Violent Femmes Lyrics

Violent Femmes Info:

Origin:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.

Genres:
Alternative rock, post-punk, folk punk

Years active:
1980-1987, 1988-2009, 2013-present

Name Origin:
According to Ritchie, he came up with the name of the group as a fake band name when one of his bandmates questioned his assertion that his brother was also in a band—he and DeLorenzo liked the name, so they used it for the rhythm duo they played in prior to Gano joining the group

Another source states someone said they sounded like violent femmes as an oxymoronic joke. In Milwaukee, femme is slang for feminine.

Members:
Gordon Gano (1980-present)
Brian Ritchie (1980-present)
Brian Viglione (2013-present)

Past members:
Victor DeLorenzo (1980-1993, 2002-2009 and 2013)
Guy Hoffman (1993-2002)

Violent Femmes Trivia:
• The group made an appearance on the teen TV show "Clarissa Explains It All"

• You can hear their song "Fat" in the documentary "Super Size Me"

Violent Femmes Quotes:
I probably have over a hundred instuments including acoustic basses, bouzouki, didgeridoo, soprano sax, xylophone, nose flute, shakuhachi, and a spate of percussion, keyboards and guitar. All of which I've used on Femmes recordings.
Brian Ritchie

Our main influences are Velvet Underground, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Ramones, Sun Ra, Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd, Television, Hank Williams Sr., John Coltrane and about two million other people.
Brian Ritchie

Nickelodeon wanted us to do a commercial for them because they are moving "Spongebob Squarepants" to prime time and they needed a fun campaign. So basically we did a couple of 30 second spots for them which you can see on Nick. It was very easy.
Brian Ritchie

"We were signed to a record label that wouldn't release anything we were recording,"
Gordon Gano

"It is possible that this is the first record that doesn't have a song on it written in the '70s."
Gordon Gano

Tour Dates: