Wipers – Is This Real? (LP)

Recording for Is This Real? began in the fall of 1979, upon the band’s return to Portland from Los Angeles. Sage, Henry and Koupal convened at Recording Associates, a studio then located on Powell Boulevard that was used primarily for making country records. The first takes were lifeless. The answer? According to Henry: “Greg said, ‘I don’t like these recordings. I want to go remodel the studio.’
It’s no secret that Sage was a fastidious studio guy dating back to his youth playing around with four-tracks. And he made good on his word, taking out the ceiling and some of the walls, and laying down plywood on the floors. Sage also spent two or three nights rewiring the 16-track board. While guitar overdubs took care of some of their concerns, the end result was still a pretty lo-fi affair.

“We were all unhappy with the album when it was done,” Henry says with a laugh. “But still to this day everybody loves that record.”

Everybody loved that record in 1980 too. Is This Real? was huge in underground music circles. And Wipers performances gave the songs new life, even if it never was Sage’s intention to present them that way.
“They were seriously one of, and still probably are one of, the best live bands I ever saw in my life,” Toody Cole says.