Flipp is an American rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1994, founded by singer/guitarist/producer Brynn Arens. They were signed to Hollywood Records and later Artemis Records, releasing 3 studio albums up until their dissolution in 2003. The band were known for their MTV presence in the 1990s as well as its theatrical live show which included cartoonish personas, face paint, smoking guitar amps, jet-packs, pillow feathers, cereal, pulling unsuspecting concert goers onstage to perform with the band, and other such stunts. As of 2016, the band have reunited and remain active to this day.
History
Formation (1994-1996) The band formed out of what was supposed to be a fulfillment of a record contract by vocalist Stephen Shareaux, whom after his band Kik Tracee broke up, had contacted Brynn Arens to write, record, and deliver an albums worth of material to RCA Records. Shareaux would soon remove himself from the situation concluding in Arens singing on the material they were writing together himself. Included in these sessions was a cover of The Who's My Generation, for which was re worked as if the band were on "downers" as opposed to the "uppers" amphetamine feel of the original. This led to the band, now including Greg Eidem on bass, and Eric Bretl on drums, shooting a music video for the song as a way to test out how Arens' friend's newly purchased light show looks on camera. While in New York, Arens, along with a VHS of the music video, decided to sneak into the MTV offices by way of a tour group and pretended he had a meeting with MTV programming director Vicky Augiel. Impressed with his ambitious ways, Augiel watched the music video and felt it was one of the greatest home made videos she had ever viewed. The video subsequently aired regularly on MTV's 120 Minutes. The video was then submitted to, and ended up winning MTV's "Warming Up The Zombie" contest, for which unsigned bands would enter for a chance to win a slot to open for White Zombie, The Ramones, & Misfits as well as be featured on an MTV special covering the event. The band won the contest and were then offered to play the first Edgefest, which was a radio sponsored music festival attended by an audience nearing 25,000. During Flipp's set, the audience began throwing mud at the band, for which the band's frontman replied with pulling down his pants, telling the crowd that he had a target for them, which won over the audience. The incident was caught on tape and eventually shown on MTV News. The band would then perform at every Edgefest thereafter, giving fans a surprise each year, including having a boy band look alike group take the stage instead of Flipp, causing the audience to boo them and begin chanting "Flipp"; Flipp then came out and staged a brawl with the faux boy band to the crowds pleasure. Flipp were signed to Hollywood Records shortly after.
(1997-1999) The band then entered the studio and recorded their self titled debut album which was co-produced by Arens along with Prince drummer Bobby Z., Cheap Trick & Fleetwood Mac producer Julian Raymond and Mudhoney producer Conrad Uno. Mixing was done by Tom Lord-Alge and Howie Weinberg. The album was released on tax day (April 15) 1997. As a way to promote the album's release, as well as tax day, the band rented a flatbed truck, built a stage on it, and parked in front of the busy downtown Minneapolis post office to perform an impromptu show until the event was shut down by the police. Media were present to cover the event and the bands buzz continued to grow, which led to Flipp touring as support for Cheap Trick on their summer tour. During the kick off show of the tour at the Taste of Chicago, Flipp hired a helicopter pilot to fly over the crowd and drop a ton and a half of cereal onto the audience. The helicopter pilot was then arrested for littering, but the case was eventually thrown out. The stunt was covered on TV's Hard Copy. Due to the band not receiving as much national attention as their label had desired, Hollywood Records would then drop Flipp from their roster.
The band's bassist Greg Eidem, a.k.a. Cherry Forever, decided to leave the band in favor of spending more time with his family. The band then recruited Randy Engebritson, a.k.a. Freaky Useless, as their new bass player.
The band carried on and self-released a live e.p. in 1998 that was packaged in a Flipp cereal box. Due to the ep's unconventional packaging and inability to fit in the CD section of record stores, it had to be displayed by its own which, benefitted the band by organically acting as a billboard for Flipp whenever anyone would walk into a record store.