Today's Time Capsule: The Wipers: This Time...

So, here's a piece of PDX punk history, none other than mai favorite songwriter, Greg Sage.

I first saw the name of this band on the mail order card of soem band on the Enigma record label, Agent Orange, Adrenalin O.D.?

I forget... but it wasn't until I went on one of mai many trips to Reckless Records, in the waxing years of the 90s, that I saw the cassette tape for their album "The Circle," which was released in 1988, that I first heard them. I listened to that tape over and over and over. Until I eventually found their 1987 album "Follow Blind."

Then, a few years later after Kurt Cobain was murdered, MTV was playing all these interviews where he was citing influences, and he mentions Greg Sage & The Wipers, I was all like "hell yeah, no way" that's so cool.

It was then that I started looking for moar releases by this guy/band, having no luck for many years. ll the record shops had the section for them, but never any releases.

So I had to rely on mai two cassette tapes to pull me through until 2003 when I found Zeno Records.

For ten years I only had these two tapes, and most of those ten years those two tapes (or at least one) never left my car.

It was in 2003 that I had seen that Greg was releasing this 3xCD compilation of the first 3 Wipers albums w/many bonus tracks, outtakes, and mixes simply titled "Box Set."

This track is from that release.

Shawn Turner #2...

So, here's Shawn Turner doing a Cab over the bench at the Plum Grove skatepark.

We just wanted to get outta the house and skate soemplace chill, and this place did the trick, seeing it was the 6 of us for about 4 hours.

A few other kids rolled through, but the left after about 30 minutes.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "I" by Beauregarde from the album "Greg Sage 1971-'91" a selection of tracks I hand-picked for a personal CD I wanted to make from Greg's 2 solo albums "Straight Ahead" and "Sacrifice (For Love)" and his time with Beauregarde.

This track is originally from the 1971 release of the self-titled album "Beauregarde."

Skateboard Art...

So, I draw.

One of the things I drew was the graphic for this skateboard ➞ Astrolab life sized skateboards from Zazzle.com.

The skateboard image is part of a larger piece that I drew dedicated to mai dog Gisela. (seen above)

I had to put her to sleep in January 2010, she was 14 yeærs old. (that's 98 in dog yeærs)

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Everybody Ball" by Beaurgarde from the album "Beaurgarde" released in 1971.

It features a 17 yeær old Greg Sage on guitar. If you didn't know, Greg was the man behind the PDX punk band the Wipers. He has since re-released this album on his own Zeno Records, you should go buy it from him.

Top notch sound quality.

Greg Sage & the Wipers...

So, I don't know if the Seven of you know this, but the Wipers are one of my favorite bands of all time. I first got into then in the early 90's after czeching them out because they were on Enigma & Restless records as were two of my other favorite bands, Agent Orange & Adrenalin O.D. who I listened to all the time in Junior High & High School. The cassette tapes of said labels had a tear-off card for ordering merchandise & a small list of artists on the label for you to czech out. This is where I saw Wipers , so whenever I would go to my local Camelot Music I would look for any Wipers tapes. I never found any ever at Camelot, it wasn't until I started going to Reckless Records in Chicago, around 1990, that I found a used Wipers cassette, This is when I purchased Follow Blind , a superb album.

It starts with the title track, "Follow Blind", a deeply depressing song that makes you wanna walk around the city in the rain by yourself and contemplate life, the guitar on this track conveys so much emotion, gives me chills & makes me close my eyes. The same can be said, about the guitar, of the song "Let it Slide", the solo in this is sooooo great, I can't even begin to think about how many time I rewound that track just to hear that guitar part in "let it slide" or how many times I listened to that tape.

This whole album is perfect, the track "Losers Town" tells you not to stay in one place too long. The next track "coming down" starts off with some great bluesy solo (to me anyway). Greg Sage is a master at recording, guitar playing & song writing. At 17 years old He worked with a Portland, OR pro wrestler by the name of Beauregarde on an album in 1971, his guitar work on the track "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" is just phenomenal, considering he was only 17.

Around 1991-'92 while watching an interview with Kurt Cobain on MTV or something I heard him mention the wipers, I was all like, "whoa cool!", because I had been a huge fan of Navarna since 1989 when "bleach" was released on Sub Pop as SP34a, my version does not have the tracks "Sifting" or "Big Cheese" on it.

So, after hearing him say that I felt like we were closer because we loved the same band. I too wished to play and or record with Greg Sage even if it were just tuning his guitar or drink coffee during a playback. I think that my cassette of "Follow Blind" was in my all of my cars from 1990-2006. I even found another one and bought it because I was sure the one I had was gunna wear out from me playing it so much.
Now I listen off of iPods which always has a small selection of Greg Sage or Wipers tracks pulled Shuffley onto it.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "The Circle" by the Wipers from the album "The Circle" 1988