Violent Femmes

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Inna pinefox style. Their eponymous debut album was released in 1983 and was, to my memory, massively popular. My main thought is that it had a mysterious "oldness" to it even on the first listen. What do people think of this album?

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

That's a bit spooky, I was just about to post something on them. I'd even checked the archives to see if they'd been done before.

Anyway, I've just been listening to that album, after not having heard it for at least five or six years. They get me on their side pretty early on, and the first three or four tracks are strong, but I find the rest of it hit-or-miss, though "Gone Daddy Gone" and a couple others stand out. Still, I like their approach and sense of humor -- it's just that some of the songs just lack focus.

Great bass lines, btw.

― Phil, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I like american music....

seriously I almost got kicked outta high school in 1990 for playing add it up over the school speakers....

beautiful stuff, and when i saw them in 92 they whooped nirvana's butts (nirvana were the support act)

― geoff, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I really can't stand them; I can't figure out exactly why, but they make my stomach turn violently. Whenever someone starts to pluck out "Blister in the Sun" my thoughts turn to the murderous. That said, I haven't heard this album to my knowledge...

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

"Blister in the Sun" has gone down a very, very unfortunate path w/r/t cultural connotations.

That said, I'm willing to go on record as believing that that first record is both a classic and a landmark, the most accurate and eloquent expression of geeked-out pissed-off awkward maladjusted unpopular teenaged-boy-dom in the history of recorded music. What will forever boggle my mind is how, over the years, the band was adopted as a novelty act for precisely the sorts of people who should have had the least experience of that phenomenon; no cultural juxtaposition is quite as criminal as hearing "Kiss Off" coming through the window of a frat house rather than a weedy teenager's rusted-out compact car. It's also worth noting, in rockist terms, how utterly on that record was, from the tight, blazing performances to the thoroughgoingly perfect honesty and realness and this is what we're saying and that's just it-ness of it. It's pathetic and it's snotty and defiant about being pathetic. It is basically hip-hop for frustrated, socially irritable suburban kids.

The rest of the catalog wavers steadily downward -- the older they get, the more you're forced to read them as a novelty -- but I'd submit that records like Why Do Birds Sing are worth taking seriously.

― Nitsuh, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

It was the first record that really frightened me. It unnerved me. But I liked it.

I bought the album shortly after breaking up with my first girlfriend (which is maybe both the best & worst time to hear it). I was in high school. The break-up devastated me at the time. It resulted in a lot of adolescent mewling, woman-hating, self-pity, and general feelings of hopelessness. I was a big dope.

But I was in just the right mindset to identify with The Violent Femmes. The album hit so close to home it was painful to listen to. The songs are real catchy, though. Listening to that album was one of my initial steps toward exploring "alternative rock" (as I called it and understood it at age 17 when I was just beginning to get into non-'Classic Rock radio' approved sounds). I think I bought the first Velvet Underground album at around the same time.

I don't own the CD anymore and haven't listened to it in years. I'm not very curious to listen to it again. I'd still recommend it though. Especially to younger people.

― Oliver, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Loved it when I first heard it - as previously noted, before it could be heard blasting out of frat-house windows every fucking afternoon. Now it's kind of the Rumours of college rock. Too bad.

And I am tired of most of it, just from sheer repetition.. but the lo- fi quality was always appealing. I can still dig the song everyone else hated, because I'm not tired of it yet (i.e. "To the Kill").

― Dave225, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I love the song "World Without Mercy"... it was a bonus track on the cassette version of BLIND LEADING THE NAKED..

Did you ever hear of Gordon Gano's gospel project THE MERCY SEAT? I cannot find it anywhere on cd!? Todd

― todd, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

OK, I might be a newcomer to The Fabolous World of Violent Femmes- but never the less I really think they.....well..rocks (and no, I´m not 14 and don´t like Limb Bizkit). I heard them the first time this summer and they just remind me of travelling, heat, spain, parties and a bunch of other nice things (allright I admid it, I sound like I´m 14). The paradox, I guess, is that while their lyrics tends to be rather depressing (in a humouros way, but still quite sad), they remind me of a lot af happy memories. Then again, I know quite a few people who enjoys listening to Joy Division at parties, and actually still dancing and having a great time.

btw I´m talking og the first record

― Franz, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I was about 11 when "Blister in the Sun" came out and heard it because of a friend's older sister who was into punk rock. At the time us little boys found it highly amusing. Their debut was a great record though. Maybe it had some extra resonance to midwesterners or something, but it does have the "oldness" you mention in the question. I thought Hallowed Ground was okay, but they never got near the greatness of the debut again, except on an occasional track (e.g. American Music).

― g, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I bought the first record when it came out and loved it, but was amazed at how popular it seemed to get in later years. I haven't played them in a long long time. What was that third album with the horns on it called? Not bad, and they covered a T. Rex song ("Children of the Revolution").

― Sean, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

was it The Naked Leading The Blind? or vice versa. something like that. john zorn and leo kottke play on that record.

― fritz, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The Blind Leading the Naked was pretty good too. "Got My Faith in the Lord" was good fun, and if you forget who you're listening to, "Good Friend" can sound like a VU/Loaded tune (like "Sweet Jane".)

As for the Mercy Seat - I could never listen to it. I still own the LP - never heard more than a few seconds of each track though. It just didn't interest me. Maybe I should try again.

― Dave225, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

O - I just remembered the song "Good Feeling" from the debut. What a song! (I spent hours in the car getting the "la la, la la la la"s at the end right) (p.s. I am thinking "oldness" = standup bass. maybe it also = an older brother cluing you in to some things, half of which you understand, half of which you don't)

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

oldness = it's almost all acoustic. Didn't they start out as buskers? Not a stand up bass, just a big old side-arm acoustic bass on the first album anyway.

― fritz, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I thought I heard that they were busking in Milwaukee & Chrissie Hynde passed them & asked them to open that night's Pretenders show. ...Anyone else hear that?

― Dave225, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

That's the busking legend.

I really like that first album, but I can understand why so many have bad associations. I grew to love it before it became some kind of post-Reality Bites GenX touchstone. It still sounds great to me.

― Mark, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I heard that Chrissie Hynde story too. I love the first 3 LPs, then kind of lost interest with the later ones. It's funny that as popular as they were, they didn't seem to inspire legions of imitaters like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc did.

― nickn, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Oldness = fuckedcountrydeath americana rave-ups. Oh no... we brought it to the end of the song and WE FORGOT TO JAM!

The project with Zorn has "Black girls" on it, which is tremendous. They went off from teen problems to children of the corn territory pretty quick -- parallel to X in period, sound?

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Can truly great albums be ruined by overexposure? I sympathize with what I'm hearing, especially hearing "Kiss Off" coming out of a shiny Jeep Gran Cherokee. But isn't it a GOOD thing that frat daddies are listening to such a good album that speaks for all the awkward teen emotions that we have, rather than just hitting "shuffle" again on a tray of say, Phish, Bob Marley, and God Street Wine? As i think mark s has said before, explain again why cultural apartheid is a good thing.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Besides which, frat boys have the same insecurities, they just hide them better.

― nickn, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

yeah sterl - no "jamming" on it hardly at all. It does what baseball players always say they try to do - it "plays within itself."

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

frat boys have the same insecurities, they just hide them better.

even when spanking each other's asses with paddles in order to ensure their acceptance in the Kool Klub!

― fritz, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

taking sides: listening to the Violent Femmes or spanking other boys with paddles?

(I haff just remembered a particularly oblique argument my father and i got in one morning when he was driving me to school. I had first VF record in the tapedeck. He liked it and asked me who it was. I told him. He said he didn't like their name, what were they trying to get at w/it? Commence eye-rolling to cover up the fact that I had zero idea about how to answer)

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

One of those albums I only came across in college and only owned much later after that. Odd. A friend who saw them in 1995 or so said the entire crowd seemed to be 13 year old girls, which I thought was pretty cool.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

Uh, revive? And why not -- there's a two disc edition of that debut album that's come out, with the original nine song demo reel, a slew of live tracks and the usual thorough Rhino liner note/story treatment. The Pretenders story is true, but it was James Honeyman-Scott rather than Ms. Hynde who first heard 'em.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 14 December 2002 03:34 (10 years ago) Permalink

That LP is All-Time Top Ten in my book, and the CD makes it all even better. The live tracks are both fascinating and fun. Is that a first?

― Matt C., Saturday, 14 December 2002 04:08 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

The singer's sneer is more apparent to me now. I still think that first album's great.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 22 January 2004 01:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

S/T - 100% classic.
Bass solo on "Please Do Not Go" is amazing. Album sounds like nothing else. "Good Feeling" is an all-time tearjerker. One of the all time great debut albums.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Thursday, 22 January 2004 01:25 (9 years ago) Permalink

I just downloaded a bunch of stuff because I don't have any of my albums with me. I still can't bring myself to download anything from they later ones, but "Good Feeling" was from some live show and it wasn't that bad. Not the same intimacy w/the whoops and stage banter, but maybe a different kind of intimacy.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 22 January 2004 01:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

"American Music" is a pop-single masterpiece, right down to it's quotation of the Beach Boys "I Can Hear Music" in the coda. Great great song.

"Hallowed Ground" is also often unfairly overlooked in favor of the debut.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 22 January 2004 01:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

It's just so shambly and rambly! I want Tom Waits to sing for them, maybe then I'd like Tom Waits.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 22 January 2004 02:22 (9 years ago) Permalink

I love the debut (and yeah it sounds more sinister with every year. something I love about it) but have no interest in getting any more Gano. The video for "Gone Daddy Gone" is CLASSIC.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 22 January 2004 02:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

The volume on the Slash version of the CD is too low! Something to do with the final mix/mastering, maybe?

And no, the re-issue is DAMN expensive, so don't convince me to buy it.

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Thursday, 22 January 2004 02:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

The volume on the Slash version of the CD is too low!

So ya crank yer amplifiers.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 22 January 2004 02:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

I have picked up an old tape from October 1990, and put it on. Side 1 is a compilation of Lush, Breeders and others. I love it. Side 2 I have never played much; it is the Violent Femmes. It starts with 'Blister in the Sun', but I don't know what LP it is, if any.

So I found a thread and revived it - and what do I find, in January 2002, but Tracer Hand saying 'inna pinefox style'? I don't know what Hand meant; though of course I am touched by his thinking of me.

I am not sure that anyone has mentioned how much like early Lou Reed the singer sounds, or is trying to sound like.

― the pinefox, Monday, 28 November 2005 19:58 (7 years ago) Permalink

wait, are you trying to find the LP that has "Blister in the Sun" on it? if so, it's the self-titled release

― that's so taylrr (ken taylrr), Monday, 28 November 2005 21:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

It's odd hearing the Violent Femmes are so popular with frat boys in the USA, the only people I knew at uni who were into them were stoners/grunge/punk kids. Maybe that = frat boys, I dunno.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 28 November 2005 21:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

Every single girl in my all-girls Catholic school 7th grade class knew all the words to the entire s/t album -- this was 1987. We used to sing it on fieldtrips. We used to get in trouble. Big trouble. It was beyond awesome. I can't hear this album without wanting to spazz out like the 7th grade me.

Frat boys can suck it because little girls own this album.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 02:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

Frat boys can suck it because little girls own this album.
Love it.

― caspar (caspar), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 02:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

IN COURT!

http://blogs.indiewire.com/gabe/archive/014361.html

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 17 August 2007 16:06 (5 years ago) Permalink

"trashing the band's reputation" is a bit much. I'd say New Times did a pretty bang up job of that already.

s/t and Hallowed Ground are two of my most favoritest albums EVER though.

Good for Gano - get that money, baby!

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Friday, 17 August 2007 23:09 (5 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

"Blister in the Sun" (not my favorite from that record, by a long way, though still great obv) is on a TV ad for Foster's beer. Several brightly-lit men drink beer on a brightly-lit beach, trying to keep in the shade. Presumably to keep the cans of ice-cold Foster's beer from warming up to the point where the men would actually taste it. The words of the song have been changed so that "strung out" is replaced with "hung out".

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 23 March 2008 01:32 (5 years ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

http://www.myspace.com/violentandcrazy

On the fence about this one.

― The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 22:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

god i love american music

― boo (surm), Thursday, 16 December 2010 15:43 (2 years ago) Permalink

yes, that song

― bear, bear, bear, Thursday, 16 December 2010 15:54 (2 years ago) Permalink

woah

I saw this thread had been updated and my thought was "Oooh I'll go post on there about how American Music came on one of my Mix CDs when I was driving the other day and it made me all happy and I was seat dancing in the car." Spooky. Anyway yes, American Music. <3

― ENBB, Thursday, 16 December 2010 15:58 (2 years ago) Permalink

omg my coworker just laughed at me cuz i was seat dancing to it at my desk

― boo (surm), Thursday, 16 December 2010 16:01 (2 years ago) Permalink

Listen Surm, ignore that fool - we know what's up. *knowing glance/head nod*

― ENBB, Thursday, 16 December 2010 16:02 (2 years ago) Permalink

;) word

― boo (surm), Thursday, 16 December 2010 16:07 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

god i love american music

― boo (surm)

^^^

― giallo pudding pops (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 3 August 2012 23:16 (9 months ago) Permalink

I've only heard their debut album, which an American pen-friend sent over to me on cassette sometime in the mid-90s (with a letter attached saying something along the lines of "this is my favorite (sic) album, it's incredible". Before then, I hadn't heard of them at all, not even 'Blister In The Sun' which is meant to be their (for better or worse) "signature song". They seemed to make pretty much zero impact in the UK, outside of a (I assume) very very very very small audience.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 3 August 2012 23:32 (9 months ago) Permalink

I said everything I needed to say six years ago! How about that.

Frat boys can suck it because little girls own this album.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Monday, November 28, 2005 8:20 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

― nicest bitch of poster (La Lechera), Friday, 3 August 2012 23:36 (9 months ago) Permalink

Come on dad, gimme the car tonight
Come on dad, gimme the car tonight
I got this girl
I wanna *boioioioioioioing*
Come on dad, gimme the car!

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 3 August 2012 23:44 (9 months ago) Permalink

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