describes the band’s intense punk rock as “unusually slow, sloppy and messed up.” This was intended as a compliment in the best possible way, because discerning music fans like Mark Arm know that honest self-expression is always preferable to flashy technique and studio polish.
When Flipper formed in San Francisco in 1979, US punk music was about to transform into the hyper speed thrash of hardcore. In response, the band’s rhythm section, comprised of bassists Will Shatter, Bruce Lose and drummer Steve DePace, favoured loose, weighty sonics, overlaid with chaotic vocals and Ted Falconi’s wall of guitar. DePace explains that, “there was no discussion or planning about how we were going to sound. It’s one of those things that just happened. In the very early days we had some fast punk songs, but we pretty quickly fell into a style of music that was kinda slow and grungy.”
DePace says that the band’s aesthetic vision was formed from the creative diversity characterising the San Francisco music scene. “In San Francisco in the late ‘70s there were artists of all kinds in the punk scene, like photographers and film makers, painters and sculptors... What was great about that scene was that no two bands sounded alike.
DePace had learnt the drums playing along to old blues and rock ‘n’ roll records and, like many other aspiring musicians in the mid 1970s, pursued an alternative creative path after discovering the incendiary rock ‘n’ roll of The Sex Pistols, but was less interested in the limitations of the hardcore punk sound. “The hardcore style of music was not something I wanted to play, and playing slower rhythms seemed far more interesting. In Flipper, a bass riff was generally how the songs started, and then I would lay a drum beat down... so the foundation of the Flipper sound is really bass and drums.”
A heavier rhythmic emphasis was explored on the classic Generic Flipper album from 1982, and a single-minded intensity was further pursued by the band, but the tragic death of bassist Will Shatter in 1987 halted the creative flow for some years. They’ve nevertheless proved resilient and are set to tour their new album, Love, featuring the songwriting contributions of former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. Flipper’s thunderous racket was a big influence on Kurt Cobain. “A friend called me one Saturday night and said, ‘turn on Saturday Night Live,’” DePace says. “So I turned on the TV and there was Kurt Cobain wearing a Flipper shirt on national television, and that was when the Nevermind album was really taking off. Then I started seeing him wearing that shirt in magazines and videos, so I became hugely aware of the fact that Nirvana thought much of us.”
Flipper play ANU Bar on Friday June 12, with I Exist, Slowbourn and Jekstore. Tix through Moshtix.
