from the LP Violent Femmes, Slash Records, 1982Most people my age have a deep & tender sweet-spot in their hearts reserved for this mighty trio, the Violent Femmes, endeared to us at such a cavernous level thanks to the veritable montage of life’s memories we have wrapped up in their songs; you remember, those carefree juvenile days of cheap wine & roses, shwag weed & crap beer, hits of weak blotter, often climaxing with a circle of friends all yelling the lyrics to any number of classics from this album, inebriated arms slung over one another’s backs in a post-modern tribal expression of clueless release…all hail the reckless Western rite of adolescence! The Femmes came together around Milwaukee, which I suppose explains the accents that most of us in Florida wrongly presumed meant they were from Canada, especially when matched with their odd style; the Pretenders discovered them busking outside the venue they were playing in ’81 and offered them a short intro set. The rest, as “they” say, is history.
