"We learned everything from the Wipers." The story behind the obscure debut album which inspired Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and changed the sound of Seattle rock

Portland’s Wipers never really made a dent in the music scene and maybe that was precisely their intention. When the band formed in 1977, vocalist/guitarist Greg Sage was adamant they were to remain a studio project, dismissing the conventional path of touring and self-promotion in the hope that the mystique would generate wider interest. This bold and somewhat courageous approach didn’t last, and the three-piece spent the last year of the ’70s building their live reputation.

The trio's debut album, Is This Real?, was released on Park Avenue Records in January, 1980. The album didn’t receive much attention in the press - though The Village Voice's esteemed critic Robert Christgau praised Sage's "hard-edged vocals" and the "economical one-hook construction" of his songs - and went relatively unnoticed outside the Pacific Northwest. But Is This Real? was a savage debut and five decades later, it’s considered a classic in the punk rock genre despite being so neglected at the time.

We have Wipers to thank for that heavy sludge sound. From an early age, Sage developed an obsession for studio machinery: his father worked in the broadcasting industry and there were always recording instruments left around the house. Sage’s fascination for pushing amplifiers to their limit bled into his role as producer and the guitars prove to be far heavier on Is This Real? than on any other rock ’n’ roll record at the time. It’s a surprise you can even hear the other instruments – Sam Henry’s drums seem to fight for space in the mix. Album opener, Return Of The Rat, boasts such an unforgiving guitar sound that you can’t help but consider what those early Black Sabbath records would have been like like, had they stumbled upon that amp tone first.

As well as mastering pulverising power chords, Sage’s possesses the rare ability to write dynamic songs. They are fast and slow, soft then hard – musical nuances that didn’t figure into the punk formula at the time. The chorus to Let’s Go Away is an infectious pop anthem that reminds us of the Ramones at their best, whereas the title track, Is This Real?, is a raw and passionate performance that showcases the depth of the frontman's vocal abilities. Their eclectic range of style contradicted the precautionary nature of their peers. Wipers established itself as an underdog in a world full of safety pins and cheap bleach.

Today Wipers are praised for their innovative take on rock ’n’ roll and it’s not hard to see why. Neighbouring city Seattle can certainly thank the Portland punks for injecting their scene with that depressive rage that undoubtedly kick-started grunge; a song such as Potential Suicide, appeared a decade before the genre even existed. It’s also clear that the slow and dissonant guitar notes on the song D7 influenced Kurt Cobain’s guitar sound. Nirvana covered the song for the B-side of their Lithium single, and paid further tribute to the band by covering Return Of The Rat for the Eight Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers compilation. Talking to English fanzine Sleep in 1990, Cobain freely acknowledged the band's influence on his own band, and on the scene which nurtured Nirvana.

"They’re the most innovative punk rock band that started the ‘Seattle sound’ like 15 years too early," he said. "We learned everything from the Wipers. They were playing a mix of punk and hard rock when nobody cared.”

Wipers may remain a cult footnote in rock history, but those who know, know.