Violent Femmes In The News!

The Las Vegas Review-Journal carried a little article on one-album hit wonders The Violent Femmes, together now for 25 years. Their classic 1983 debut is “the only album to go platinum without ever cracking the Billboard 200, the magazine's weekly list of the nation's top-selling albums.” That’s a cool factoid.

Bassist Brian Ritchie whines “Every band gets reduced to, if not to one song, a handful of songs. It's an injustice. It's not fair. It's frustrating, but that's just the way it is. I'm frustrated not only as an artist, but as a listener. Everybody is suffering because radio sucks."

Oh, please. “Blister In The Sun” has allowed The Violent Femmes to tour since 1983, and if that’s the only song the radio plays, that’s the only song the radio plays. They can get in line with every other band that thinks their entire catalog should be on constant rotation. “Blister In The Sun” got them this weekend section write-up and it gives Ritchie a platform to moan and insult other musicians. What the hell else does he want...

“Add It Up” and “Gone Daddy Gone” are equally good songs but they don’t get played on possibly any commercial music services. It’s the Holocaust all over again.