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The Quote Of The Day:

Yeah, I’m gonna corner you in a elevator
And you won’t be able to put me off till later
-From Sweet Misery Blues

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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!

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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 if this doesn’t work, try:
http://206.103.163.50
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
http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/OLGA/all/violent_femmes.html
Une banane:Send in your top five faves each week to:
melancon.
HERE I AM: Tell me where you live for the Here I Am list.

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In Today’s Issue:

Various Thoughts
RE: Fave Quote
Second Request for Bass
RE: Bass Tabs..Jumping Onstage
RE: Clash Tribute
Let’s Hear These..Covers
New Web Page
Best Femmes Summer Song?
Another Freak Magnet
To the Bitter End

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Various Thoughts
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“I’m in Style” was written by Gordon a *long* time ago, before anyone
had ever heard of Violent Femmes, which made the lyrics outrageously
sarcastic/funny.

Regarding Guy Schaafs question, the guys do play “Jesus Walking on the
Water” in concert, but not that often anymore. You may notice they did
play it recently, and Gordon played the violin.

Regarding lyrics, “share a smoke, make a joke” is correct. For those
that need drug references, plenty abound without having to make any up.
Also, from Waiting for the Bus, it’s “we all gettin’ mad, we all gettin’
late”. Once again, for those that need sex references, plenty abound
without having to make any up!

Regarding covers, nobody has mentioned “Children of the Revolution”
being a T-Rex song. Every cover song the band recorded has come about
because of strong record company pressure (blackmail?). Fortunately,
the guys are able to put their own unique stamp on whatever song they
cover. Gordon totally rewrote the verses for “Do You Really Want to
Hurt Me”, leaving the chorus the same.

“Forbidden” is a poem by William Carlos Williams that Gordon set to
music (“Hey Nonny Nonny” was also based on an old poem-good ear,
Joshua!), and “Positively 4th Street” (You’ve Got a Lot of Nerve) in
hindsight is a wonderfully ironic song if you imagine the band singing
it to Interscope Records! You can get the words from the original Bob
Dylan recording, then imagine the Femmes performing it Ramones style.

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RE: Fave Quote
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I was inspired by all your letters about your fave quotes in music, so
I started searching my mind. All I could think of right now, is from a
really bad song by Robbie Williams. But I still like the line:
“And as the feeling grows, she breathes flesh to my bones”.
How can someone who sings that bad, write something that good?
Well, anyway, I just wanted to say hello to all the people in Oregon
and Nevada, since I will be moving there in a couple of months. I
don” know where precisely, but I will finally get to see the Femmes
live and I can’t wait for that.

Pernille Schmidt

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Second Request for Bass
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Does anyone have any bass lines and/or bass tab pages they know of.
If so e-mail them to me at NoFX531Thanks.

-NoFX531

-Pat. Says: go to
http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/OLGA/all/violent_femmes.html
There you will find bass tabs for American Music, Blister,
Country Death Song, Please Do Not Go, Waiting For the Bus.
I don’t play, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of these,
and there is a note at the bottom of the page to check out
ALL the listed links, because some may not be 100% accurate.

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RE: Bass Tabs..Jumping Onstage
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> Does anyone have the full bass line for Blister in the sun and
> American music and add it up.

I think there was a TAB page somewhere, but I forget…

> I would imagine that jumping onstage might freak the band out a bit,

I’d say so, in fact Gordon personally told me never to do that again 😉
tee hee hee meow meow,

*smooch* *smooch* love wes

+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+
| Wesley Torres |
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| http://www.students.bucknell.edu/~wtorres/ |
+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+

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RE: Clash Tribute
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In a message dated 98-06-01 12:45:32 EDT, you write:

<< The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (produced by X’s John Doe) – “Rudie Can’t
Fail”
MXPX (w/Social Distortion’s Mike Ness) – “Janie Jones”
Ranking Roger – “Rock The Casbah”
Ice Cube, Mack 10, and Korn (remixed by Danny Saber) – “Should I Stay
Or Should I Go”
No Doubt – “Hateful”
The Urge – “This Is Radio Clash”
311 – “White Man In Hammersmith Palais”
Rancid – “Cheat”
Silverchair – “London’s Burning”
Cracker – “White Riot”
Indigo Girls – “Clampdown”
Face To Face – “Tommy Gun”
Unwritten Law – “The Guns of Brixton”
Moby and Heather Nova – “Straight To Hell” >>

What song did the Femmes cover??? Didn’t they record a song for the
album or am i just making that up?

-kara

-Pat. Says: They did do a song…can’t remember what it was. They’ve
probably redone the album completely since we last talked
about it way back in September.

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Let’s Hear These..Covers
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hello everyone 🙂
to respond to garrica’s question of ‘what would we like to hear that
they never play?’ immediately ‘Fat’ came to mind. they never play it!
its not one of my favorite song by them, but i think it would be great
to hear live. id also like to hear them play ‘ i hear the rain’ or
‘do you really want to hurt me’ . if they do ever play those, i havnt
been fortunate enough to hear it yet.
for the covors of them that others do, i think id like to hear the cure
do ‘country death song’ or maybe radiohead do ‘machine’…
just a thought 🙂

~shannon–Fraggle3

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New Web Page
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I have a sorta-kinda-maybe new Femmes page. It’s really just a story.
It’s called Grand Kaiser (that’s me) vs. The Violent Femmes. It’s fully
illustrated and everything. It’s at http://www.wild.net/~gkaiser/femmes.phtml
Go with an open mind. I write weird stuff.

Grand Kaiser
gkaiser

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Best Femmes Summer Song?
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Okay, so here’s the deal: Every summer I like to start my vacation off
by listening to a Femmes song before anything else (brings good luck
don’t ya know, Irish). Most people would consider ‘Blister in the Sun’
to be the ultimate summer song, period. However, I kinda prefer 36-24-36
as my summer starter. I like Blister better, but 36-24-36 seems to fit
summer’s mood better. What do you guys think?

“I know this summer’s gonna be the best, if I don’t die from lack of
rest!”

-gkaiser

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Another Freak Magnet
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Hi everybody!

I just bought a new CD which features a song titled “Freak Magnet.”
It’s the new Tuscadero album, My Way or the Highway. The song was
written by one of the band members, but I thought it was quite a
coincidence that the song is titled “Freak Magnet.”

Danica 0:o)

“Naked is a state of mind.”

-Gluegirl

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To the Bitter End
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Hey everyone, this is longish, but amusing. It embodies my epic
adventure to stick up for the Violent Femmes no matter what. I’m a fan
till they lock me away. Then I’ll just make a band in the asylum with
that Pink Floyd singer and play femmes songs with instruments in the key
of two.
Ok, this past Saturday my friends and I went down to the NJ
shore cause the prom was the night before and so every HS student from
NJ goes down to Seaside Heights. Well my friend Mike and I decided to
bring our guitars and set up on the boardwalk, right? In fact we set up
right across from the MTV beach house. It was cool. We opened a case
in front of the bench and I played for maybe a half-hour. This was my
birthday-celebration for Gordon, cause Mike’s parents wouldn’t let us
bake a cake. We figured that Irish Coffees and some Femmes tribute
would be a good substitute.
Well we got about a half hour into it, alternating between
radiohead and femmes covers. I think we played Karma Police, American
Music, Fake Plastic Trees, Gimme the Car, The Bends, Blister in the Sun
(I think calling it BITS is a fucking stupid anagram), Exit Music, Kiss
Off, and He Likes Me. At this point we had made a grand total of $1.25
from people who were hoping that their donation would go towards music
lessons. After “He Likes Me” (probably one of my all time favorites)
some muscle-head comes up to me and tells me that I suck and that I
can’t play guitar or sing, and that I should play more stuff by Puff
Daddy. I pointed out that most music by Puff Daddy isn’t meant to be
played on the guitar. He went away.
Anyway, I started a great rendition of Kiss Off in one last
valiant attempt to attract someone, anyone with a sense of asthetics.
The only people I attracted were two bicycle police who told us that we
had to stop because it was against the law. I told THESE two muscle
heads that it was really a shame because I was about to dedicate my next
song to the fine police force of that town. He wouldn’t let me play it.

I went up to a couple other cops and asked them if playing
guitar in public was really illegal. I wanted to see it written down.
The one cop started looking through his book full of “no ____’s while
the other one made fun of me and told me that I sucked anyway. He
really said that. I told him to shut up because he couldn’t do any
better. He got quiet. The first cop finally showed me that the actual
law was no loitering, and that apparantly we were being a nuisance. I
pointed out that the law his finger was on said “no littering”. I don’t
think he understood.
So Mike and I bought a big ass sticker from this store that said
“I (heart) COPS” We put it on his guitar case and set it up in front of
the bench and sat there for another half hour or so. Oh well, now that
I’m back home in MA, I’m going to go play in Boston next week till they
kick me out of there too.

-Drew

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