★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The Wipers were an early punk band, just a few years after the Sex Pistols and Ramones, but located in the out-of-the-way, then-unhip Portland, so this album went largely unnoticed and achieved cult status later in life. Kurt Cobain cited them as a major influence. With six songs, one at ten and a half minutes, another at six and a half, I wouldn't say that this album is punk music so much as post-punk before there was much of a punk to be post. Ahead of its time. Passionate, raw vocals and smart lyrics, energetic yet methodical music. Plodding, plotted, ready to strike. But you might wait three and a half minutes for it to do so. Favorite tracks: "Can This Be," "When It's Over."
