Flipper flouted even punk's strictures; rising from San Francisco's late-'70s hardcore scene, they forged a fearsome noise that set them apart from the pack. Their 1982 debut album captures the chaos brilliantly. In place of the short, fast blasts that were de rigueur in hardcore, Flipper grind out slow-burning tunes that sometimes pass the five-minute mark, with a dirty, sludgy sound that bears as much in common with '70s space-rockers Hawkwind as it does with The Stooges. From the primal beats to the raw-boned riffs, everything's slightly askew. Amid the nihilism of tunes like "Life Is Cheap" and "Ever," the hints of hope shining through on "Life" and "(I Saw You) Shine" become all the more poignant.