Violent Femmes: 20 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know

Violent Femmes are an influential American folk punk band that have been around since the early 1980s. I was fortunate to watch them perform at Oppikoppi music festival in 2007 and I hope they come back to South Africa one day.

There’s probably a lot that you don’t know about this band, but today my aim is to change that…

20 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know about the Violent Femmes

1. The band were founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (in the USA) by bassist Brian Ritchie and percussionist Victor DeLorenzo in 1980. They were joined shortly thereafter by lead vocalist and guitarist Gordon Gano.

2. The current members of the band are Gordon Gano, Brian Ritchie, Blaise Garza and John Sparrow.

3. Victor DeLorenzo, Guy Hoffman and Brian Viglione are the former members of the band.

4. In the band’s early days, they frequently played coffee houses and street corners. They were discovered by James Honeyman-Scott (of The Pretenders) on the 23rd of August 1981. The band was busking on a street corner in front of the Oriental Theatre, the Milwaukee venue that The Pretenders would be playing later that night. Chrissie Hynde invited them to play a brief acoustic set after the opening act.

5. To date the band has released 10 studio albums: Violent Femmes (1983), Hallowed Ground (1984), The Blind Leading the Naked (1986), 3 (1989), Why Do Birds Sing? (1991), New Times (1994), Rock!!!!! (1995), Freak Magnet (2000), We Can Do Anything (2016) and Hotel Last Resort (2019).

6. The lyrics to their 1983 hit “Blister in the Sun” reference drug use. After the song was released, a misinterpretation arose that the lyrics were about masturbation. Gordon Gano actually wrote the song for a woman he met at a poetry reading. She suggested starting a band, but she never showed up for the rehearsal, so Gano actual told someone in an interview that he thinks she joined a cult and moved to Canada.

7. In 2007, Gordon Gano angered Brian Ritchie by selling advertising rights for “Blister in the Sun” to the US fast food chain Wendy’s. Ritchie sued Gano. This disagreement caused the band to disband in 2009. They did re-unit in 2013 at Coachella hough.

8. According to Variety, the lawsuit (which was filed just after their South African tour) was the culmination of a long-running dispute between the two members over song royalties and assets. Ritchie claimed that he founded the group, and he sought damages and a declaration that he was half-owner of the band’s songs.

9. The Violent Femmes‘ 1983 debut album went Gold four years after its release and reached Platinum sales status four years later, despite never reaching the top 150 of the Billboard 200 album chart.

10. Their 1985 track, “Country Death Song” is about a backwater redneck who goes insane and kills his daughter by throwing her down a well – the redneck ends up hanging himself in shame. Gordon Gano started writing this song when he was a sophomore in high school in study hall. It was the first song he played to Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie after meeting in high school.

11. In 2006 the duo Gnarls Barkley covered the band’s track “Gone Daddy Gone,” and released it on their debut album St. Elsewhere. Then in 2008, the Violent Femmes recorded a cover of the hit Gnarls Barkley song, “Crazy.”

12. The band’s 1983 track “Add It Up expresses a mixture of frustration, confusion, and desire. The lyrics discuss experiences of sexual frustration, unrequited love, and the complexities of romantic and sexual relationships. The chorus of “Why can’t I get just one kiss? / Why can’t I get just one kiss? / Believe me, there’d be some things that I wouldn’t miss” highlights the longing for physical and emotional connection.

13. Their song “Color Me Once” was included on the soundtrack for the 1994 film The Crow (which starred Brandon Lee in the leading role).

14. Their song “I Swear It (I Can Change)” was included on the soundtrack to the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

15.  New Times (the sixth studio album released by the band in 1994) was the first Violent Femmes album to not feature original drummer Victor DeLorenzo on drums. DeLorenzo was replaced by Guy Hoffman.

16. After graduating from high school, Gordon Gano worked briefly as an encyclopedia salesman.

17. Brian Ritchie was born and raised in the USA, but is currently a dual citizen of the United States and Australia.  He resides down under full-time nowadays.

18. The band’s name was an impromptu idea. Ritchie came up with the title when a friend asked him to describe his straight-laced insurance salesman brother. Ritchie lied and said, “He’s exactly like me, he’s a punk and he has his own band!” When asked what the band’s name was, Ritchie uttered “Uh….Violent Femmes.” After sharing the story with fellow bandmate, DeLorenzo, they elected to use the name for themselves.

19. Part of Audrey Niffenegger’s novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, takes place at a Violent Femmes concert: “Gordon Gano stands at the microphone glaring at us all and menacing chords ring out and he leans forward and intones the opening lines of ‘Blister in the Sun’ and we’re off and running…”

20. One of the ways the Violent Femmes created their signature sound was from DeLorenzo’s drum kit, which often consisted of no more than a set of steel brushes, a tranceaphone, and a snare drum.

Well, there you have it, 20 Interesting Facts you might not have known about Violent Femmes. If I’ve left out something important, feel free to comment below.

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