Rock!!!!!
Violent Femmes
Engineer: David Vartanian,
Producer: Brian Ritchie, Gordon Gano
Cooking Vinyl Records (USA), 2004
1 CD
Catalogue #: COOKCD203
EAN: 0711297460322
UPC: 711297460322
You save: 20%
Violent Femmes: Gordon Gano (vocals, guitar); Brian Ritchie (guitar, autoharp, didgeridoo, organ, acoustic bass, background vocals); Guy Hoffman (drums, background vocals).
Additional personnel: Pat Basler (alto saxophone); Bob Jennings (tenor & baritone saxophones); Ed Spangenberg (trombone); David Vartanian (electric piano); Sigmund Snopek III (Mellotron).
Recorded at DV's Perversion Room, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Violent Femmes: Brian Ritchie (vocals, guitar, autoharp, didjeridu, organ, acoustic bass guitar); Gordon Gano (vocals, guitar); Guy Hoffman (vocals, drums).
Additional personnel: Pat Basler (alto saxophone); Bob Jennings (tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, horns); Ed Spangenberg (trombone); David Vartanian (electric piano); Sigmund Snopek III (Mellotron).
The Violent Femmes have weathered both personnel changes and shifting musical trends since 1982. 2000's ROCK finds the Femmes remaining true to themselves--it's full of songs both expressing and slyly, ironically mocking adolescent (and post-adolescent) angst. The cover art features the band frolicking in decadent '70s/'80s glitter-glam poses, in the styles of the New York Dolls or Faster Pussycat, and there's a moderate influence of that period in this album's ambiance.
The snarling rockers "Bad Dream," "Death Drugs," and "Tonight" are charged with terse, crackling guitar, and snotty, defiant vocals. "She Went to Germany" is a great tribute to and parody of the Ramones in their "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" mode, and the jangly, mock-innocent love-and-lust song "I Wanna See You Again" recalls the slower tunes from that band's first album. With ROCK, the Violent Femmes greet the new millennium with their patented cheerfully ironic, awkward elan.
Tracklist
Violent Femmes
What do you do when your first album is the CITIZEN KANE of alternative rock? Spend the next two decades living in its shadow. Inspired by the Modern Lovers and the Velvet Underground, the Violent Femmes pioneered the use of acoustic instruments in post-punk/new wave, with great success straight out of the gate. The band continued to record and perform into the 1990s, releasing albums with a consistent and familar sound.
