History Music / Flipper

Discography:

'''And it’s tropes! Tropes! Tropes are the only thing worth living for:'''

** Creator/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.

->''"She's a sex bomb, my baby, yeah!"''\\
--'''"Sex Bomb"'''

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 (seriously, the page quote contains the entire lyrics) 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.

* CoverVersion: "Sex Bomb" became really popular to cover at one point in the 1980's. Allegedly a radio station invited bands to submit covers of "Sex Bomb" over a set period of time, and in order to fit everyone's submissions in, the station wound up being on the air and playing them all back to back for ''two and a half days''. As far as straight covers go, however:

* EpicRocking: A good chunk of their material, but most notably "Sex Bomb".
** The unreleased song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I8aC-e4dF4 "Kali"]] from the as of yet unreleased album ''1982 Demos'' clocks in at over 11 minutes.

* {{Mascot}}: The dead fish that decorates their shirts, albums, and the fan graffiti.

** Kurt Cobain wore a self-made Flipper t-shirt and spoke highly of them in interviews as often 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.

Cause I’ve find out what living is all about\\

'''And it’s tropes! Tropes! Tropes are the only thing worth living for:''

'''Flipper has examples of:'''

1984 saw the band's second major release and a live album recorded at a CBGB's performance - ''Gone Fishin''' and ''Blow'n Chunks'', respectively. The band powered on through the 1980's and released a double LiveAlbum called ''Public Flipper Ltd.'' (a reference to Music/PublicImageLtd, who had issued their own "generic album", ''Album'', in 1985). Tragically, the band folded after key member Will Shatter died of a drug overdose on December 9th, 1987. They reunited in 1990 to release yet another live album and a new studio album (''Nürnberg Fish Trials'' and ''American Grafishy'', respectively), neither of which were well received among fans. The band broke up yet again after replacement bassist John Dougherty died of a drug overdose (eerily enough, founding member Ricky Williams died of a heroin overdose that year as well). As of 2002, the band has reunited for a third time, performing every now and then with Bruce Loose (he changed his name with the third incarnation because "Lose" implied bad luck) and Rachel Thoele filling in as bassist, with [[TemptingFate no narcotics related fatalities so far]].

* CoverVersion: "Sex Bomb" became really popular to cover at one point in the 1980's. Allegedly a radio station invited bands to submit covers of Sex Bomb over a set period of time, and in order to fit everyone's submissions in, the station wound up being on the air and playing them all back to back for ''two and a half days''. As far as straight covers go, however:

* ShoutOut: ''Public Flipper Ltd.'' is a reference to Music/PublicImageLtd, who had released an album called "Album" as a nod towards Flipper's ''Album - Generic Flipper''.
** Kurt Cobain wore a self-made Flipper t-shirt and spoke highly of them in interviews as often as he could, as they were one of his favorite bands. The shirt can be seen in the booklet pictures of In Utero, on the band's first 1992 ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' performance, and in the "Come As You Are" video.

* CoverVersion: Sex Bomb became really popular to cover at one point in the 1980's. Allegedly a radio station invited bands to submit covers of Sex Bomb over a set period of time, and in order to fit everyone's submissions in, the station wound up being on the air and playing them all back to back for ''two and a half days''. As far as straight covers go, however:

In 2015, it was announced that Bruce Loose had retired from Flipper due to his history of back injuries catching up to him, leaving him unable to tour. It was also announced that David Yow, vocalist for the Jesus Lizard, had stepped in to take over Loose's singing duties, and that long-time "fifth Flipper" Bruno [=DeSmartass=] had rejoined the band as bassist.

1984 saw the band's second major release and a live album recorded at a CBGB's performance - ''Gone Fishin''' and ''Blow'n Chunks'', respectively. The band powered on through the 1980's and released a double live album called "Public Flipper Ltd.", however the band folded after key member Will Shatter died of a drug overdose on December 9th, 1987. They reunited in 1990 to release yet another live album and a new studio album (''Nürnberg Fish Trials'' and ''American Grafishy'', respectively), neither of which were well received among fans. The band broke up yet again after replacement bassist John Dougherty died of a drug overdose (eerily enough, founding member Ricky Williams died of a heroin overdose that year as well). As of 2002, the band has reunited for a third time, performing every now and then with Bruce Loose (he changed his name with the third incarnation because "Lose" implied bad luck) and Rachel Thoele filling in as bassist, with [[TemptingFate no narcotics related fatalities so far]].

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 (seriously, the page quote contains the entire lyrics) 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.

->''"Life is the only thing worth living for"''\\

Flipper is a rather infamous NoiseRock band hailing from San Francisco, California. 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 (seriously, the page quote contains the entire lyrics) 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 Kurt Cobain]] 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.

In 2015, it was announced that Bruce Loose had retired from Flipper due to his history of back injuries catching up to him, leaving him unable to tour. It was also announced that David Yow, vocalist for the Jesus Lizard, had stepped in to take over Loose's singing duties, and that long-time "fifth Flipper" Bruno DeSmartass had rejoined the band as bassist.

Flipper is a rather infamous NoiseRock band hailing from San Francisco, California. 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 (seriously, the page quote contains the entire lyrics) 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 Kurt Cobain]] all listed Flipper as major influences to their music; Krist would go on to become Flipper's bassist, recording a studio album and a live album with them, before walking away from touring altogether), pioneering a style of music which would eventually give way to sludge metal, grunge, and noise rock.

Flipper is a rather infamous NoiseRock band hailing from San Francisco, California. 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 (seriously, the page quote contains the entire lyrics) 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 Kurt Cobain]] all listed Flipper as major influences to their music), pioneering a style of music which would eventually give way to sludge metal, grunge, and noise rock.

In 2015, it was announced that Bruce Loose had retired from Flipper. It was also announced that the Jesus Lizard's David Yow had joined the band, and that long-time "fifth Flipper" Bruno DeSmartass had rejoined the band as bassist.

1984 saw the band's second major release and a live album recorded at a CBGB's performance - ''Gone Fishin''' and ''Blow'n Chunks'', respectively. The band powered on through the 1980's and released a double live album called "Public Flipper Ltd.", however the band folded after key member Will Shatter died of a drug overdose on December 9th, 1987. They reunited in 1990 to release yet another live album and a new studio album (''Nürnberg Fish Trials'' and ''American Grafishy'', respectively), neither of which were well received among fans. The band broke up yet again after replacement bassist John Dougherty died of a drug overdose (eerily enough, founding member Ricky Williams died of a heroin overdose that year as well). As of 2002, the band has reunited for a third time, performing every now and then with Bruce Loose (he changed his name with the third incarnation because "Lose" implied bad luck) and Rachel Thoele filling in as bassists, with [[TemptingFate no narcotics related fatalities so far]].

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

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Will Shatter, John Dougherty, and Ricky Williams all died of narcotics overdoses. Bruce Lose once commented that the coincidence was "like [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap Spinal Tap]], except the ''bass'' player keeps dying".

* ''Live at CBGB's'' (1997)

* ''1982 Demos'' (unreleased)

** The unreleased song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I8aC-e4dF4 "Kali"]] from the as of yet unreleased album ''1982 Demo'' clocks in at over 11 minutes.

** The Music/{{Melvins}} covered Sacrifice, Love Canal, Someday, and Way of the World.
** Music/LordsOfAcid covered Sex Bomb.
** Unsane covered Ha Ha Ha.
* EpicRocking: A good chunk of their material, but most notably Sex Bomb.

Flipper is a rather infamous NoiseRock band hailing from San Francisco, California. 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 (seriously, the page quote contains the entire lyrics) 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 Kurt Cobain]] both listed Flipper as major influences to their music), pioneering a style of music which would eventually give way to sludge metal, grunge, and noise rock.

1984 saw the band's second major release and a live album recorded at a CBGB's performance - "Gone Fishin'" and "Blow'n Chunks", respectively. The band powered on through the 1980's and released a double live album called "Public Flipper Ltd.", however the band folded after key member Will Shatter died of a drug overdose on December 9th, 1987, however they reunited in 1990 to release yet another live album and a new studio album (Nürnberg Fish Trials and American Grafishy, respectively), neither of which were well received among fans. The band broke up yet again after replacement bassist John Dougherty died of a drug overdose (eerily enough, founding member Ricky Williams died of a heroin overdose that year as well). As of 2002, the band has reunited for a third time, performing every now and then with Bruce Loose (he changed his name with the third incarnation because "Lose" implied bad luck) and Rachel Thoele filling in as bassists, with [[TemptingFate no narcotics related fatalities so far]].

---

** The Music/Melvins covered Sacrifice, Love Canal, Someday, and Way of the World.

Flipper is a rather infamous NoiseRock band hailing from San Francisco, California. 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 (seriously, the page quote contains the entire lyrics) 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]] and [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain both listed Flipper as major influences to their music), pioneering a style of music which would eventually give way to sludge metal, grunge, and noise rock.

1984 saw the band's second major release and a live album recorded at a CBGB's performance - "Gone Fishin'" and "Blow'n Chunks", respectively. The band powered on through the 1980's and released a double live album called "Public Flipper Ltd.", a reference to [[Music/SexPistols John]] [[Music/PublicImageLtd Lydon's most recent band]], who'd released an album titled "Album" as a ShoutOut to Flipper. The band folded after key member Will Shatter died of a drug overdose on December 9th, 1987, however they reunited in 1990 to release yet another live album and a new studio album (Nürnberg Fish Trials and American Grafishy, respectively), neither of which were well received among fans. The band broke up yet again after replacement bassist John Dougherty died of a drug overdose (eerily enough, founding member Ricky Williams died of a heroin overdose that year as well).

a reference to [[Music/SexPistols John]] [[Music/PublicImageLtd Lydon's]] band, who had released an album called "Album" after the Flipper record. and among fans; allegedly a radio station invited bands to submit covers of the song and in order to fit everyone's submissions in, the station wound up playing them for ''two and a half days''.

Flipper is a rather infamous NoiseRock band hailing from San Francisco, California. In 1979, former members of Negative Trend and The Sleepers banded 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 (seriously, the page quote contains the entire lyrics) EpicRocking song which became a crowd favorite...of sorts.