|
Red Carpet set to be 'Flipped' St. Patrick's Day
Clad in a Johnny Thunders t-shirt, lead singer of the Minneapolis-based band Flipp Brynn Arens can tell you many stories about the band's crazy lives in rock 'n' roll.
Flipp was formed in 1995, while filming an improvisational video at a friend's light show. It was there they encountered the remake of The Who's "My Generation." With Arens on lead vocal, and drummer/Flipp co-founder Kilo Bale, the guys set out to find bandmates with the same ideals about music that they possess. They eventually turned up Arens' brother Chia Karaoke, who plays a variety of instruments, as well as bass player Freaky Useless.
The evolution as a band has been quite eminent over the years. One of the first gigs that Flipp ever played was the first Edgefest outdoor rock concert festival. After several rambunctious accounts of mooning, mud-throwing and faux acts of violence upon members of *NSync, the band won much recognition for their innovation as not only serious musicians, but highly entertaining performers.
The onset of their career was initiated by that very incident, and they went to win the 1996 MTV's unsigned band contest. This contest involved judging videos sent in by thousands of bands, and judges including the MTV staff and Rob Zombie chose Flipp's version of The Who's "My Generation."
Following their innovative victory, the guys hosted a special called "Warming up the Zombie" and were interviewed by MTV veejay Kennedy.
After that, their video was played frequently on MTV's "120 Minutes," and was ranked fourth in the top ten for nationally-viewed Video Network "The Box."
On a crazy day in April of 1997, Flipp celebrated tax day by releasing their self-titled, debut album. To promote and celebrate this glorious event, they took a flatbed truck through downtown Minneapolis, and parked in front of the main doors to the Minneapolis Post Office, where they performed for twenty minutes in 30-degree weather. The ordeal was covered by local news stations and won attention from several policemen.
From there they have had loads of success, ranging from chart-topping albums to a plethora of awards. With a lack of national exposure, they still managed to enter several charts with their debut album and be nominated for five Minnesota Music Awards: Best Rock Band, Best Major Label Recording, Best Male Vocalist, Best Songwriter and Best Instrumentalist.
The guys stayed humble about everything, though, by not making acceptance speeches for the awards they took home for Best Rock Band in 1999 and Best Hard Rock Recording for their second studio release "Blow It Out Your Ass!" in 2001.
Although they enjoy true rock 'n' roll in every form, Flipp enjoys live shows the most.
"Playing live is really what Flipp is all about," Arens said. "Records are great, but live is everything. Records are just vehicles for what we want to play live."
Commenting on that idea, Ken Steinhardt, Flipp's financial manager, says that "Flipp is what rock 'n' roll is all about: over-the-top, in-your-face, and most of all, fun. Flipp is poised to be 'the next big thing' in rock."
The band enjoys playing live so much that they put out a live EP in a Flipp Cereal box, which included five songs from different concerts they played.
The range of concerts included the privilege of working with Cheap Trick while on tour, playing in 1999's Woodstock and playing 2001's nation-wide tour with Everclear (who are, as of recent, labelmates of Flipp).
Flipp is definitely influenced by some of rock music's boldest talents: New York Dolls, Nirvana, The Who and others. Oddly enough, though, Flipp say their main fuel for their shows are the bands they don't enjoy watching.
"It's the bands we don't like (that influence us the most). We want to be the band that we want to see," said Arens.
The guys in Flipp are set to kick off yet another innovative tour that will preview songs from their June 2002 release, tentatively titled "Volume." As a tradition, they will kick off their tour here in St. Cloud, the weekend of St. Patrick's Day, at the Red Carpet.
"St. Cloud is awesome," said Arens. "We kick off our records and tours with St. Cloud (every time). It's just a great f***in' town!"
As last thoughts about the music business, something to which Arens has been passionately dedicated since sixth grade, he advises, "Follow your gut when it comes to rock 'n' roll. It doesn't come from your brain, it comes from your instincts. Follow (that) instinct. If you ain't got those, you ain't got it."
Britt Johnsen can be reached at: [email protected]
|
|
|
|
|
|
