Violent Femmes (album)

Violent Femmes
Studio album by Violent Femmes
Released	April 1983
Recorded	All songs: July 1982 at Castle Studios in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Track 11 & 12: Music Works Studios in London on August 31-September 1, 1983
Genre	Folk punk Alternative rock
Length	43:21
Label	Slash Records
Producer	Mark Van Hecke
Violent Femmes chronology
Violent Femmes (1983) Hallowed Ground (1984)

Violent Femmes is the debut album by Violent Femmes. Mostly recorded in July 1982, the album was released by Slash Records on vinyl and on cassette in April 1983, and on CD in 1987 with two extra tracks "Ugly" and "Gimme the Car".

In 2002, Rhino Records remastered the album, filled out the disc's length with demos, and added another disc of live tracks and a radio interview for a 20th anniversary special edition, with liner notes by Michael Azerrad.

Violent Femmes is the band's most successful album to date and went platinum eight years after its release.

Album

Most of the songs on the album were written when the songwriter, Gordon Gano, was still in high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Violent Femmes peaked at #171 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart.

The cover photograph is by Ron Hugo and the little girl on the cover is Billie Jo Campbell.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Rolling Stone
Robert Christgau	(B+)
This table needs to be expanded using prose. See the guideline for more information.

Violent Femmes has received mostly positive reviews. The Allmusic review by Steve Huey awards the album 5 stars and states: "One of the most distinctive records of the early alternative movement and an enduring cult classic, Violent Femmes weds the geeky, child-man persona of Jonathan Richman and the tense, jittery, hyperactive feel of new wave in an unlikely context: raw, amateurish acoustic folk-rock. The music also owes something to the The Modern Lovers' minimalism, but powered by Brian Ritchie's busy acoustic bass riffing and the urgency and wild abandon of punk rock, the Femmes forged a sound all their own."

Track listing

All songs written by Gordon Gano, except as noted.

Side one

1. "Blister in the Sun" – 2:25
2. "Kiss Off" – 2:56
3. "Please Do Not Go" – 4:15
4. "Add It Up" – 4:44
5. "Confessions" – 5:32

Side two

6. "Prove My Love" – 2:39
7. "Promise" – 2:49
8. "To the Kill" – 4:01
9. "Gone Daddy Gone" (Gano, Willie Dixon) – 3:06
10. "Good Feeling" – 3:52

US CD bonus tracks

11. "Ugly" – 2:21
12. "Gimme the Car" – 5:04

20th Anniversary Edition bonus tracks

11. "Girl Trouble" (demo) - 3:07
12. "Breakin' Up" (demo) - 5:17
13. "Waiting for the Bus" (demo) - 2:08
14. "Blister in the Sun" (demo) - 2:35
15. "Kiss Off" (demo) - 2:49
16. "Please Do Not Go" (demo) - 4:18
17. "Add It Up" (demo) - 4:35
18. "Confessions" (demo) - 5:20
19. "Prove My Love" (demo) - 2:50
20. "Ugly" (UK single) - 2:22
21. "Gimme the Car" (UK single) - 5:07

20th Anniversary Edition bonus live disc

1. "Special" (live) - 4:27
2. "Country Death Song" (live) - 5:25
3. "To the Kill" (live) - 4:19
4. "Never Tell" (live) - 7:17
5. "Break Song" (live) - 0:41
6. "Her Television" (live) - 2:28
7. "How Do You Say Goodbye" (live) - 2:43
8. "Theme and Variations" (live) - 0:54
9. "Prove My Love" (live) - 3:19
10. "Gone Daddy Gone" (live) - 3:32 (Gano, Willie Dixon)
11. "Promise" (live) - 3:09
12. "In Style" (live) - 3:43
13. "Add It Up" (live) - 6:15
14. Michael Feldman Interview from WHA-FM - 4:09
15. "Kiss Off" (live on WHA-FM) - 3:31

Personnel

• Gordon Gano - guitar, violin, lead vocals
• Brian Ritchie - acoustic bass guitar, electric bass guitar, xylophone, vocals
• Victor DeLorenzo - drum set, Scotch marching bass drum, snare drum and tranceaphone, vocals
• Mark Van Hecke - piano on 'Good Feeling'
• Luke W. Midkiff - percussion on 'Kiss Off'

Influence

• "Good Feeling" is featured in the movie and the on the soundtrack to I Was a Teenage Zombie (1987)
• Ethan Hawke's character in the 1994 film Reality Bites, plays a cover of "Add It Up" with his band Hey That's My Bike.
• In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Best Prom Ever", an engaged couple, Marshall and Lily, try to sneak into a high school prom to see if the band, The 88, who Marshall had tentatively booked for the wedding, could play the couple's song, which was "Good Feeling."
• Gnarls Barkley's 2006 debut album St. Elsewhere featured a cover version of "Gone Daddy Gone." In 2008, Violent Femmes covered Gnarls Barkley's hit single "Crazy".
• "Add It Up" was used as a track in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2.
• The film, Lost and Delirious features "Add It Up" in a scene.
• Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered the song "Add It Up" into a Lounge style on their 2005 album "Aperitif for Destruction".
• "Gone Daddy Gone" borrows a complete verse from Willie Dixon's 1954 song "I Just Want to Make Love to You". Violent Femmes give proper credit for this in the liner notes of their debut album.
• The song "Blister in the Sun" plays at the beginning of the My So-Called Life episode entitled "Betrayal," originally aired January 12, 1995.
• "Blister in the Sun" appears in the movie Grosse Pointe Blank as part of a radio retrospective on the '80s.
• "Gone Daddy Gone" also features in the seminal '90's Italian film Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo.
• Songs from this album were covered by Guster (with some assistance from its creators) on an episode of MTV2's short-lived Album Covers series in 2004.
• The song "Blister in the Sun" is played as the background music in a 2007 Wendy's commercial. This was seen as a point of contention by bassist Brian Ritchie, who filed suit against Gordon Gano in August 2007.
• "Kiss Off" and "Blister in the Sun" appear in the 2007 movie Rocket Science.
• In the pivotal scene of the movie Surveillance the victims sing along to "Add It Up" playing on the car stereo.
• "Blister in the Sun" appears in the 2009 movie Adventureland.
• In Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife Clare and Henry go to a Violent Femmes concert at the Aragon Ballroom, and many lyrics are quoted.
• The song "Please Do Not Go" is featured in the final scene of the Community episode "Football, Feminism and You."

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1991	The Billboard 200	171

Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
RIAA – USA	Gold	December 8, 1987
	Platinum	February 1, 1991