Greg Sage and his band, the Wipers, were one of the biggest influences on the Pacific Northwest indie-rock scene that exploded with Seattle's grunge movement of the 1990s. Formed in the late '70s and hailing from Portland, Oregon, the Wipers played a dark, brooding style of punk--marked by Sage's innovative near-virtuosic guitar work--that helped define the region's sound. Although criminally overlooked on a commercial level, the fiercely DIY Sage and his band have amassed an impressive list of followers, which includes, among others, Kurt Cobain. Under the Wipers name, and his own, Sage continued to release records into the 2000s.