Best of the Wipers and Greg Sage

Editors’ Notes This post-punk trio was such an advocate of punk's do-it-yourself ethos that singer/guitar player Greg Sage not only released his own records, he actually lathed his own vinyl. After listening to Best of the Wipers and Greg Sage, one can easily hear how the songwriting and static distortion of the band seeped into the recordings of noise-rock luminaries like Sonic Youth, Unwound and Nirvana, who covered and recorded the Wipers' "Return of the Rat." Unfortunately that song is absent in this collection. In fact, due to licensing issues, this compilation contains nothing from 1980's Is This Real? or 1981's Youth of America, but these particular selections stand on their own enough to inspire anyone interested in the Wipers to independently seek out and discover those two albums. Since Sage was never concerned about keeping up with alternative music trends, these songs have aged amazingly well. The somewhat Joy Division-inspired "Better Off Dead" is the band's earliest recording here and "My Vengeance" dabbles in psychedelia while "Nothing Left To Lose" and "Way of Love" inadvertently built the foundation for the sound that became known as Pacific Northwest grunge.