Out of the Vaults #16 - The Violent Femmes - S/T Album

Each week or so my wife will dive into our CD cabinets (The Vaults) and randomly pull out one of the thousands of CDs. The chosen album will then be given to me and I will talk about the CD for awhile no matter how good, bad, obscure or embarrassing the chosen disc is. Where did I buy it, when did I buy it, what was my first reaction to hearing it, do I still listen to it today etc, etc, etc

Out Of The Vaults #16 - The Violent Femmes  - S/T Album

The song which is most quickly recognized by hearing just the first few notes is Beethoven's 5th Symphony. At number two is probably "Blister in the Sun" by the Violent Femmes.

Chances are if you were born after the year 1970 you have heard or owned this album. You probably drove around listening with your friends, counting off the numbers to "Kiss Off". You definitely enunciated the "F word" every time it was sung in
"Add It Up"

For me the first time I heard many vital classic albums was when they were given to me in pairs on A and B sides of dubbed cassettes. The first time I heard The Smiths and New Order was The Queen is Dead backed up by Brotherhood. The first Suicidal Tendencies album was on the reverse of the tongue in cheek thrash of S.O.D.'s Speak English Of Die. Much later the Gorilla Biscuits hardcore classic Start Today shared a cassette with Underdog's equally great Vanishing Point album.

Before all those sometime around 1984 one of my older sister's friends handed me a TDK cassette with The Dead Kennedy's Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables on one side and The Violent Femmes debut on the other. In the 28 years since I don't think the Violent Femmes album has ever fallen out of my regular rotation.

The album contains so many great songs. The total originality of the before mentioned "Kiss Off" and "Add It Up". The snare drum and acoustic bass of "Please Do Not Go" and "Prove My Love". The evil vocal and twisted guitars with the even more mangled acoustic bass on "Confessions" and "The Kill". The driving "Promise" and "Gone Daddy Gone" (covered by Gnarls Barkley's on their 2006 St. Elsewhere album). Plus how could we forget the slower album closer of "Good Feeling"?

But of course there's no denying "Blister In The Sun" is the main classic on the album. The song appears everywhere.  Just off the top of my head I can think of  the films Grosse Pointe Blank, Adventureland and the television show My So Called Life. A few years back "Blister In The Sun" even appeared in a Wendy's commercial.

I have to say the most surprising place, considering what the song is supposedly semi-about,was at the Homecoming Dance my senior year of high school

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