Flipper was an influential noise band from San Francisco, forming in 1979 from the ruins of punk bands, SST, Sleepers, and Negative Trend, and continuing in often erratic fashion until the early '90s.
Original Members: Bruce Loose - Vocals, Bass Ted Falconi - Guitar Will Shatter - Vocals, Bass Steve DePace - Drums, Backing Vocals
They made their first recordings available in late 1979 via the SF Underground 7" compilation series released via Steve Tupper's newly-formed Subterranean Records. In 1981 a 7" followed "Love Canal/Ha Ha Ha" and the original lineup made 2 full-length studio albums on Subterranean, 1982's Generic & the 1985 followup Gone Fishin'.
Flipper's music was very shambolic and noisy, and oft considered "slow" for a punk band of the time. In many early shows, the band had half the audience onstage with them singing backup vocals, and encouraged horn players to join them for their anthem, "Sex Bomb" -- and the crowding onstage usually knocked the stringed instruments out of tune. Guitarist Ted Falconi installed spikes in the head of his guitar to help prevent this, but blaring, out-of-tune dissonance became part of the band's signature sound.
Flipper was often as strongly in league with conceptual art and atonal music as with rock or punk. They were originally known in San Francisco as a band that 'everybody hated,' and who bombarded the city with graffiti far more than they actually played. Years after the band's demise, its spray-painted dead fish logos were still visible in San Francisco (although signs on the city's Clipper Street have since been reverted from "Flipper Street"). (Other notable places to find their fish logo include the Berlin Wall, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, and the bathroom at the Vatican in Rome.) Later on, grunge bands would admit to being influenced by Flipper, including Kurt Cobain of Nirvana who wore the band's t-shirt in prominent TV appearances and photos, and The Melvins who in 1992 covered the song Sacrifice on their album Lysol and released a 5" vinyl single of two Flipper covers (Love Canal/Someday).