Wipers
Youth of America

THE REVIEW

Was the music world ready for an indie revolution as early as the '80s? NO, I don't think so. Sure, there was hardcore, there was SST and Dischord, but there was no standout band that could appeal to everyone, the beautiful and the ugly.
Some tried, but among the glitter and sequins, there were gems that only a few were able to see... not because of superhuman abilities, mind you, but one must dig, dig, and dig through mountains of trash to find a gem, thus taking up precious time that could be spent on other, perhaps useless, tasks.

One of the most precious and rare gems is Youth Of America by the Wipers.

Active since 1979, the Wipers created a fusion between punk guitars and indie melodies, without shying away from the occasional solo and some piano, effectively paving the way for almost all future American alternative and indie bands (later synthesized into the abstract term Grunge).
The Wipers were so ahead of their time that no one understood them. Fame didn't even brush against them, rendering them the ultimate underdogs who invent, almost impossibly in music, without receiving anything in return.
Youth Of America, from 1981, is, in just 33 minutes and 37 seconds, a crucial work for all music. It's the "The Stooges" (the album, not the band) of its generation and all worthy and interested people should sample it at least once in their lives.
Punk, melody, and psychedelia are one thing, a single approach, after Greg Sage (singer-guitarist and only permanent member) demolished all the walls dividing the different dishes. It seems blasphemous, but I have proof, and to believe, just listen to "Youth Of America" (the song, not the album. 10 minutes and 27 seconds of goodness) that flows unstoppably like a stream of consciousness.
Nothing stands in its way and it takes you, kidnaps you, and brings you back only when it wants to. In the meantime, it bounces inside you, especially in your head.

Youth of America/Is living in the jungle/Fighting for survival/But there's no place to go.

Expressionism turned into music: few notes, few words (perhaps repeated repeatedly) that crush your head and it happens that even in pain one can find a little pleasure.

Youth of America/There's pressure all around/The walls are crumbling down/The walls are coming down on you.

Nothing and no one succeeded in saving Greg Sage. The followers of the Wipers religion have decided to cover him (Nirvana, Melvins, Hole, Calamity Jane, Thurston Moore & Keith Nearly) and all ended up with new songs in doing so, and what's the point of going around for laconic interviews, like J Mascis does, with the Wipers t-shirt? Bad luck is stronger than any good reason.

It is time we rectify this now/We got to see it now/Got to see it now/Now/Now.

The Wipers are your favorite band, only you don't know them yet.