this week, i really struggled to find a song to designate song of the week. there are quite a few songs i’m listening (and relistening to) at the moment, but my goal was to find a ‘roots’ band-a band that influenced many later generations. with all that being said, i think this is a great song to choose when it comes to ‘roots’ bands.
wipers, a punk rock band from Portland, managed to fly under the radar very well, despite having a major influence on popular bands like nirvana (who made a cover of this exact song!), hole, and pearl jam-the grunge movement as a whole. they flew so well under the radar, i’d never even heard of them until about a month ago!
“D-7” is a very cool song. it describes some kind of transcendence into a new plane and talks about aliens, philosophers, and isolation. it has a fairly simple, arpeggiated, ominous riff for the first few verses, but my favorite part has to be the sudden rhythmic shift at around 1:33. here, the song gets some real velocity to it, somewhere in between punk and hardcore, and greg sage starts belting out the same verses with a new frustration and anger. if the sex pistols are talking heads, then wipers are joy division. i’m not usually a fan of power-chord-heavy classic punk, but “D-7” is a rare instance of where it’s really done right, with a proper angst, nuance, and bite. give it a listen! 🙂
q-street 