White Lung’s Mish Way: Why The Wipers Were The Perfect Punk Band

NME Radar recently featured White Lung as our New Band Of The Week, and here, singer Mish Way waxes lyrical about one of her favourite bands, Portland, Oregon proto-grunge heroes Wipers – or, as she puts it “one of the most underrated bands in musical history”.

“I really wish that I could have seen Greg Sage play, but he’s a major recluse so I have given up on my fantasy of seeing the Wipers live. I remember the first time I heard “Youth of America”: the song was everything.

“The guitars were raw but punctual and unique. Just cutting and hard. Sage’s lyrics and delivery stayed deadpan until the minute he would explode, but you knew he was just harbouring. The Wipers were the perfect punk band: intelligent without being polinazi annoying and no one sang like Sage. The drums were never showing off.

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“My band models so much after the Wipers, but we can’t even come close. No one can. They are one of the most underrated bands in musical history. They inspired so much great music and Sage never needed or cared to acknowledge that. No one wrote better punk guitar riffs. Every band wishes they could be as true as the Wipers.”

Listen to ‘When it’s Over’ from Wipers’ seminal 1981 album ‘Youth Of America’ below, with White Lung’s latest single ‘Face Down’ after that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXBK16ffWQs

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