Violent Femmes - s/t

"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.

-- [ban me], Tuesday, January 8, 2002 1:00 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fGrZskQCII

It's always "Add It Up". For the swears.

gone daddy gone

Good Feeling!!!

I've got this girl.
I wanna...

SPR-R-R-OING!

I love that album cover.

great album, i love the femmes in general and i catch them every time they play live in my town. one of the few rock bands i can still tolerate. im not sure what my favorite jam off of this album is, though.

"...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."

This is very deeply wrong. The point is that the most splendid and muscular king of the prom has felt, thought, and said the same things as do the people on this record. It is everybody's property.

Very good case for at least 5 songs here but I will go with "Prove my Love" for the "AWWWWWW" right before the title is sung.

Third verse
Same as the first

I love this album wholeheartedly, and it's probably in my top 10 ever, but for a band who were meant to fall off after their debut, their Passantino-recommended tracks are all elsewhere ("I Held Her In My Hands", "American Music", "Ugly")

Ignore "Ugly", I mean... something else

oh yeah, i cant stand "blister in the sun" anymore, really. the last time i saw them, they didnt even play it, which made me very happy. and they also played their track from the Crow soundtrack which was superawesome!

their Passantino-recommended tracks are all elsewhere....American Music

Yes. American Music is my favorite.

<i>Ugly</i> and <i>Gimme The Car</i> aren't part of this record.

Oh, all those times diving for my bedroom stereo volume so my parents wouldn't hear the swear words/sex stuff when I was 14.

I got into them when '3' came out when I was a 13-yr-old Christian!

Great folk-thrash. I can't pick one. Maybe Gone Daddy Gone.

"Ugly" and "Gimme The Car" aren't part of this record.

They're on the CD.

You're both right

Great album, goin with Prove My Love

Please Do Not Go

Dom, yeah, 'I Held Her in My Arms' is one of their best, for sure. The album that's on (The Blind Leading the Naked) still stands out as really strange and strong.

"Ugly" and "Gimme the Car" are tacked onto the end of the remaster, aren't they? That's why I got confused.

They're not on my CD. I got it years ago though so it's probably not the remaster.

"Dom, yeah, 'I Held Her in My Arms' is one of their best, for sure. The album that's on (The Blind Leading the Naked) still stands out as really strange and strong.

-- spectra"

i actually like the version of that track that is on the greatest hits much better than the album version. i saw them do that one live once, too, it was awesome.

Gordon Gano & Brian Ritchie (w/ assorted guest musicians and drummers) have made a career out of teen angst. this isn't a bad thing. Ethan Hawke covered "add it up" in Reality Bites. the Femmes are a cult classic, harkening back to the early-mid '80s... a time before "bitches and hos", before "really big hair", a time when jeans were tight and shirts were loose. to quote the beginning of the Add It Up CD (their 1991 retrospective/greatest hits): "the Violent Femmes... they bring all their equipment on the bus. and you can't fuck with the Violent Femmes. you cannot fuck with this band!" fruvous related stuff: odd lyrics & instrumentation (when's the last time you saw a conch shell on stage?), Fruvous opened for the Femmes at Irving Plaza, NYC, NY, and they also have a weird name.

I think I still have the cassette of this somewhere, haven't played it in like a decade and can't remember enough about the non-hits to vote for any of them. "Add It Up" used to be the easy favorite but too many years of WHFS over-playing a truly brutal radio edit of it have kinda spoiled it for me.

my only prediction is that "To The Kill" will not win. So many great songs.

I saw them play these songs at Folk City in NYC just before the album came out.

Gone Daddy Gone = Evil xylophone heaven

I voted for "Please Do Not Go" because I heard it recently for the first time in years. I love everything on this album but there are certain songs that are way oversaturated. I might have voted for "Good Feeling" if I'd thought harder about it - that's a lovely song. Problem is, you could argue for every song on this record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tCL3bTFDog

This video makes up for the previous one. It's so much fun when he tries to get the camera man to sing along.

they are some Wisconsin boys :>

Gone Daddy Gone = Evil xylophone heaven : Moonlight Feels Right = Good xylophone heaven.

So so so so hard to pick one. I love that bass solo part in "Please Do Not Go" so much. "Good Feeling" is one of the prettiest songs ever. This album is so unique.

add it up, it is epic

this CD was once jammed in my car CD player and i couldn't get it unstuck for about a year IIRC.

i vote Add it Up

That could happen with worse albums. I had a similar situation occur with a tape deck and Rollins Band.

for sure! cuet girl i was trying to get with once had Goldfinger tape stuck on endless loop in car.

Last year we drove across the country...We had one cassette tape to listen to on the entire trip...I don't remember what it was. -- Steven Wright

If I had to listen to Steven Wright for a whole cross-country trip, I'd murder myself.

What if Garrison Keillor was in the backseat?

They would murder each other.

While in slow baritones, one folksy, one affectless, intoning the words "Time to die."

However, as long as the cassette of the first Violent Femmes album was playing it would all be OK.

I might have voted for "Good Feeling" if I'd thought harder about it - that's a lovely song.

I almost voted for this but chose "Confessions" instead.

Please Do Not Go, for being so mind-infiltratingly catchy

I rarely listen to the radio, a failing I often bitch about but don't do much about (hi, Matos, Reverend, ahem), but I'm using a friend's car for a few days and just heard "Good Feeling" on KEXP.

gordan gano queer in highschool wearing 100 bracelets on each wrist. luv u g.

just got this album on vinyl last night after looking for it for a long long time! love it!

I don't think I could stand to listen to the first album anymore: it would be like one of those dreams where you're back in college at age 43 (I'm not 43). I did, however, kind of like their version of Eep-Opp-Ork-Ah-Ah which I only just heard the other day.

i was just playing this album again, every song is pure gold (even though im sick of "blister in the sun" i can recognise its greatness in my memory...). i had to vote for "please don't go" but "good feeling" would probably be right behind it....

I predict that I will be the only person voting for "To the Kill" and I'm not doing it to be contrary, it was always my favorite

Already voted for it!

Wow, every song someone mentions (e.g. "To The Kill" above) I'm like, gosh, that song is truly amazing, should I have voted for it above "Prove My Love?" Really, the only thing on the album that doesn't tempt me is "Add It Up," and "Ugly" (though the latter was my favorite at some point in my teens!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w4g777SHlM

their Passantino-recommended tracks are all elsewhere....American Music

Yes. American Music is my favorite.

Best count-in of all time.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

suck that, blister in the sun, you overrated terd

Whoa!

Ugh, another poll I forgot to vote in. But I would've just added another point to "Add It Up." This was my absolute fave record during high school. Nice to know something of value came out of my former pieceashit place of residency (NOT hometown) Milwaukee.

"suck that, blister in the sun, you overrated terd

-- electricsound"

i really think that it wouldnt have done so poorly if it wasnt so overplayed, but no way would it have won.

"Nice to know something of value came out of my former pieceashit place of residency (NOT hometown) Milwaukee.

-- Kevin John Bozelka"

dood, milwaukee is responsible for some of the best hardcore techno related stuff ever and theyre at least partially responsible for the birth of what became "breakcore".

Ok, I'll take your hardcore records if you go live there for a decade-plus (assuming you're not there already).

Oh and if you're over 30, all bets are off. You must live in Milwaukee during your angsty 20s.

"Ok, I'll take your hardcore records if you go live there for a decade-plus (assuming you're not there already).

-- Kevin John Bozelka"

haha, i live in pittsburgh already, its basically the same damn place but with less interesting music. my 20's are actually far less angsty than my teens, and my late teens was when i was driving to milwaukee to go to the barn parties and hanging out with Doormouse and crew.

Great album to learn songs from when you're starting on guitar as well.

Great album to have sent to you in the summer of 1983 by your friend who taped them on cassette over the taped Gerald Ford speech he received from going to Boys Nation (I was the alternate and didn't go). This was backed with Fleshtones; other cassette had dB's hits and a selection of songs from Murmur and Reckoning.

Freshman year of college, punk girlz were hanging out in line singing the intro to "Blister in the Sun," I came in with the handclaps, immediately was in with whole punk set for four years.

pod on the making of the album. extensive interviews with the band

https://lifeoftherecord.com/#/violent-femmes/

Cool, thanks

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

What was meant by this? I'm not sure I know what the cultural connotations of "Blister in the Sun" are, or were in 2002 when that post was written.