ALBUM: Violent Femmes (1983)
MVC Rating 4.0/$$$$
The story goes, according to Wikipedia, the band was busking on a street corner out in front of a theater in the band’s hometown of Milwaukee where the Pretenders would be playing that night.
The trio caught the ear of Pretender guitarist James Honeyman Scott. Lead Pretender Chryssie Hynde let them play a song or two after the opening act ended. It was the beginning of a decades long career.
The band is not for everyone. Gordon Gano who writes the songs and sings lead embodies alternative at its most alternative.
With a tip of the hat to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, the Violent Femmes wrote songs from the street touching on drugs, lost love and loneliness. On the second album (Hallowed Ground) Ganos’ Christianity created some dissension at first. That was worked out, and the band member who complained said years later that those songs were among the band’s best.
The Phoenix New Times in a 2014 interview with Gano wrote:
lt was the strength of Gano’s fiery gospel punk songs, the devotional “Jesus Walking on the Water,” “Hallowed Ground,” which reads like it was ripped from book of Psalms, and his gleeful ode to God’s righteous wrath, “It’s Gonna Rain,” that caused Brian Ritchie to relent.