Flipper Noise

Cindy Jacobson, Leather Trio Productions/San Francisco.

Flipper was to San Francisco what X is to L.A. or the Ramones are to New York. Actually I've never really cared much for Flipper's studio albums. Only their live shows really captured what they were all about. I remember the first time me and Autumn saw them. It was at the Elite club, which used to be called the Fillmore, and is now called the Fillmore again. There were tons of bands, but Flipper just crunched everyone.

A Flipper live show was chaotic, loud, messy, dark, hostile. I've never felt so much raw intensity blasted out from four people on a stage like Flipper could do on a good night. And a good night for Flipper meant the band stumbling through an alcohol haze, Bruce and Will arguing over who should play bass and who should sing, and having members of the audience come up and sing "Sex Bomb" at the end. My favorite Flipper songs are the ones that just drone on like "Ever," "Shine" and "Sacrifice." And of course my favorite album is the live one, Public Flipper Limited.


Now there's a new (in 1988) Flipper record on Subterranean called Sex Bomb Baby that collects all their singles and stray tracks. It's a really good album, what with "Get Away" and "Sex Bomb" on there, but there's something missing. It's not just lamenting Will's stupid death by an overdose. It's just... San Francisco won't seem right without one of those powerfully erratic Flipper shows to go to. They pulsed with a strange noise just like the underside of the city does. Sure other bands will come along and try to claim their turf. But only the guys in Flipper could be the biggest bunch of fuck-ups in world and get it right.

originally published in:
Puncture #15, Spring 1988
Album Network, November 11, 1988 (partial)

Suggested Listening:
Sex Bomb Baby (Collection) by Flipper at Amazon

Album - Generic Flipper at Amazon

Blow'n Chunks - Flipper live at CBGBs, 1983 at Amazon

Photographs by Joe Beine
The Eagle's Lodge, Denver, Colorado, December 7, 1984

Clint Eastwood's Bird and Charlie Parker

Cindy and Autumn, Leather Trio Productions/San Francisco.

Cindy: One of my favorite things to do is rent a Clint Eastwood western and watch it on Billy's VCR.
Autumn: Cindy doesn't have a VCR. All she has is a little B&W TV with a broken antenna. She doesn't even have cable.
C: I am not an eighties kinda girl.
A: In order to be an eighties kinda girl you gotta have cable.
C: Clint Eastwood is my adopted dad. I watch his movies all the time.
A: Now there's a new movie that Clint directed called Bird. It's all about Charlie Parker.
C: Who is one of Autumn's heroes. She likes Metallica and Charlie Parker. You figure it out.
A: I first found out about Charlie Parker from reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
C: She reads all this Beatnik stuff. She's a fifties kinda girl.
A: In the book the characters are always hanging out at smokey bars listening to jazz played by people like George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Charlie Parker. I had never heard of these people before.
C: This is cause we are young sprogs raised on punk rock.
A: So I started checking into it.
C: With a little help from my biker friend Old George, who, when he was our age, hung out in smokey jazz filled bars. One night George told us all about Bebop.
A: And we told him about the Jesus and Mary Chain.
C: We were amazed to learn that people could make music this cool before we were even born. So when Bird opened, well we had to go on opening night. I mean we're talking Clint Eastwood here.
A: We're talking Charlie Parker.
C: Of course the movie is totally cool.
A: You know it doesn't bother me at all that people are now going to think Charlie Parker is cool cause of Clint Eastwood. Cause Bird is a lot more important to music than any of that Kenny G slop that yuppies are buying and thinking it's jazz.
C: You tell 'em, Autumn.
A: So get yourself some Charlie Parker albums and go see the movie.
C: Directed by my dad.

Album Network, November 4, 1988

Charlie Parker with Strings: Complete Master Takes at iTunes