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Post by halo19 on Oct 28, 2005 3:26:19 GMT -4
I decided with this one that I'd dedicate the topic to an artist rather than just a song. I remember the first time I heard "Blister in the Sun". I was like 11 then. I thought it was from only a few years ago, because through the 90's it was cool for quite a few bands to play the acoustic rock stuff.
Little did I know until like 3 years later what the song was called (I had known what it *was* all that time), who it was by, and that it was from like 1983. I was really shocked. Shortly after I recognized "Add It Up" from them too. The fact that nearly all of the instrumentation is live makes the songs really stand out. They make some really good songs, too. Brian Ritchie is an amazing musician; primarily the bassist, he is usually the player of the varied other instruments. The eponymous album is a great at its worst and classic at best, much more often the former.
For me, what stands out is their songs that sound nothing like their folk-punk main songs. I think I was most surprised by "Machine", an industrial song (?)... and "Black Girls", which has John Zorn as an additional player. I always am dancing when I hear that song. However, other songs with the folk style, like "American Music" are reasons why people still remember them.
Most people seem aware of "Blister", "Add It Up", and "The Kiss Off".
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Post by crash46 on Oct 28, 2005 12:51:14 GMT -4
These guys weren't even played on the radio when I first started following Alternative in 2000, probably because they didn't exactly fit in with its heavier sound. So I didn't even know who they were until around 2003. I guess the Femmes had to have been as big of an influence as anyone to all the "the" bands popping up around them, and they fit the format again.
My immediate thoughts about "Blister In The Sun" was that it was garbage. Of course, if you're closed-minded and the only thing you notice is the raw, underproducedness of the music, chances are that's just how you'll feel. But I just refused to write them off, and after about 6 months, I was loving all three of their radio songs. I had no idea they had recorded their songs live, and that's awesome.
The Violent Femmes are now becoming one of those bands, along with Nirvana and Pearl Jam, that just is too important to limit their airplay to just a lot of spins for couple singles. It just hasn't reached Nirvana and Pearl Jam's magnitude, yet.
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Post by slinky on Nov 2, 2005 13:24:20 GMT -4
However, other songs with the folk style, like "American Music" are reasons why people still remember them. That's always been my favorite Violent Femmes track. After hearing the bitterness and screaming in "Blister In The Sun", "Add It Up", and "Kiss Off", I was shocked to hear their softer side. I agree that more of this band needs to be played. Seems the only Femmes song I ever hear is "Blister..." Stations have even abandoned "Add It Up" in recent years.
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Post by a Nick O! on Nov 9, 2005 16:31:29 GMT -4
Surprisingly, I've heard the Violent Femmes on WMFS in Memphis. They've really come a long way over the past couple of years.
However, the only song they ever play is "Kiss Off." Just like the only Ramones song they play(!) is "Blitzkrieg Bop."
I first heard "Blister in the Sun" frequently in the mid-'90's on KPNT. Then one week towards the end of '94, I guess it would have been...they were counting down the Top 100 greatest Alternative albums of all time. Each album seemed to get a minimum of 2-3 songs played, but by the time they got to the Top 10, it was, like 5. I was very surprised that the Violent Femmes' self-titled record, along with more recent '90's albums I knew all the singles from if not owned, was #5. They played five songs from it: Blister in the Sun, Kiss Off, Prove My Love, Gone Daddy Gone, and Add It Up. I really liked all of them.
(I also knew "Blister in the Sun" from an episode of "My So-Called Life" where Angela danced around her room, including jumping on her bed to the song at the beginning of one of the episodes.)
In the summer of '95, I got the s/t album and listened to it a lot over the next year. In 1996, I was very surprised when they came to my town, Rolla, for its (then) annual St. Patrick's Day concert.
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