Customer Reviews

Violent Femmes

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remember picking up the cassette of this when it first came out and going for a ride in the car to give it a listen. By the time I got around to playing it for the second time, I was singing along to the songs like they had been decade old classics. The Violent Feemes had struck gold on their first release. A band in 1983 that played mostly acoustic instuments like upright bass, xylaphone and trash can drums was quite rare, and to do so with more passion than any of the current hardcore punk bands was shocking. Gordon Gano filtered Holden Caulfield through Lou Reed with a touch of Jonathon Richman, to create teen angst classics for that time, and times to come. The Femmes would falter after the release of their second album Hallowed Ground and would perhaps be forgotten as mere footnotes if not for their first album. In some ways this became the Dark Side of the Moon for the eighties generation. Enjoy it.

I went nuts when this album went out of print since I didn't have it. The debut self-titled release from the Femmes is hailed as the only Violent Femmes album you'll ever need, and I was surprised to see it discontinued. But I found it some time ago and know it is being re-issued. This album is the classic I hoped it to be. Many of the Femmes biggest songs are here including "Blister In The Sun", "Kiss Off", "Gone Daddy Gone", and "Add It Up." But every song on here is great from "Please Don't Go" to "Prove My Love" to "Promises." The Femmes sound is completely unique: think folk-inspired acoustic rock with a swift kick of punk in there. Gordon's lyrics are sad and angsty, yet sort of funny at times as he begs and pleads to "get just one kiss" [and a few other things ;) ] in "Add It Up" and counts down his depressions one-by-one in "Kiss Off." Bottom line: Don't miss out again; pick this up now!

You know how when you're in middle school you listen to a lot of really stupid music and you think it's really great? When i was 12 and 13 I thought Rancid was the greatest band in history, bar none and I was ready to slap anybody who disagreed in the face with my little spikey bracelet. Man, I was such a loser. I even had a mohawk and everything. Anyways, sometime around tenth grade I discovered Fugazi and after that my musical tastes really matured and broadened. Anyways, the other day I was going through my old CDs from middle school and one that really surprised me was the debut album of the Violent Femmes. I think i bought it because i liked "Blister In The Sun" and "Kiss Off" and because one of my friends' older brother was really into them. I put this album on and I couldn't believe how good it was! It's so raw and unapologetic in it's depiction of alienation and sexual frustration. Gordan Gano, with his honest lyrics and his nasally voice, brings to light the feelings every confused, paranoid, unpopular kid feels in adolescence. Now, these have been tried and true rock n roll lyrical topics since...well, forever, and loads of new bands love to sing about crybaby, high school-level romance and frustration. But the Violent Femmes express these themes better than anybody else I've ever heard. The nervy guitar playing and singing and the spare acoustic backdrop are perfect for Gano's lyrics, which are insightful, self-deprecating and dead on, especially in the deeply cynical song "Add It Up" with it's grim depiction of human interactions and insecurities. I don't really remember if this album's honesty and importance got to me when i was still 13 and worrying about how my argyle socks and spiked belt looked, but now that I'm older, I realize how accurate and powerful this album's vision is.

The Violent Femmes proved the old popular music adage that you have your whole life to record your debut album and 18 months to record your second. They were never able to repeat this stunning, successful beginning. The band's folk-punk sound and ameturish vocals take a little getting used to, but once you do, cathcy songs like "Add it Up," "Blister in the Sun," and "Please Do Not Go" become irresistable. The subject matter rarely strays from the boy-can't-get-ANY-girl theme summed up memorably by the "Add it Up" verse "Why can't I get just one kiss?" etc. The original album ended with the achingly pretty and longing ballad "Good Feeling," though the CD version unfortunately adds two middling bonus tracks after it.

Overall, "Violent Femmes" is the one truly vital album from the band of the same name.

The first time I heard the Femmes, I felt that finally, FINALLY, someone had articulated exactly what it was like to be me: 16 years old, writhing with anxiety, tormented by hormones, wishing desperately to be someone else. It's hard to believe that 20 years have gone by -- these songs are still as fresh and edgy as if they'd been written yesterday. Go ahead, put on "Kiss Off" and scream along when Gordon Gano starts that crescendoing rant about "one, one, one 'cause you left me and two, two, two for my family and three, three, three for my heartache and four, four, four for my headache..." and see if you don't feel like you're 16 again, too.

The Violent Femmes' landmark debut album redefined punk music with their maverick acoustic sound. KROQ in Los Angeles put Blister in the Sun into heavy rotation. This catchy little song (actually more like the skeleton of a song) has the habit of showing up in the funniest places including in the repatoire of a hockey arena organist. The tortured and nervous lyrics of this first album lets you perfectly imagine the sweaty foreheads of some demented characters. Oddly, front man Gordon Gano makes it cool to be weak - on the verge on some breakdown and on the verge of lashing out. Most often he sounds like a sexually warped character alienated from, or obsessing over dependence on, some female. Other times he is a characature of someone disenfranchised from the rest of us at large. The jagged guitar work (reminds me of those of Pivot Foots guitarist Brent Walker) matches his obsessions and serves to echo them like his mental demons nodding and jumping up and down in agreement with all his sentiments. We the audience witness the whole mental illness dancing party. They were once described as a "coffee house trio gone insane." This album is a an absolute must have.

The Violent Femmes' landmark debut album redefined punk music with their maverick acoustic sound but since that album their music is best decribed as alternative (even though alternative is no style at all.) The happily demented Blister in the Sun , was by far their biggest hit. This catchy little song (actually more like the skeleton of a song) has the habit of showing up in the funniest places including in the repatoire of a hockey arena organist. The tortured and nervous lyrics of this first album lets you perfectly imagine the sweaty foreheads of some demented characters. Oddly, front man Gordon Gano makes it cool to be weak - on the verge on some breakdown and on the verge of lashing out. Most often he sounds like a sexually warped character alienated from, or obsessing over dependence on, some female. Other times he is a characature of someone disenfranchised from the rest of us at large. The jagged guitar work matches his obsessions and serves to echo them like his mental demons nodding and jumping up and down in agreement with all his sentiments. We the audience witness the whole mental illness dancing party. They were once described as a "coffee house trio gone insane." This album is a an absolute must have.

This album influenced many artists and sparked some genres of rock. Seriously, if you go to wikipedia.org and look up the Violent Femmes, you would eventually find out that their debut album sparked alternative, emo, as well as grunge. Everyone and anyone who can, should check out this album.

angst, alienation, and self-loathing are themes that we've heard before in music (nine inch nails, weezer, likin park, rammstien, system of a down, and ugh... limp bizkit come to mind) but undoubtably the violent femmes did it best. from the classic first track to the last all of the songs boil over with emotion and feeling and, unlike the bands that i mentioned before the v.f.'s singer doesn't seem forced or contrived, when he sings you can't help but feel his pain. pretty much all of the songs have the same theme but they each treat it in a differnet way. some a darkly humorus, others are angry, but the last song, "good feeling" is very quite and you can hear the desperation and pain in his voice. also the band only uses accustic instruments so they don't quite sound like anyone else.
get this album now. it'll be worth it.

Man, let me blister in the sun. I first heard this song on the soundtrack of "Grosse Pointe Blanke" (which they filmed in my hometown) and knew I had to hear more. That one song could not prepare me for the genre-smashing, axe-coustic punk ramblings of perverted (...) that were to come. Confessions is pure genius and Good Feelings is probably one of the prettiest little ditties I've ever heard. Add it up is probably one of the 10 greatest rock songs of all time. This is the only band from the '80's I will listen to. If you don't buy this I will find you and make fun of you in front of your friends!