The Wipers…they’re the most innovative punk rock band that started the Seattle sound [grunge] like 15 years too early. We learnt everything from the Wipers. They were playing a mixture of punk and hard rock at a time when nobody cared. - Kurt Cobain, speaking to Sleep Magazine, October 25th 1990 

Formed in Portland, Oregan, in 1977, Wipers’ simple, scruffy rock was a ragged but melodious take on the punk movement that was busy exploding on both sides of the Atlantic. Their debut album, Is This Real?, has been name-checked as a major influence by just about every Seattle band that had a hand in creating grunge, and it’s easy to see their fervent, hook-laden sound reflected in Nirvana’s own.

Nirvana’s covers of Wipers:

D-7. - (released on Nirvana’s “Hormoaning EP” & The Wipers “Is This Real?”)

Return Of The Rat. - (released on Nirvana’s “With The Lights Out boxset” & The Wipers “Eight Songs For Greg Sage And The Wipers”, & “Is This Real?”)