Is This Real?
| Is This Real? | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Studio album by Wipers | ||||
| Released | January 1980 | |||
| Recorded | October 1979 at Recording Associates in Portland, Oregon | |||
| Genre | Punk rock | |||
| Length | 33:55 | |||
| Label | Park Avenue (original) Sub Pop (CD) Jackpot (LP reissue) |
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| Producer | Greg Sage | |||
| Wipers chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Robert Christgau | B+ |
| MusicHound | |
Is This Real? is the debut studio album by the Portland, Oregon-based punk rock band Wipers, originally released on vinyl in January 1980 by Park Avenue Records.
The album was reissued on CD by Sub Pop in 1993, augmented by the three tracks from the Alien Boy EP.
In 2001, it was digitally remastered by Sage and reissued again on his own Zeno Records as part of a 3-CD set, with the track list altered so that the song "Alien Boy" appeared together with the other three tracks from the Alien Boy EP, after "Wait a Minute".
It was reissued on LP by Jackpot Records in 2006, remastered again from the original tapes that Sage provided to the label.
Initially wanting to put it out through his own Trap Records, Sage decided to release the album through Park Avenue Records, hoping that it would give them slightly wider distribution. Before it was released, Park Avenue insisted that the band re-record the album at a professional studio, as it was originally recorded at the band's rehearsal studio on a 4-track recorder. When finally released, the album was not promoted and received little attention, only developing a cult following in the band's hometown. In a contemporary review, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a B+, writing "Three guys from Portland (Oregon, but it might just as well be Maine) who caught on to punk unfashionably late and for that reason sound like they're still discovering something. Which hardly makes them unique--there are similar bands in dozens if not hundreds of American cities, many of whom send me records. What distinguishes this one is Greg Sage's hard-edged vocals--detached but never silly, passionate but never overwrought--and economical one-hook construction".
The album (and the band's music in general) gained a slightly wider audience during the early 1990s when grunge band Nirvana covered the songs "Return of the Rat" and "D-7" on a Wipers tribute album and the group's Hormoaning EP. In 1993, Nirvana vocalist/guitarist Kurt Cobain listed Is This Real? at No. 46 in the top 50 albums he thought were most influential to Nirvana's sound in his Journals.BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel stated in a 1993 interview that it was one of his top 20 favorite albums.
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Wikipedia