Slope Records Inks Deal with Nip Drivers

Photographer: Rachel Salter

One of the more under-appreciated bands to come out of the Los Angeles area scene was the Nip Drivers. Active off and on during the 80s and 90s, the Nip Drivers were punk rock par excellence. Led by Mike Webber, whose name and reputation was huge amongst his peers, the band careened through one full-length and several EPs worth of sheer, lunatic-fringed gold.

Listen to a sample track here.

Slope Records has recently inked a deal to re-release two of the classic Nip Drivers contributions to the musical pantheon, 1984’s Destroy Whitey and 1985’s Oh Blessed Freak Show. Thanks to the efforts of guitar player Kurt Schellenbach and producer/knob twiddler Paul Roessler (Kitten Robot, Los Angeles), these two kick ass slabs of vinyl have been remastered from the original tapes and will be available for mass consumption in late September 2016.

For Schellenbach, this was a labor of love in the memory of his late bandmate, Webber, as he worked on restoring these records to how they should be both remembered and appreciated. “I’m excited to remix these and redesign the packaging. I’m happy Thomas (Lopez of Slope Records) wanted to take this project on. He feels, like I do, that this shouldn’t be just another re-issue but that the production value should be increased,” Schellenbach shares.

“I’m excited to remix these and redesign the packaging. I’m happy Thomas (Lopez of Slope Records) wanted to take this project on. He feels, like I do, that this shouldn’t be just another re-issue but that the production value should be increased,”

Kurt Schellenbach

Photographer: Rachel Salter

Speaking of the packaging, as is typical with Slope releases, the two Nip Drivers albums in question will have high quality, gatefold sleeve designs chock full of previously unreleased images, art work, and ephemera which will complement the original artwork. Schellenbach and Roessler are spending a lot of time on these releases to get them to look and sound better than ever.

For Roessler, this project comes naturally as he and Schellenbach have been working together on the latter’s current project, Labor Camp, in which Schellenback plays guitar. “I was aware of (the Nip Drivers), but I don’t think I ever went to a show. I was living in South Bay so I knew a lot of people who knew Mike Webber as he blazed his kinda horrific trail through life. Also, they are one of the only bands to ever cover a song I wrote (Neverwas from Roessler’s 1983 record, Pandemonium Shadow Show),” Roessler shares.

The Nip Drivers were known for doing some of the best and most fucked up covers of pop songs of any punk rock band ever. Take a listen to the opening track from Oh Blessed Freak Show and you’ll see why as the band absolutely take ownership of “Have You Never Been Mellow” which was made famous by Olivia Newton John originally. The band also give “Rio” by Duran Duran a good dose of punk deconstruction a bit later on the A side, as well.

T. Reardon