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Remember when I posted It's Casual's New Los Angeles album, and I mentioned that among it's many merits, it conveyed perfectly the zeitgeist of L.A.? I think Flipper's Generic album does the same for San Francisco. It evokes rainy days of Mission District art-punk heroin poverty, and the grey ennui and existential doubt that come with it. Flipper was San Francisco's most iconic and iconoclastic punk band, and their influence has been felt far and wide. They were real and they were without fear, they were dark and they were funny. No other band has made me think more than Flipper, but I imagine that you probably feel the same way.

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Jellybeans

This record, to me and many folks around my age, was a crash course in punk. Through the Let Them Eat Jellybeans compilation my impressionable ears were impressed upon by the sheer greatness of Flipper, Bad Brains, D.O.A. and The Feederz ( I already knew about Black Flag , The Dead Kennedys, and The Circle Jerks.) The others, like Really Red, BPeople, Wounds, Half Japanese, Christian Lunch, and Voice Farm were a bit too arty for me at that age but I have since come to appreciate their contributions as well, especially Wounds' great cut "An Object." Does anyone out there know more about them? I assume this won't be a big discovery for readers as sophisticated and worldy as The Hearse's but let's listen to this one today for the nostalgia and because Reagan was the best U.S. president ever. If you have any doubts ask yourself who has graced the cover of more punk albums or had more punk songs written about him. Certainly not that do-nothing Rutheford B. Hayes.

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