History Music / Flipper

In 1979, former members of Negative Trend and The Sleepers gathered together to form a new band, which was named after original vocalist Ricky Williams' pets (no that's not a mistake - his cat, parakeet, and fish were ''all'' named Flipper due to the ease of remembering one name when he was high as a kite) after nobody could think of a better name. Despite being a founding member and the lead singer, Ricky was booted before the band had made a single recording, allegedly because he was "too weird". As a result, Bruce Lose and Will Shatter traded vocal and bass duties, Ted Falconi (a UsefulNotes/VietnamWar veteran) played guitar, and Steve [=DePace=] played drums. The band had a few recordings on a compilation album and the "Love Canal"/"Ha Ha Ha" 7" single out in their early career, however the band gained notoriety through their 1981 single, "Sex Bomb" - a deliberately minimalistic EpicRocking song which became a crowd favorite... of sorts. A year later, the band released their debut album, ''Album - Generic Flipper''. The band continued to make waves in the San Francisco punk scene, most notably due to the fact that while most punk bands were speeding up their sound, Flipper deliberately played a slow, raucous wall of noise that infuriated many potential audiences, and at the exact same time, wound up drawing in many others (Music/JelloBiafra and Music/HenryRollins were fans; [[Music/{{Melvins}} Buzz Osbourne]], [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Krist Novoselic]] and Music/KurtCobain all listed Flipper as major influences to their music; Krist would go on to become Flipper's bassist for several years during the late 2000s, recording a studio album and a live album with them during that time), pioneering a style of music which would eventually give way to sludge metal, grunge, and noise rock.

* BrokenRecord: "Brainwash" does this literally. The entire song is very basic and only lasts twenty-seven seconds total, with the lyrics consisting entirely of someone stuttering while trying to say something before giving up, claiming "you wouldn't understand anyway". Depending on how you listen to the album, you may either hear the entire song over and over again until it reaches EpicRocking territory, or you'll hear the last line looped ("you wouldn't understand anyway...you wouldn't understand anyway...") until you get tired of hearing it and take the needle off the record or until you wear out the vinyl; whichever comes first.

->''"Um...okay, like...s-see there's this...and...well and then uh...never mind, forget it; you wouldn't understand anyway..."''\\

--'''"Brainwash"'''

In 1979, former members of Negative Trend and The Sleepers gathered together to form a new band, which was named after original vocalist Ricky Williams' pets (no that's not a mistake - his cat, parakeet, and fish were ''all'' named Flipper due to the ease of remembering one name when he was high as a kite) after nobody could think of a better name. Despite being a founding member and the lead singer, Ricky was booted before the band had made a single recording, allegedly because he was "too weird". As a result, Bruce Lose and Will Shatter traded vocal and bass duties, Ted Falconi (a UsefulNotes/VietnamWar veteran) played guitar, and Steve [=DePace=] played drums. The band had a few recordings on a compilation album and the "Love Canal"/"Ha Ha Ha" 7" single out in their early career, however the band gained notoriety through their 1981 single, "Sex Bomb" - a deliberately minimalistic EpicRocking song which became a crowd favorite...of sorts. A year later, the band released their debut record, ''Album - Generic Flipper''. The band continued to make waves in the San Francisco punk scene, most notably due to the fact that while most punk bands were speeding up their sound, Flipper deliberately played a slow, raucous wall of noise that infuriated many potential audiences, and at the exact same time, wound up drawing in many others (Music/JelloBiafra was a fan; [[Music/{{Melvins}} Buzz Osbourne]], [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Krist Novoselic]] and Music/KurtCobain all listed Flipper as major influences to their music; Krist would go on to become Flipper's bassist for several years during the late 2000s, recording a studio album and a live album with them during that time), pioneering a style of music which would eventually give way to sludge metal, grunge, and noise rock.

** Music/KurtCobain often wore a self-made Flipper t-shirt and spoke highly of them in interviews as frequently as he could, as they were one of his favorite bands. The shirt can be seen in the booklet pictures of ''Music/InUtero'', on the band's first 1992 ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' performance, and in the "Come As You Are" video.

** Flipper themselves covered traditional children's rhyme "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly", as well as {{Music/Nirvana}}'s "Scentless Apprentice" and {{,Music/Weezer}}'a "Hash Pipe" for tribute albums.

In 1979, former members of Negative Trend and The Sleepers gathered together to form a new band, which was named after original vocalist Ricky Williams' pets (no that's not a mistake - his cat, parakeet, and fish were ''all'' named Flipper due to the ease of remembering one name when he was high as a kite) after nobody could think of a better name. Despite being a founding member and the lead singer, Ricky was booted before the band had made a single recording, allegedly because he was "too weird". As a result, Bruce Lose and Will Shatter traded vocal and bass duties, Ted Falconi (a UsefulNotes/VietnamWar veteran) played guitar, and Steve [=DePace=] played drums. The band had a few recordings on a compilation album and the "Love Canal"/"Ha Ha Ha" 7" single out in their early career, however the band gained notoriety through their 1981 single, "Sex Bomb" - a deliberately minimalistic EpicRocking song which became a crowd favorite...of sorts. A year later, the band released their debut record, ''Album - Generic Flipper''. The band continued to make waves in the San Francisco punk scene, most notably due to the fact that while most punk bands were speeding up their sound, Flipper deliberately played a slow, raucous wall of noise that infuriated many potential audiences, and at the exact same time, wound up drawing in many others ([[Music/{{Melvins}} Buzz Osbourne]], [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Krist Novoselic]] and Music/KurtCobain all listed Flipper as major influences to their music; Krist would go on to become Flipper's bassist for several years during the late 2000s, recording a studio album and a live album with them during that time), pioneering a style of music which would eventually give way to sludge metal, grunge, and noise rock.