Shed No Tears

Flipper were the most perverse and the most serious band in American hardcore simultaneously. Formed in San Francisco in 1979, they played slower than their contemporaries, louder than anyone, with a bass-driven drone designed to test whether the audience was paying attention or just responding to volume.

Shed No Tears, from Generic Flipper (1982), is characteristic: the bass a physical presence, the vocals alternating between mumble and shout, the rhythm operating at a pace that challenges rather than drives.

Flipper's influence on grunge — Nirvana covered their song "Sex Bomb" — and on the slower end of punk broadly is significant. They are the slowest band in hardcore history and possibly the most important.