Legendary punk band Wipers was formed Portland in 1977. The band was the brainchild of singer and guitarist Greg Sage, and the original lineup included Sam Henry on drums and Dave Koupal on bass.

One of the first, if not the first, Northwest punk band, Wipers were mainly active from 1977 to 1989. In this time, they released six studio albums. The first three – Is This Real? (1980), Youth of America (1981), and Over the Edge (1983) – would later be considered classics, but at the time the band gained little beyond a cult following in the U.S. This changed in the early 1990s when the so-called grunge explosion led to a growth in their popularity and prestige, as bands named them as an influence. The time included the release of Eight Songs for Greg Sage, a compilation of Wipers covers by the likes of Hole, Nirvana, and others. The band reformed in 1993 and released three more albums until lapsing into inactivity in 1999.