Levitation Festival Artist Spotlight: Flipper
Written by Darshak Chudasama on October 2, 2019
Last year’s lineup at Levitation Festival consisted of Slowdive, Ty Segall, Parquet Courts, Thee Oh Sees, and many more. The festival was able to present another great lineup for 2019, including Velvet Underground’s John Cale, psychedelic weirdos, The Flaming Lips, indie-duchess Angel Olsen, and noise pioneers Dinosaur Jr. and Flipper.
Flipper, believe it or not, formed nearly 40 years ago in San Francisco, CA (bet some of you feel real old now). The group quickly gained momentum through their unique approach to punk; a slowed-down, low-fi sound that served to play against the typically fast hardcore punk. Over the years, the group faced a few lineup changes due to three tragic drug related deaths. Bassist Will Shatter died in 1987. In 1992, vocalist and co-founding member Ricky Williams, who had been fired from the band for nearly a decade by this point, died as well. After a brief hiatus following Shatter’s death, the band returned in 1993 to release the album American Grafishy, only to face another death with bassist John Dougherty passing in 1995.
Former bassist of Nirvana, Krist Novoselic, temporarily joined Flipper for their reunion in the mid 2000s. The new lineup, consisting of drummer Steve DePace, guitarist Ted Falconi, bassist Rachel Theole, and The Jesus Lizard vocalist David Yow, is set to perform at Levitation Festival on Saturday, November 9th. Grab your tickets to see these icons here.
