Talk:Violent Femmes

The Pretenders

At one point, the article said, Gordon Gano, Brian Ritchie, and Victor DeLorenzo founded the group and were discovered by James Honeyman-Scott (of The Pretenders) when the band was playing on a street corner in front of the Milwaukee venue that The Pretenders would be playing later that night. Honeyman-Scott heard the Femmes play and brought his band out to hear them. The Femmes were then invited in, to open for the Pretenders. Here's a passage from the Violent Femmes bio on their website: The hometown Milwaukee audience received the Femmes with unanimous booing. However by the end of the set the Femmes had converted approximately 50% of the audience to their cause. Many years later Brian Ritchie encountered Hynde when the Femmes and Pretenders shared the bill at a radio concert. She said, "Oh, you’re still around." This discovery, by the Pretenders, gave a boost to their local reknown, but really didn't give them their big break. It was the release of the album that they'd shopped around, that broke them. For this reason, I added the parenthetical "and subsequently forgotten" to the aforementioned paragraph. I felt it was important to note that it wasn't their discovery by Honeyman-Scott that launched them to stardom, and also that they were, in fact, forgotten by The Pretenders. --Freekee 05:12, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Details

The debut album was recorded in July of 1982, and released in January of 1983. This is according to the liner notes of Rhino's Deluxe Edition of that record.

Rules of grammar require that we write Violent Femmes is a band. "Violent Femmes" is neither a collective term nor a plural term. It is the name of a singular entity. Please do not change it from "is" to "are," until you've convinced us that it is the proper term. Freekee 05:08, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm getting tired of changing back the date. The discography of their official website claims 1982 as the release date and the album on itself. Again, please stop chaning back the date. If the date is changed back again, I have no choice but to add a dispute sign or ask someone to lock this page. Mike Garcia 05:18, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm getting tired of changing it back too. If you continute to change it, I'll have to have the page locked. Are you telling me that a book length history in the liner notes of the album are less reliable than a number stuck on a webpage? Oh, let me guess: It's not verifiable unless it's on the internet? Is that why you insist on the 1982 date? Could you please tell me if you have different criteria for preferring this date?

Freekee 05:33, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

I just noticed you change the "is" to "are." Did you just do that to piss me off? I specifically asked for people to discuss the issue here, before changing it back. Since you failed to provide any justification for your actions, I can only consider it vandalism. At this point, I don't see why your ideas as to what constitutes accuracy are any better than mine. If you want to start an edit war, I'm happy to oblige. If you don't, I'd appreciate some input from you on why you feel it should be "are."

Freekee 06:27, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

I changed "is" to "are" because the band's name is like talking about more than one thing. A band that has an "s" at the end of a name is considered plural. But I'm not trying to say that this is correct but it has to be changed like what I just said. Mike Garcia 02:53, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for discussing this. The problem is, that I and countless other people disagree with you. As others have said, when you have a name of a band that is plural, that plural name still refers to the band, and the band is a singular entity. Therefore, when using the band name, even if it ends with an "s" you still have to treat it as singular, and use "is."

Please tell me what you think of this argument. Freekee 03:47, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree with User:Freekee with the use of Violent Femmes is... This is correct in American English. Whether a band's name is plural or not, it is still a single entity (one band). If your last name is Williams, you are still one person. Therefore the sentence would be, "Mr. Williams has three pets." not "Mr. Williams have three pets." Another example would be, "The United States is a country" not "The United States are a country". "United States" and "Violent Femmes" are both proper nouns—they are treated singular in grammar. Mike Garcia has been changing band articles from "is" to "are" and "was" to "were". If you don't stop this Mike Garcia, I will report you for vandalism. Either Mike Garcia fails to understand correct American grammar or he prefers the British English version. It is correct to say Violent Femmes are in British English. This article is about an American band so it should get the American grammar! —RJN 03:59, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

For you, RJN, just because you believe "Violent Femmes is" is correct doesn't mean you can change it back. I changed is" to "are" and "was" to "were" to articles like Meat Puppets, Ramones and The Vandals and will change those nouns again and again. For the last time, just because you believe that any band with a letter "s" should be changed to "are" to "is" doesn't mean you can change it back. Feel happy that there's nothing you can do to stop me from that. It would be nice if you could give that up so this edit war can end. Mike Garcia 21:58, 4 April 2006 (UTC)