12-09-98

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The Quote Of The Day:

Mo my momma momma mo my mum,
Have you kept your eye, your eye on your son?
-From Add It Up
-Submitted by thehappycyclops

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

Dec. 29- 8:30 pm, Electirc Factory, Philadelphia, PA, $17.50 (P,T)
($0.25 of each ticket goes to charity)

**Dec. 30- 9:00 pm, The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA, $15.00 (T)**

Dec. 31- 7:30, Patriot Center, Fairfax, VA 52.50 Plus 6.75 service
charge for phone orders!!! Call 800-551-7328 to order (O,P)
(With Pietasters and Squirrel Nut Zippers)

NOTA BENE: ‘O’ stands for the Official homepage
‘P’ stands for Pollstar
‘T’ stands for Ticketmaster
‘I’ stands for Insider Info
All other references are subscribers

To book a show, contact Monterey Peninsula Artists.
Serious inquiries only.

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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!

Philadelphia, PA
—————-
JMES4249 (Jennifer)

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ALL CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS LETTER SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO
AMUSIC
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WEB PAGES:

Official: http://www.vfemmes.com

Unofficial: http://vf.lasvegasweekly.com/
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/6918
http://members.aol.com/kittricken/index.html
VF Message
Board: http://red.cscwc.pima.edu/~cstaley/femmes/board.html

Yahoo Chat: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/newtimesviolentfemmesclub

Past Tour Dates:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lounge/1725/femmes/femmes.html

Guitar: http://www.angelfire.com/hi/VFemmes
http://www.smug.adelaide.edu.au/~therapy/violent_femmes/

MP3’s http://members.tripod.com/~GasolineFumes/music.html

Glenn Gano’s Page: http://www.alaska.net/~ggano

Charm Records: http://www.charmrec.com

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In Today’s Issue:

The Spokane Show
New Year’s, RE: Other Bands
Femmes on MTV Web
RE: Rugrats
Misinterpretations
Femmes/TMBG
RE: Black Girls
RE: Black Girls
RE: Black Girls
RE: Black Girls

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The Spokane Show
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Hello All:

This is my first time posting to American Music. The occasion? I went
to my first Violent Femmes concert at the Spokane Opera House, which was
coincidentally my first real concert ever! 🙂 It was also the Femmes
first time ever playing in Spokane, which is pretty cool! It was pretty
neat, but it seemed sort of short to me. I guess two hours of singing
really is a sizeable amount, though:) It’s probably a good thing for me
since I had my anatomy lab final first thing Tuesday morning at 8 am. I
was in pain the next morning, but it was worth the snowy drive and late
night! (On the way home we hit a deer! It was really scary, but the
driver swerved but the back of the car fishtailed and we just nudged the
doe. She fell and then got up and ran away. Whew! I would have felt
terrible if she had been really hurt!)

Harvey Danger opened for the Femmes, but I had only ever heard one of
his songs before so it wasn’t really all that interesting to me. When
the Violent Femmes finally came out, I was very excited because I had
never seen them in person before! I wish that I had been able to get
better seats so that I would have been able to see them better, but oh
well, it will make next time even better:)

Nothing seemed really out of the ordinary about the set list from what
I can tell from reading others’ accounts of VF concerts, but there were
a couple of exceptions. Gordon’s parents live in Spokane and were in
the audience, so I think that they tried to keep it mild. 🙂 I read an
article in the local paper with a quote from Gordon Gano himself
(talking about Dance Motherfucker Dance): “It could be the stupidest
rock and roll song ever, and to me there’s a certain appeal in that. But
the Spokane audience will probably never hear the Violent Femmes play
Dance MF Dance.” Thus, I have no interesting and new intro to tell you
all about!

Basically, it was loud, pretty fantastic, and way, Way, WAY different
than any of the CD’s I have heard! 🙂 I always thought that they would
sing pretty much the same as on the recordings, but I guess I was way
off base. The Femmes put on a pretty good performance–lots of lights,
jamming, and odd comments:) At the end, for an encore, the Femmes came
out and played a couple of Christmas songs: The first was a song I had
never heard before that Gordon wrote. I think it was called “Merry
Christmas, brother.” It was spiritual and kind of pretty. Then they
sang “Have a holly, jolly Christmas” and it sounded really good, too! 🙂

Their instruments were awesome! I was sad not to get to see Brian play
the didgereedoo, though. They brought it out on stage, but it was never
played. They did tell a story about the xylophone that they played
during “Gone Daddy Gone.” They bought it that day in Spokane at a
pawnshop. And I thought that the Violent Femmes brought ALL of their
equipment on the bus! : (sorry, bad joke!) I have never heard Gone
Daddy Gone sound so good! Although, there were a few songs that I
really liked the recordings of better:) (One of them being my favorite
song “American Music”) Brian Ritchie had an instument that was a little
globe on a stand that made screeching sounds when he ran his hands over
it. I think it was one of those lightning globes that he hooked up to a
microphone so that with each different hand pattern over the surface, a
different sound came out. It was really weird sounding and cool looking!
Does anyone ever seen it or know what I am talking about??!

Now I cannot wait to get Freak Magnet (still haven’t seen or heard it,
argh!), although I am not sure if they actually played any of the songs
off of the new album. I heard a few that I didn’t recognize, but I have
not yet heard 3 and one of their other albums, and I think that they
might have been off of there, since I recognized some of the lyrics as
song titles.

Thanks for reading my excited rant! I am going to hit every Femmes
concert that I can reasonably get to from now on!! AND I’m wearing my
new spiffy Femmes t-shirt as I write this;)

Later,
Nicole:)
nwinn

-Pat. Says: Well, it was some kind of theramin, I guess. I saw it at
Irving Plaza.

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New Year’s, RE: Other Bands
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You guys, I am about to strangle one of my best friends. I bought three
$50 tickets for us to see the Femmes on New Years (being the generous
friend I am considering I only make 7 bucks an hour) and one of them is
suggesting that we shouldn’t go. AAAHHH!!! Is she insane you ask? I
believe so! This is a tradition for us-at least it was until the band
decided not to come anymore :o( -and now that they’re coming again and
we’ll all be home I went ahead and bought them tickets as part of their
Christmas presents. I can’t return the tickets and I definitely want
to go. Any advice?

As for the musical preference thing, the Femmes are number one in my
book. The number two spot is tied with about 15 other groups. A few
that I recommend adding to your collection would be Ani Difranco(she
kicks so much bootie), Radiohead-“OK computer” is IMHO one of the
greatest albums, Sarah Mclachlan’s “Fumbling Towards Ecstacy” is a good
chill cd, and one that I just got by The Story called “The Angel in the
House.” They’re a good folk group with some very entertaining lyrics.
Of course, there’s the Doors, Janis, Rusted Root, Bob, Phish, Patsy
Cline, the Dead (Dead can dance), TUSCAREDO!!!, Mazzy Star, Tori, Simon
& Garfunkle, The Little Mermaid soundtrack(my favorite movie), and why
not throw in Deana Carter and the sultry Shania Twain. Harry Connick
Jr’s not bad either. Just a few of the things you’d finc if you were
to raid my cd collection.

Be good everyone!!
Danica
Gluegirl
By the way, is anyone else going to the New Years show?

-Pat. Says:You have two choices. Since it’s only one of the two friends,
either force her to go or offer the ticket to someone else
and let her fend for herself on New Year’s Eve. She doesn’t
like it? Tough. Those are expensive tickets and too much
trouble to sell. PLUS, you really want to go, right? So Go.

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Femmes on MTV Web
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okay i dont know if people already know this, but there are some *NICE*
femmes video clips on the mtv web page. go to mtv.com and click on
bands a-z and then violent femmes. they have clips from “children of the
revolution,” “i held her in my arms” and one other, i forget what it was.
okay thanks

james
schrader

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RE: Rugrats
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about the rugrates movie…
<< I’m going to have to wait until it comes out on video so I can rent
it for my sister and find out exactly what GG sang. >>

yeah, he’s in the scene with all the babies singing, his character is
dressed in blue and sings the line that goes something like “things just
aint the same” or “things are just so strange” something like that…

~shannon
Fraggle3

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Misinterpretations
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I thought that he said “My girlfriend she’s Auntie Em.” From the Wizard
of Oz.

Aaron
agarn

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Femmes/TMBG
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>Well, any Femmes fan who hasn’t checked out They Might Be Giants has to
>have his head in a loaf of bread, so I won’t mention them. (But they
>rock!)

For as long as I have known of them, TMBG have always been my other
favorite band, right up there with the Femmes. These are the only two
bands of which I own every album. (Yes, I have Rock!!! and Freak
Magnet , as well as Severe Tire Damage , and that wonderful Then
collection.) When thought about, though, these two bands are not that
much alike at all. I have always thought of them as opposites in a way;
the Johns demonstrate more intelligence and mastery of
song-manipulation while the Femmes are more emotional and more musical.
I often think of them as two sides of the same coin, or the same side
of two different coins. I can’t even listen to them both in the same
day, I have to be in the right mood for each, and they don’t mix well.
Still, I can’t make myself prefer one over the other, and as different
as they may be, they seem to somehow coordinate. I can’t imagine liking
one and not the other. Of course, I have seen TMBG in concert
(Worcester, 12/13/97), and I have yet to see the Femmes. What could we
do to get them to come to Maine? Probably have to blindfold them, tie
them up, and throw them in the back of a van. Oh, well, I can always
hope…
Let me know what you guys think of the Femmes/TMBG connection.
Later,

Jeff
Jeffrey_Wilson

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RE: Black Girls
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<< Does anyone think that Black Girls is a disgraceful song? An insult
to black girls and white girls, white boys and black boys alike? Plus
a scandalous insult to those who cherish religous beliefs? >>

i dont

~shannon
Fraggle3

Goodness no. Black Girls has always been one of my faves. And as to it
being offensive in a religious sense, I have no idea what you’re
talking about. I assume it’s these lyrics that are being challenged:

“How I love the Lord of Hosts
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
I was so pleased to learn that he’s inside me
In my time of trouble, he will hide me.”

What’s wrong with that? It seems to be pro-religion. Maybe i’m missing
something, but I think Black Girls is the rockinest Femmes song around.

Claire
Lottelita

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RE: Black Girls
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I always thought that Black Girls was kind of an insult to the
prejudicial ideas that Black girls are fast, black boys not too bright
and white boys more sexually rambunctious. As far as that song being
scandalous to religious beliefs, well I think that the Femmes are a
harmonic blend of spiritual sensibility and secular realism. They know
how to pull everyone’s strings at once and that makes me think about and
examine my own beliefs. I love that about them!

Marylee
Rubaiyat

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RE: Black Girls
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I really hate how everything gets disected and picked apart to find
something not “politically correct.” Yes, the song talks about
different races(oh my gosh!!)and one man’s opinions about each race. But
it’s not like he’s saying, “Kill whitey,” or using the “n” word–he’s
merely stating his personal point of view. People will think what they
think and one song will not dramatically change their outlook on an
entire group of people. The Femmes rule, the song rules–enjoy.

Bill Brower
vfpony

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