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)

Mike, I think you're being rude. I don't understand why you're telling him that he has no right to change it, just because he thinks it's proper grammar. That's exactly what you're doing. Even though I can't find evidence that more than two other people agree with you - yet you keep changing it. He could just as easily tell you that just because you think it's right, you shouldn't change it. And that you should give it up so we can end this edit war.

I notice that you didn't respond to my last comment. Are you done discussing this? Freekee 03:38, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

"The Violent Femmes" isn't a collective noun, it is a plural which refers to the band's members. Hence the correct usage is "The Violent Femmes are..." RJN is on something of a crusade to insert "is" into every band article regardless of context, despite the fact that I explained to him that he's wrong. The All Music Guide never uses "is" for plural band names. Raimes' Keys for Writers does not support this usage. Please stop inserting this awkward text into the intro of articles. Rhobite 14:36, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the input, Rhobite. Those sound like credible sources to me, but I don't understand how a singular entity (a band) can be referred to as a plural. I think it's a matter of "are" just sounds better, so that's what everyone uses. I like your explanation that it's a plural which refers to the band's members, but does it always? You can argue that Mick and Keith are Rolling Stones, so we say "the Rolling Stones are a band," "are" substituting for "make up". It seems to work. But what about Nine Inch Nails? Trent Reznor is not a nine inch nail. The name is an abstraction. So Nine Inch Nails is a band. Agreed? So where does that lead? Violent Femmes. There is no "the" in the name of the band. The band is not made up of Violent Femmes. The name is an abstraction.

Where do I stand on the issue now? (1) I think you've convinced me to go with "are" for many bands, even though I still believe "is" to be correct - they're both correct in certain cases, and "are" is both less awkward, and more widely accepted. (2) Some bands with names that end in plural words should remain "is". (3) Violent Femmes is one of the bands that should remain singular.

Freekee 03:41, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I think Nine Inch Nails is a toss up. The band's name is probably not a plural reference to the individual band members. I wouldn't change the intro to that article from "is" to "are". However media coverage of the Violent Femmes typically prefixes the band's name with "the", and uses "are" and "their" instead of "is" and "its". As usual, AMG supports this usage. It is better for Wikipedia to follow the grammar rules used in other publications than to come up with our own curious rules. Rhobite 15:10, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I suggest everyone take a look at the "Singular and plural for nouns section" of the grammer heading under American and British English differences on wiki. It explains why "is" is used in some cases and "are" in others but still leaves room for debate on certain uses. Derekp75 03:30, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Are you referring to, Proper nouns which are plural in form take a plural verb in both American and British English? While I think that "is" is technically correct, "are" may also be technically correct. I think you're hard pressed to find a media outlet that uses "is" for bands with plural sounding names. "Is" is awkward sounding, and few use that form. I think we need to use "is" but be careful of which bands are really plural. Alice in Chains? Not plural. Internal Affairs? Not plural. Tori Amos? Not plural. Nine Inch Nails? Not plural (sorry Rhobite, not a tossup).

So where does that leave us with the Femmes? Here's what I think. The official name of the band is Violent Femmes. If you use it that way, without the "the" at the front, use "is". If you affix the (lower case) "the" on the front, as most of us usually do, use "are."

Freekee 04:06, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

In the Slash/Rhino edition with the two bonus tracks, plural/singular useage of the band name is inconsistent as well. They start out with "THE Violent Femmes CONSISTS of..." (singular verb), then later on state, "...THE Violent Femmes ARE..." (plural verb). Also, the band's official name is, in fact, "Violent Femmes" (no 'the'), but even its official website uses "THE Violent Femmes ARE..." and sometimes "THE Femmes ARE...". Inconsistency all around. Technically, in my opinion, the correct GN (grammar nazi) useage is "Violent Femmes IS coming to a town near you." If, when referring to the debut album entitled "Violent Femmes", we use the singular (since an album is a singular entity, even though it consists of a plural collection of songs), e.g., "The album Violent Femmes IS a rollicking adventure for you ears.", then we should be consistent and apply the singular to the band name as well (a band is a singular entity, although it consists of a plural collection of people). If we start pluralizing singular entities that consists of a plural collection of things, then we'd also have to start saying stuff like "The band ARE performing at The Fillmore"...which obviously is incorrect. You'd say, "The band IS performing at The Fillmore." In the same vein, to be GN correct, you'd have to say "[The] Violent Femmes IS performing at The Fillmore". However, we all know that GN useage often yields to the common vernacular, and sometimes, that's really not such a travesty. Especially in the realm of music, and especially in the realm of rock, I think we can afford to relax a little. --Wineginbeer 16:10, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

I'd say the Rhino edition is an unreliable source, honestly. They're the ones who claim the album never broke the Top 200. Yet allmusic.com [1] is a source for the #171 figure, which seems to have been automatically generated. So unless there's a flaw in the input, I'd trust allmusic's figures. (Of course, they could both be right if the Rhino version is what broke the Top 200; in that case, it would be more accurate to say that it went platium before breaking the Top 200.) This, plus the aforementioned inconsistency, seems to indicate that, although official, the liner notes can't be trusted. As to the date of the release of the album, allmusic.com claims 1983, too, so perhaps its official release was 1983 while promos were sent in 1982, thus the confusion. (Note that [2] doesn't say that the album was released in 1982, just that it's from 1982.) And, as to singular/plural, I'm with Wineginbeer. It could be "is," but, for consistency, it should be "are" — e.g., Pixies, Sex Pistols, The Supremes, etc. Calbaer 02:49, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Question

Can I just ask (out of curiousity), if I'm not understanding something, when this article says that "The debut album went platinum 10 years after its release, the only album ever to achieve platinum status without ever charting in the Billboard Top 200.", when the article about the album says that it charted at 171 on the Billboard 200? Insipid 19:13, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

That's definitely a contradiction. I think someone's going to have to do a little Billboard research. -Freekee 03:23, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Talk:Violent_Femmes/Comments

A comments section has been added. BNutzer 07:09, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Why did you create a subpage? This page is already for discussion about the article. -Freekee 15:53, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I"m moving the comment from there to here, and having the page deleted. -Freekee 04:02, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

The following comment by Thereen was moved from Talk:Violent_Femmes/Comments before the page's deletion. -Freekee 04:02, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Rating

I gave this article a "Start" rating on the scale because it really needs a better lead paragraph and some pictures would be fantastic. Feel free to change the rating after this is done. --Thereen 01:07, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Step by Step appearance?

Can anyone put any information on the time they appeared on an episode of the TV show Step by Step and performed "Please do not go"? I remember seeing this but I'm having a hard time verifying this. 06:58, 28 December 2006 (UTC)Robert

I doubt if they did. There are several places where the band lists it's TV appearances, and I've never seen that one listed. Do you think they appeared as the Violent Femmes, or was it just them members? -Freekee 03:58, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Image

I saw them at Big Day Out just a week ago (got Brian Ritchie's pick, **joy**), and a friend got a picture of them that should do just fine. He's willing to release it into the public domain, so I'll get him to upload it in a few days with any luck. Cheers. ~Switch ^t 15:18, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Great! Jkelly 17:38, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I just got home from their concert in Brisbane tonight and I've put some photos up on my flickr account. Not great quality, but there's a good one of Gordon. I don't really know what the deal is with putting them up, but if anyone wants to put them up for me (or just take a look) they're here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/happy_endings/tags/violentfemmes/ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 138.130.197.108 (talk) 14:50, 8 February 2007 (UTC).

Wendy's Commerical?

Blister in the sun is used in new wendys commercials I guess that should be added on trivia —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.143.200.199 (talk) 02:09, 11 May 2007 (UTC).

An item should never go in the trivia section when it can be added to the text. And this one is already in the History section. -Freekee 04:56, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Discography page

Thanks to Frog47 for setting up a discography page for the Femmes. I added studio albums back to the discog section on this article, because I like to have the most basic info there, rather than making people click to another article. That other article, of course, would have the most detailed info. -Freekee 03:37, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Debut album release date

According to the liner notes on the Rhino reissue of Violent Femmes, it was released in January of 1983. Currently this article lists a November 1982 date. Can someone tell us where that date came from? -Freekee 03:23, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

is/are

Could we please stop changing the tense? I realize that almost all of the changes since our big discussion of early last year, have been made by IPs, but I'm going to say it anyway... knock it off! Is/was is not wrong. It sounds kind of dumb, though. So do not be a grammar nazi and change it back. There is broad acceptance of are/were. To forestall further debate, I have suggested that if one uses the proper form "Violent Femmes" (that is, without the "the"), is/was is fine. And if you add the "the" on the beginning (like many people do, including the bandmembers themselves), are/were is acceptable. This policy seems to have been accepted by Wiki editors since that earlier discussion. Changing the article without first discussing it here will be considered edit warring and be reverted. I hate to sound like a jerk about it, but if I don't, it's going to change every few weeks, until people get tired of it, at which point an all-out edit war will begin. Please, let's not go there. -Freekee 03:13, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Freekee. Are/were is the most universally accepted. "Violent Femmes" without "The" is accurate. LightHouseEffect (talk) 22:34, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

Recent changes

LightHouseEffect, I would like to discuss some changes.

First, you seem to think that The following year in the winter of 2002 is awkward tense. I disagree, but if you feel that way, I won't oppose the change. I'm more concerned with the next part. The band members were requested to choose songs for the reissue. That is the point I would like to get across in the phrasing, Ritchie and DeLorenzo were requested by Rhino Records to repackage their debut 1983 album... Technically, it was Rhino that did the repackaging, but I'd like to state the circumstances that marked the return of DeLornezo to the Femmes fold.

Second, with regards to the following words, "DeLorenzo was asked to rejoin," do you feel that it was he who did the asking, or Ritchie that asked him to join? If it was a mutual decision, then the wording should be changed altogether.

Third, "After touring in promotion of Freak Magnet and finding only limited success, the band decided that they would no longer make new music." I feel that the italicized phrase here is very important, as it explains why they no longer record new music. This fact reflects on the entire history of the band.

Fourth, you are not the first person who has had an issue with the phrase, "(and subsequently forgotten)." As I explained to an editor further up this page, I feel it is important to state that this was not the band's big break. The "discovery" by The Pretenders did not lead to a record deal, or indeed any amount of local success. After that show, they were forgotten by The Pretenders, and slipped back into what they had been doing at the time. If you can come up with a better way to explain this, feel free. Until we can do that, I would like this to remain.

Other than that, I like the changes you made. I read through your changes thinking, how did the article remain like that for so long? -Freekee (talk) 04:53, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi Freekee! You're fun to edit with.

It's not so much the tense but the phrasing of the first part, but if you're okay with what is there now, cool. For the rest, I get what you're saying. How about something like "Rhino Records requested that Ritchie and DeLorenzo repackage their 1983 debut album" or something like that? It puts the sentence in the active rather than passive tense. It's more direct.

I see what you're getting at with "Freak Magnet". My understanding based on interviews was that it wasn't the album's success or failure but that Gordon Gano didn't want to write new material anymore.

I'm not sure if that the fact that The Pretenders show didn't lead to anything is an indication that they so much forgot them, more that they didn't act beyond that night. Otherwise, it seems like it was some sort of a deliberate snub, which I've never read or heard was the case. Maybe there's a way to say it better. I'll work on that and post here. We'll see if we can reach an agreement before changing it. My only request is that, instead of parentheses, using commas. It helps with flow :)

Thanks for the kudos! I like the way you edit, too. The article's coming along, eh? Good work! LightHouseEffect (talk) 08:29, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

When I first came here, I did much the same as you did, fixing grammar and such. Later, I added a section or two. But over time, it just sits, and I do little more than removing useless trivia. It needs fresh eyes from time to time.

I'm not sure about saying that Ritchie and DeLorenzo were asked to help on the project, because I don't know exactly who asked what of whom. Maybe we should say, In 2002, Rhino Records repackaged the Femmes' debut 1983 album along with demos and live tracks to coincide with a 20th anniversary reissue. DeLorenzo DeLorenzo rejoined the band after being involved in that project with Ritchie. This resulted in what was to be a farewell tour, resulting in the dismissal of Hoffman, and reinstating the original lineup.?

I remember a released statement by the band stating poor reception as the reason they would no longer record new material. All I can find online is in 2000, they released a new album entitled Freak Magnet to surprisingly limited success. In response, the band decided they would no longer record original work but would continue to tour in support of their "classic" tracks. [3]

There used to be an anecdote on their website claiming that they had met Chrissie Hynde and introduced themselves. She said, "who?" and then "you guys are still around?" Of course it was Honeyman-Scott who found them on the street. -Freekee (talk) 17:26, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

You've done a good job!

Oh! I see where you're coming from with The Pretenders thing. Maybe the Chrissie Hynde story or quote would be best to include. Otherwise, we'll understand what "subsequently forgotten" means, but someone who doesn't know this story won't. Ah the challenge of communication! We forget people don't always know what we know, how to tell it :) And the "Freak Magnet" thing makes more sense now.

I like the way the new sentence you constructed sounds. Although I've never read Hoffman was officially dismissed, and the official site lists him and that he still plays with the band. So, "In 2002, Rhino Records repackaged the Femmes' 1983 debut album, along with demos and live tracks, to coincide with a 20th anniversary reissue. After Ritchie and DeLorenzo collaborated on that project, DeLorenzo rejoined the band, thus reinstating the original lineup. Hoffman continued to tour with them, playing drums and percussion on a limited basis. This resulted in what was to be a farewell tour." How's that?

Keep on rockin' in the free world Freekee :) Let me know what you think, LightHouseEffect (talk) 21:49, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

The membership is a tricky subject. When DeLorenzo returned, he was not a partner - he was paid a wage for appearing. This was the case with Hoffman after that point (and maybe before that), so maybe Guy wasn't dismissed so much as not asked back. Now that I think about it, it really was true that he was not asked back, since it sounded like he wasn't given any advance notice of Victor's return. But this all gets very long if one is to try to explain it in the article. Same for the thing about the Pretenders. Anyway, that's why both Hoffman and DeLorenzo continue to play with the band, and continue to be considered members, for all public purposes, even though the only true members (in a business sense) are Ritchie and Gano. Since that time, Hoffman has played with them only a few times, when the band is in the LA area. So what your wrote sounds fine, except remove the "Hoffman continued" sentence. After that, I have an idea to rearrange things a bit, but feel free to do that yourself if you have any ideas. -Freekee (talk) 06:53, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Cool! Sounds good, thanks Freekee, LightHouseEffect (talk) 10:13, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Name?

What does the band's name "Violent Femmes" mean, how did it originate, why did they choose it? Thanks, Maikel (talk) 07:41, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

http://www.vfemmes.com/bandinfo.html says the name comes from "...an epiphany whereupon various deities showed Ritchie the name “Violent Femmes” written in the sky (or at least in Ritchie’s head)." :-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.105.72.217 (talk) 13:44, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Good question. I believe it was because they liked the contrast of the two terms. Beyond that, I can't remember. That would be good info to include. -Freekee (talk) 04:50, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm... I remember I'v read on their website. But I forghot.

Moving Trivia Section to Talk Page

I'm moving the Popular Culture section to the talk page since its mostly trivia. Please feel free to add things back to the article in a manner that conforms with WP:TRIV. Here it is:

• The song "Good Feeling" was used in the 1987 B-movie soundtrack of I Was a Teenage Zombie.
• They have been featured as themselves in one episode of the TV show Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: Libby was infatuated with Gordon Gano, and concocted a scheme, a sort of love spell, to win his affections. While under the spell, Gordon serenades Libby with the song "Please Do Not Go", claiming that he wrote the song for her before he even knew she existed.
• In 1991, author Audrey Niffenegger attended a Violent Femmes concert at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. She later incorporated this concert into an episode in her novel, The Time Traveler's Wife. It was at this concert that the ballroom floor collapsed during the Femmes' performance.
• In Juliana Hatfield's 1993 hit song "My Sister", the lyrics included a line sung by the song's protagonist that his/her sister was "the one who would have taken me to my first all-ages show/It was the Violent Femmes and the The Del Fuegos..." Shows of this nature were not uncommon in Boston clubs in the mid-1980s, so it is possible that Hatfield (who would have been in her mid-to-late teens at that time, and who lived in the Boston suburbs) in fact attended such a show.
• In the 1994 TV show My So-Called Life, Angela danced to "Blister in the Sun" in the 17th episode Betrayal.
• In 1994, the song "Color Me Once" was featured in the soundtrack for The Crow.
• In 1996, the band made a guest appearance on the Elliott Murphy album Selling the Gold. Murphy wrote the liner notes for Add It Up (1981-1993).
• The song "Good Feeling" is referred to on the TV show How I Met Your Mother as the "song" of Marshall and Lily. In the episode "Best Prom Ever", the group travels to a high school prom to watch The 88 perform "Good Feeling" after hiring them as the wedding band.
• The songs "Blister in the Sun" and "Blister 2000" were featured in the 1997 John Cusack movie Grosse Pointe Blank as well as Volume 1 of the soundtrack. "Blister 2000" was recorded specifically for the soundtrack.
• The song "Add It Up" was covered by Ethan Hawke in the 1994 film Reality Bites.
• In 1999, their version of I Swear (I Can Change) was featured on the soundtrack for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
• In 2004, Their song "Fat" was used in the movie Super Size Me.
• On May 2, 2005, "Blister in the Sun" became the first English-language song ever played on the Irish-language RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta radio station.
• In 2006, "American Music" was featured in the snowboarding film City, Park City.
• In the 2007 film Rocket Science, several Violent Femmes songs were played by a couple, on piano and cello.
• In the 2007 independent film Glue, the main character Lucas and his friend "Nacho" are both fans of the band, listening to their music throughout the film. In Lucas' bedroom there is a life-sized poster of the Violent Femmes.
• In 2008, "Blister in the Sun" was used in the trailer for the Greg Mottola comedy Adventureland.
• The song "Add It Up" is used in the 2008 film Surveillance.

Gobonobo ^{T C} 19:54, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Milwaukee or Waukesha?

The way I always heard it, the Violent Femmes were from Waukesha. No sources are given in the article for the bits that speak of them as from Milwaukee, but I could easily see, given the geography and cultural dynamics of the area, that a punk band from Waukesha would be doing most of their shows in Milwaukee. Am I crazy here? —chaos5023 (talk) 00:31, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Now that you mention it, I seem to recall hearing Waukesha a lot. But the band page says, "originally formed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin." I know they got their start on the streets and in the coffeehouses and clubs of Milwaukee. "Gano was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from Rufus King High School." DeLorenzo "grew up in Racine, Wisconsin and has lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since." -Freekee (talk) 02:59, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Group origin story from July 11, 1983

I was researching the release date of REM's Murmur, when I came across this article that included an account of how Violent Femmes formed. I'm not asserting the story's authenticity. I just think it stands in opposition to what the main article states, and it's an interesting story to boot. I am excerpting (untouched) the article as I found it in Access World News:

"R.E.M .'S ROCK 'N' ROLL IS RAISING EYEBROWS

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) - Monday, July 11, 1983

Author: Gary Graff Knight-Ridder News Service

..."Speaking of bizarre origins, how about those Violent Femmes?

Songwriter Gordon Gano, 19, met bassist Brian Ritchie the night before Gano was to perform in front of the National Honor Society at his Milwaukee high school. The guitarist-songwriter asked Ritchie to accompany him; Gano dressed in a three-piece suit, Ritchie, now 23, sported torn jeans.

When they arrived at the 9 a.m. assembly, officials told Gano not to play Give Me the Car," an upbeat and slightly lewd song.

So we worked out ahead of time that the first eight bars would be one of my real laid-back songs," recalled Ganos. And then we'd go into O'Give Me the Car.' The place exploded, like for the Beatles, the Who. They threw me out of the Honor Society, and some teachers didn't want me to graduate."

A diploma doesn't really fit Gano's current ambitions, anyway. He and Ritchie found seasoned drummer Victor DeLorenzo, 28, and word-of-mouth brought the Violent Femmes' a plethora of grass roots support."

alainsane (talk) 18:04, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciation of “Femmes“

How do you pronounce “Femmes“? Judith Holofernes of “Wir sind Helden“ just claimed on Deutschlandfunk that the French pronunciation “Fam“ (my German phonetic spelling, maybe “Fum“ in English) is wrong and that it should be pronounced “Fems“. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.114.135.39 (talk) 09:44, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Quite old comment, but maybe someone's still interested. In America, femmes is pronounced "fems," as in "femme fatale" (yes I know how that's actually pronounced, but look up an American saying it). I think this has only become more common over the last 10 years with its common use in LGBTQ+ circles, where it's used as the antonym of masc. LookOnMyEditsYeMighty (talk) 15:16, 25 December 2024 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Violent Femmes/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

==Rating== I gave this article a "Start" rating on the scale because it really needs a better lead paragraph and some pictures would be fantastic. Feel free to change the rating after this is done. --Thereen 01:07, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Last edited at 17:39, 29 December 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 10:00, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Stripey charts

These stripey charts obviously don't work. Really, I have to decode this puzzle to see what Brian Ritchie does? Does that stripe have three colors in it, or two? And the middle one is the dark tan not the light tan? And only two of the five colors are ever reused? And it's intuitive to have "lead vocals, violin, banjo" as a category? And why are some colors but not others duplicated in a person's stripe like a sandwich? And why are some stripes thinner than others? Does that signify something? How many problems does a graphic conceit have to have before we chuck it? Five? Ten? When the legend is almost as big as the chart it's a sign of trouble. Why not just say what they do, especially since it never changes, and the last four guys are all the same? This really is like an illustration in an Ed Tufte book of how not to make a chart. I'm not being snarky but just literal when I say that I filed a copy of this as an example for teaching cartography. (Sorry if I'm supposed to say this somewhere else.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.117.48.13 (talk) 14:26, 27 March 2022 (UTC)

Blister in the Sun - melody

The melody of Blister in the Sun seems to me to be version/copy of old jazz song Collard Greens and Black-eyed Peas. 68.150.205.46 (talk) 05:25, 6 July 2024 (UTC)