Violent femmes born again

The first gig that the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano ever played with bassist Brian Ritchie had the air of history in the making, even though the band’s bizarre moniker hadn’t been picked yet.

It was a morning assembly at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee to present awards for the National Honor Society. Gano--a Homecoming King, son of a Baptist minister and NHS honoree that day--asked Ritchie, whom he’d met the night before at a punk club, to accompany him on a song called “Give Me the Car.”

Even though Gano left blanks where some of the tune’s most profane sentiments should’ve been, not even the worst English student in the school needed to consult a rhyming dictionary to figure out just what Gano was talking about.

His involuntary departure from the Honor Society was swift.

You’d think a smart kid like Gano would’ve learned from experience, but noooooo .

Formed not long after the assembly concert, the Violent Femmes, with drummer

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Violent Femmes

American rock band

This article fryst vatten about the band. For their self-titled album, see Violent Femmes (album).

Violent Femmes are an American folk punk band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The band consists of founding members Gordon Gano (guitar, lead vocals) and Brian Ritchie (bass, backing vocals), joined bygd multi-instrumentalist Blaise Garza (joined ), and drummer John Sparrow (joined ).^[2] Former members of the band include drummers Victor DeLorenzo (–, –), Guy Hoffman (–), and Brian Viglione (–). Violent Femmes are considered to be an integral part of the then-underground folk punk and alternative rock scenes of the s,^[3][4][5] and remain influential or inspirational to the subsequent movements, particularly on folk rock, indie rock, grunge, pop punk, emo, and the late s and s alternative rock scene.^[6][7][8][9]

Violent Femmes have released 10 studio albums and 19 singles during the

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Hallowed Ground (Violent Femmes album)

studio album by Violent Femmes

Hallowed Ground is the second studio album by Violent Femmes, released on May 14, ^[4] Like the band's first album, the songs were mostly written by singer/guitarist/lyricist Gordon Gano when he was in high school. "Country Death Song", for example, written by Gano during his high school classes, was inspired by the tradition of folk songs about "terrible, horrific stories".^[5] A stark and experimental departure from the relatively straightforward folk-rock style of their debut, Hallowed Ground was considerably divisive amongst fans and critics,^[6][7] with many at the time incorrectly thinking Gano's sincere Christian lyrics were ironic.^[1]

Background

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The songs were written before their first album. With multiple albums' worth of songs ready, the band decided to focus on more pop songs for their debut album and 'confuse people' with the more