04-03-98

AMERICAN MUSIC: THE VIOLENT FEMMES MAILING LIST
currently run by Pat. Wary

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TOUR DATES: (NEW DATES MARKED WITH A **)

**April 9 – University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, PA (O)**
**April 30 – 96.5 The Peak, Denver, CO (O)**
**May 9 – KMYZ, Tulsa, OK (O)**
**May 10 – Frontier City Arena, Oklahoma City, OK (O) TENTATIVE DATE**
**May 11 – Witchita, KS (O) TENTATIVE DATE**

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WHO/WHERE
Going to a VF concert? Want to know if anyone
else on the list also going? Check here first!

Alliance, OH April 4
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Indianapolis, IN April 6
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The Quote Of The Day:

can i put in something, like this is American Music–take one
-From American Music
-Submitted by

PLEASE send your VF quotes to
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ALL CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS LETTER SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO

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WEB PAGES:

Official: http://www.vfemmes.com
Unofficial: http://vf.scopemag.com
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/6918
Past Tour
Dates: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lounge/1725/femmes.html
Guitar: http://www.bucknell.edu/~wtorres/violent_femmes
http://www.olga.net
Une banane:Send in your top five faves each week to:

HERE I AM: Tell me where you live for the Here I Am list.

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In Today’s Issue:

Welcome Needed
Johnstown Info
RE: Release Date
RE: Release Date
Heart and Soul
RE: Who Decides?

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Welcome Needed
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If any new subscriber has a recent copy of Welcome to American Music
please send it to me. I accidentally deleted it from my files and I’m
too damn lazy to type up another one!
Today’s new subscribers will get a welcome as soon as I get one
together.

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Johnstown Info
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Picked a name off the student webpages at Pitt/Johnstown, and got this
response. It’s a start…

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RE: Release Date
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> Is this a world wide release date or is it just in America? If this
> is just America when can the rest of the world get it, i.e Australia.
> Also if there is going to be a single when can we expect that to be
> released as well. Just curious 🙂

despite the station in Omaha already having the single…the following
info was on April 1st’s New Rock news (and yeah, i realize the date, but
i think this should be true)…

“The Violent Femmes are set to release their latest album, ‘Freak
Magnet,’ on May 19. Their first single, ‘All you want,’ should be out in
mid-April.”

they didn’t say if it’s a worldwide release, but because we’ve heard
rumors of a world tour soon, i would imagine that the album will be
released worldwide right around the same date. but that’s just a guess.

rob=)

-Pat. Says: I have heard that this will probably be the worldwide
release date.

in the new issue of ice (or something like that its a magazine that
shows upcoming releases for about six months or so)
nonetheless violent femmes magnet freak is officially dated for release
on may 19

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Heart and Soul
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> Brian injects
> so much of his personality into the expression of the music
> of the VF. Hell, this is all IMHO, but it seems to me that
> Gordon is the voice and Brian is the soul of the VF.

Pat, Let me preface by saying that I do enjoy BRs Sonic Temple, esp Sun
Ra and Let’s Drink Some Wine. It depends on what you mean by *soul*,
but IMHO the songwriter initiates the soul with the passion of what he’s
writing about. Now I’m no songwriter, but I envision the rest as
interpretation and embellishment. So if Mercy Seat(Gordon) sounds like
VF, then the soul of VF would be Gordon as well. If there’s a soul
*instrumentally*, I would agree that it’s Brian, because of the
accompanying interpretation, and mood he breaths into a song.

This brings me to a point I have been pondering for some time. It seems
to me-and I wonder if anyone else has noticed, that alot of their
recent work (since New Times) has much more influence from Brian’s
song writing which is so different than Gordon’s-very dark and heavy,
rather than playfully tongue-in-cheek. To me, lyrics are repetitive &
one dimensional (Dance MF Dance, Tonight) opposed to ponderfully witty.
I’ve been trying to put a finger on what is so different since the last
recording I wholly enjoyed which was Why Do Birds Sing. I think that’s
it, and that the stix are different as well. When I hear a song, I
catalog it in my mind as a Gordon song or a Brian song, regardless of
what it says in the liner notes-just a feeling. For me, there’s a
certain mix of influence and style that makes a good or a great VF song.

-Cheryl :))

-If only you could know, how I love you so..
-From Good Friend

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RE: Who Decides?
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Hillarious Kyle T wrote:
>i believe they have put a setlist to memory……

Yeah Kyle I have to say it *seems* like that sometimes to me too. Ya
know BITS, Kiss Off, Add, some of those are always gonna be there but..
I think it was Pat who answered someone else’s question about this and
said that it is BR who decides what they’re gonna play next. I have
ALWAYS wondered about this. I’ve watched so closely before but have
never figured out how they do it! Back to the topic – I think when time
is a factor they play kind of a condensed set that follows more of a
pattern and then toss a few extras in that fit the mood. But when they
headline and can control their stage time they mix things up a bit.
Case in point – last year Country Death Song was in every show I saw but
on 3/3 in Freds they didn’t play it at all but then again it’s taken me
12 years to hear Flamingo live (Freds 3/3/98 YES!!). Actually I’ve been
toying with the notion of following in Nick’s footsteps and trying to
catalog setlists – would anyone be interested in participating in this?
It would have to be a group effort ’cause ya know I can’t like quit my
job and travel the world – hmmm… wouldn’t that be SWEET?!!
So now that I haven’t added one damn thing to Kyle’s comment about set
lists I guess I’ll shut up! It really doesn’t matter to me one way or
another cause they would ROCK even if they played Beat It!

-ddearry

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