Review #12: Wipers - Alien Boy EP

Year: 1980
Genre: -
Label: Park Avenue Records
Tracks: 4
My Rating: 8/8

It's hard to pick up which musical genre the Wipers belong to. They could be thought as punk rock or post-punk or pre-grunge... Greg Sage is really great, but underrated song writer. The main subjects in the Wipers songs were loneliness, rejection, anti-socialism, depression, romanticism, love, hate and confusion... stuff like this. You can feel like getting inside the song while listening to them. This was the 3rd release by Portland based pretty much unkown to most people, but yet legendary the Wipers. They have influenced many bands such as Calamity Jane, Napalm Beach, Poison Idea, Vivian Girls, Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney, Hole, Sonic Youth and most notably Nirvana. It's been said, that the Alien Boy EP was released without the band's permission or knowledge. In the Wipers box set, Greg wrote: "Around 1981 Park Avenue Records added the 4 songs off Alien Boy 7 inch to the reissue of Is This Real? album. It came as a shock since these songs were only a demo". Many bands at this period of time were more into writing fast songs. Hardcore was getting bigger. Greg on the other hand wouldn't join the band wagon. This is just one of the key things, which made this band so original and remarkable. Let's take a look at the EP:


1. Alien Boy Starts with a really deep, haunting bass line. When the hypnotic guitar adds to the song, it gets more intense. Suddenly changes the rhythm. The song has everything. The feedback sound after the last chorus sounds so cool. Then the song fades out. Deep lyrics aswell. I think this song is about not fitting in. "So you had to turn away, There's no other way, Your're an alien, They hurt what they don't understand". Greg Sage has said, that his conversation with James Chasse, a musician, who was beaten to death by cops in Portland in 2006, had a major influence on few songs, which were eventually recorded for the Is This Real? album. The documentary film, also entitled "Alien Boy" is about Chasse.



2. Image Of Man Alot "odd" kinda riffs and melodies, which i bet no other song writer would use. I think the songs about when usually people see man as such a big and macho thing. "A magnitude of color". And if your not like this, you're not worth it in other people's eyes. Your a loser. Trying to show thats not how it should be like, but no one gets it... What the fuck am i trying to say? Well this is just how i read the lyrics.



3. Telepathic Love
This somehow reminds me of a Beatles song. The way Greg sings in this. Great melody. It's funny the way the song is titled, because theres this telepathic thing. Theres not an obvious meaning, it's in your mind how you hear the song and what it means to you. So it's weird trying to analyze these songs.



4. Voices In The Rain
Starts with a deep bassline. The guitar sound is the usual Greg's "trademark" so you know it's good. I'm not 100% sure, but i think that the bass player on this record is Dave Koupal and the drummer is Sam Henry. This song is a bit too short.