Ear Candy
“Flipp Out!”

Glam is alive and well in the hearts of Flipp, a Minneapolis based foursome who refuse to believe that the spirit of KISS, Mott The Hoople and Cheap Trick disappeared once the 70s did. Their ethos is summed up beautifully in “Rockstar”, the opening track on their new disc Blow It Out Your Ass. “If you want to get to the top of the pops put the cock in your rock and you'll make a lot of money!” Call it cock rock, arena rock, glam rock or whatever you like, the fact is that Flipp, despite their clownish appearance, do indeed rock.

At first glance, their looks (a cross between Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Insane Clown Posse and Kid Rock) make you want to do as their name suggests and flip right by this disc. But you'd be doing yourself a disservice. Flipp has a firm grip on the sound, beat and room filling sonics that made the boys pump thier fists in the air and the girls lift their shirts in jubilation decades ago. Frontman Brynn Arens who handles the traditional vocals/guitar position closely resembles The Joker from Batman and clearly relishes the role.“It's much harder for the hyperactive, sugar-fueled cereal-eating bastards of Flipp to sit and do nothing than it is to give you the best show you've ever seen,” he says. And it's that whole over the top approach to the live show that carries over to the disc. Blow It Out Your Ass is a collection of songs that could have dominated the airwaves in the days before KISS rubbed off their makeup. Their tune “Wow” more than smacks of Gary Glitter and their take on The Who's “My Generation” on a hidden track cement their position firmly. If you pine for the sounds of the 70s but appreciate what the past 30 years have done for the genre, grab this disc. If you don't dig it, feel free to do as the title suggests.