| * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * AMERICAN MUSIC - April 7,2003 * * * THE VIOLENT FEMMES Email List * * * * * * * * * * List archive online at http://www.oocities.org/violentfemmeslist ************************************************************************* TOUR DATES (*=New Dates) Violent Femmes 2003 Australian Tour 4/09/03 Sydney - The Metro **SOLD OUT** 4/10/03 Sydney - The Metro ** SOLD OUT** 4/11/03 Fremantle - Metropolis 4/12/03 Margaret River - Mainbreak Concert 4/15/03 Adelaide - Heaven 4/17/03 Melbourne - The Palace 4/18/03 Geelong - The Lyric 4/20/03 Byron Bay - East Coast Blues & Roots Festival 4/24/03 Canberra - ANU Refectory 4/25/03 Penrith Panthers - Evan Theatre 4/26/03 Newcastle Panthers - Club Nova 4/27/03 Wollongong NSW -Yallah Woolshed 4/29/03 Sydney - The Metro **SOLD OUT** 4/30/03 Sydney - The Metro **SOLD OUT** 5/02/03 Christchurch NZ - The Civic 5/03/03 Wellington NZ - The Parthenon 5/04/03 Auckland NZ - St James Theatre 5/07/03 Sydney - The Metro **Just Added** 5/08/03 Sydney - The Metro **Just Added** 5/09/03 Gosford NSW - Central Coast Leagues Club 5/10/03 Hobart TAS - Hobart City Hall 5/11/03 Launceston TAS - The Saloon Bar Gordon Solo April 2003 - Hitting the Ground 4/04/03 Sydney AUS - Metro Theatre (Roma Room) 4/06/03 Melbourne AUS - Evelyn Hotel 4/19/03 Byron Bay - East Coast Blues & Roots Festival *************************************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: You Gotta Hear This! VF Article George Harrison Tribute **************************************************************************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You Gotta Hear This! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hey guys, Find yourself a quiet spot (or some headphones) and treat yourself to an internet moment with Gordon! It's an in studio broadcast from ABC Radio National! This thing is priceless! Gordon sings the title track from Hitting the Ground, gives a great interview (including an impromtu Johnny Cash), and then does an acoustic Blister. The show aired on Saturday 4/5 and it looks like they keep the archives up for about a month so don't wait too long to check it out. I love technology!! Deana vivawisconsin@ameritech.net 5th April, 2003 Violent Femmes frontman Gordon Gano, composer Alan John, singer Melinda Schneider and opera director Simon Phillips on 'Lulu'. LIVE PERFORMANCE Hitting the Ground Comp. Gordon Gano Perf. Gordon Gano Dur: 3.00 Interview guest: Gordon Gano LIVE PERFORMANCE Blister in the Sun Perf. Gordon Gano Dur: 2.00 http://www.abc.net.au/rn/music/mshow/default.htm Click on the SECOND HOUR tab and scroll to 32 minutes in. Total time is about 20 minutes! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No Paino, No Gaino ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No paino, no Gano April 4 2003 Sacha Molitorisz In his cramped one-room New York apartment, Gordon Gano turns from the stove and arrives at the coffee table. "Sorry, I'm out of milk," he says, offering a cup of tea. Above our heads , a bare light bulb casts a sickly light. This is not the life I had imagined for the frontman of the Violent Femmes. Then again, neither did I expect to learn that Gano is loaded, having inherited millions from his great-grandfather, the inventor of the ball bearing. He lives such a frugal life only because he donates most of his money to charity. And you know the weirdest thing? None of the above is true, apart from the fact that Gano really is the frontman of the Violent Femmes. "Whatever you write, you can just make it up," Gano says over the phone. "Really. If you like, you can write that we did our interview in person in my apartment in New York and that there was just this one bare light bulb ..." Gano clearly has a sense of humour. I, on the other hand, give you my word: I vow to be serious and truthful from now on. So, with the band responsible for such angsty, generation-defining anthems as Blister In The Sun and Add It Up returning to Australia for another tour, what can fans expect? Is the current show anything like the energetic, memorable performances the Femmes delivered in the mid-'80s? "It's exactly the same show," Gano laughs. "So it's pretty boring and dull for us - we've been doing it for 22 years - but other people seem to like it." That's right, 22 years. The Femmes started building their loyal following as soon as they started busking in their hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1981. "We used to do that a lot in the early days instead of rehearsing," says Brian Ritchie, the band's acoustic bassist. "It was more fun being outside making money than inside. And you couldn't meet any girls in a basement." Busking also scored the Femmes their first big show, after the Pretenders heard Gano, Ritchie and drummer Victor DeLorenzo bashing away on a sidewalk. "That was so strange," says Ritchie. "We had gone to a nightclub that day with our instruments, where we told the owner we'd really like to play at his club. He just said, 'Send us a tape and your photo.' We said, 'We can play for you now,' but he wouldn't listen. When we left we were really frustrated. "When we saw the Pretenders were playing at a theatre a few hundred metres away, we decided to play for the people queuing up to buy tickets. Then the band came out and started watching, and they asked us to open [the show] for them."By mid-1982, the Femmes were a formidable live outfit. They were also eager to record, but were desperately broke. They borrowed $US10,000 from DeLorenzo's dad and booked themselves into a disintegrating studio in a resort town an hour outside Milwaukee. "We didn't have a record deal," says Ritchie. "Ten thousand dollars doesn't sound like a lot of money, but we agreed to pay it back even if the band split up. It was a scary proposition, but we believed in the music so much that we thought, 'If this is what it takes, this is what we'll do'." That self-belief was justified: the band's self-titled debut album was a taut, singalong classic. Combining country, folk and punk with dark lyrics about lust and pills and death, it was unique but accessible. A slow-burning cult hit, it became the only album in the history of the Billboard charts to go platinum (one million copies sold) without ever charting. Twenty years on, it sounds as dangerous, edgy and excellent as ever. "We didn't use any nonsensical production of that time period," says Ritchie. That's not a bad claim considering 1983 was also the era of A Flock of Seagulls and Pseudo Echo. That is, a dodgy era. "Dodgy is right," says Ritchie. "There were no interesting musical trends going on, so we had no reason to align ourselves with anyone else." In 1985, the Femmes released a follow-up, Hallowed Ground. Since then they have released another half-dozen studio albums, but ... "The majority of what we play live still comes from the first two albums," says Ritchie candidly. "Probably because they're the best." Still, Gano says the band is really firing on-stage, revitalised by the return of DeLorenzo, who'd left the band in the early 1990s. "After a 10-year vacation he came back incredibly enthusiastic," says Gano, who last year released his debut solo album, the impressive Hitting the Ground. "I think Victor really brought something back to the whole thing. In my opinion, his drumming and singing - in fact, our whole show - is better than ever." ifnotthenalso@smh.com.au ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ George Harrison Tribute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i just picked up songs from the material world - the george harrison tribute album and theres no vfemmes on it. is there another one? did I get the wrong one? Eric wisconsinsane13@hotmail.com ******************************************************************* To POST, SUBSCRIBE, or UNSUBSCRIBE send any kind of an email to: violentfemmeslist@yahoo.com or violentfemmeslist@ameritech.net ******************************************************************* |