TitleAdd It Up (1981-1993
Year1993, 2021
LabelsSlash, Reprise, London, Polydor, Craft
Format12″, Cassette, CD
Length47:43
VariantsAqua Blue, Violet, Blister Red Marble. Club Ed.

Track Listing

  • Intro
  • Waiting For The Bus
  • Blister In The Sun
  • Gone Daddy Gone
  • Gordon’s Message
  • Gimmie The Car
  • Country Death Song
  • Black Girls
  • Jesus Walking On The Water
  • 36-24-36
  • I Held Her In My Arms
  • I Hate The TV
  • America Is
  • Old Mother Reagan
  • Degradation
  • Dance, M.F., Dance
  • Lies
  • American Music
  • Out The Window
  • Kiss Off
  • Add It Up
  • Vancouver
  • Johnny

Limited Colored Variations, Reissued for 40th Anniversary in 2021
* Blister Red Marble (Sold Exclusively at Craft Recordings, Vfemmes.Com) 500 Copies
* Violet (Sold Exclusively at Urban Outfitters)
* Aqua Blue (Sold at Various Indie Record Stores)

SOME KINDA VIOLENT
SOME KINDA FEMMES
SOME KINDA…
There must have come the moment when he realized he was gone. His strange days would go on . . . forever. With a movie-star smile looking for comrades in the Siberia of the heartland, of course,the pure products america go crazy like the doctor/poet said as the beast left Bethlehem hungry for rhythm and rhymes turning right at Chicago for a land of Oddz . . . Eureka. Milwaukee, Home to Golda Meir, Malcolm X, Violent Femmes.

Largest per capita brandy consumption in the continental forty-eight, and some kinda crazy American Music. I was in a taxi in Berlin, pre-unification, riding close to the wall covered in graffiti like some hip serpent encircling the city when it came on the radio, “Gone Daddy Gone” or “Country Death Song,” I don’t know. But it was perfect. Island music-Island of the damned, this place-innocent enough for a nursery school, but sharp and rusty like the most dangerous knives. Don’t ever give up the edge I begged these Femmes in a fever dream, but really, how could they?

Once upon a time in a grimmer fairy tale this idea of a band meant something more than matching haircuts. Stones, Beatles, Velvets, Femmes. . . who knows why these things fit, but they do. I picture a large Polish dance hall in Milwaukee: men in groups, women in flowered dresses, talking of walks on the lakes when these Femmes arrive. Gordon first. Taking a seat next to the fattest woman outside a circus. Talking to her soft and kind, knowing she’s the only one who knows anything about the weight of the world. Then Victor sizing things up from a theatrical point of view: finding stage center in the most obscure places-letting the audience wear the costumes tonight, and Brian, already halfway through the set before he begins to manhandle that bass, squeeze it like a toy, always keeping in mind what Jimi might do.

They were bound to find themselves together these femmes, uncomfortable at times, barely able to breathe and then the pressure builds. There’s cold sweat dripping from the valves. Don’t look here they say as they open wide these tunnels of distress full of floodlights. Sound pouring out like Coltrane, like Krupa, like Fred and Hank Williams. Like howling wolf and no sleep. Like the American nightmare and the birth of the blues. You mighta heard it in a storyville before the Navy burned the damn place down. These Femmes jamming with Buddy Bolden at the House of the Rising Sun as the flames lick the windows, but Brian just plays faster and Victor is pulsing like blood and Gordon is straining to get it all out before it . . . before it . . .
These Femmes. They’re funny guys, ya know?
(c) 1993 Elliott Murphy – Paris

1 INTRO :15
2 WAITING FOR THE BUS 2:06
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Violent Femmes
Previously unreleased demo, 1981
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1980 Gorno Music ASCAP

3 BLISTER IN THE SUN 2:23
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Mark Van Hecke
Recorded by Glenn Lorbiecki
Mixed by John Tanner
Studio: Castel, Lake Geneva, WI
From “Violent Femmes”, 1982
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1980 Gorno Music ASCAP

4 GONE DADDY GONE 3:05
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, xylphone
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Mark Van Hecke Recorded by Glenn Lorbiecki
Mixed by John Tanner
Studio: Castel, Lake Geneva, WI
From “Violent Femmes”, 1982
Written by Gordon Gano and Willie Dixon
(c) 1980 Gorno Music ASCAP/Hoochie Coochie
Music BMI

5 GORDON’S MESSAGE :26
Produced by the Violent Femmes
Answering Machine, 1982
Gordon left this message to explain why he would be late for our first recording session
(c) 1993 Gorno Music ASCAP

6 GIMMIE THE CAR 5:05
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Mark Van Hecke
Studio: Music Works, London, England
Originally recorded as a B-side for an English single, 1983
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1980 Gorno Music ASCAP

7 COUNTRY DEATH SONG 5:00
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass
Victor DeLorenzo-drums
Tony Trischea-banjo
Produced by Mark Van Hecke
Recorded and mixed by John Tanner
Assisted by Warren Bruleigh
Studio: Secret Sound, New York, NY
From “Hallowed Ground,” 1984
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1986 Gorno Music ASCAP

8 BLACK GIRLS 5:41
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, jaw harp, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Peter Balestrieri-tenor sax
Drake Scott-Cornetto
John Zorn-alto sax, clarinet, game calls
Produced by Mark Van Hecke
Recorded and mixed by John Tanner
Assisted by Warren Bruleigh
Studio: Secret Sound, New York, NY
From “Hallowed Ground,” 1984
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1986 Gorno Music ASCAP

9 JESUS WALKING ON THE WATER 3:05
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar, fiddle
Brian Ritchie-bass
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Peter Balestrieri-vocal
Cynthia Gayneau-vocal
Christina Houghton-Autoharp
Produced by Mark Van Hecke
Recorded and mixed by John Tanner
Assisted by Warren Bruleigh
Studio: Secret Sound, New York, NY
From “Hallowed Ground,” 1984
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1986 Gorno Music ASCAP

10 36-24-36 1:47
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, guitar, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded on 4-track cassette by Victor DeLorenzo at Sympathetic Muffler in Milwaukee, WI
Recorded as a demo for the title track of a movie that was never made, 1985
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1984 Gorno Music ASCAP

11 I HELD HER IN MY ARMS 3:01
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Sigmund Snopek III-organ
Bob Jennings-Tenor Sax
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded by Dave Neitzke at
Midwest Recorders, Milwaukee WI
Mixed by David Vartanian at DV’s Perversion Room, Milwaukee, WI
Previously unreleased, 1985 A different version appeared on “The Blind Leading the Naked”
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1985 Gorno Music ASCAP

12 I HATE THE TV 2:09
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, guitar, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded by Dave Neitzke at Midwest Recorders, Milwaukee WI
Mixed by David Vartanian at DV’s Perversion Room, Milwaukee, WI
Previously unreleased, 1985
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1984 Gorno Music ASCAP

13 AMERICA IS 2:10
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, guitar, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded by Dave Neitzke at Midwest Recorders, Milwaukee WI
Mixed by David Vartanian at DV’s Perversion Room, Milwaukee, WI
Previously unreleased, 1985
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1984 Gorno Music ASCAP

14 OLD MOTHER REAGAN :33
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, guitar, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Jerry Harrison
Recorded and Mixed by David Vartanian at DV’s Perversion Room, Milwaukee, WI
From “The Blind Leading the Naked,” 1985
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1985 Gorno Music ASCAP

15 DEGRADATION :35
Vocal-Victor DeLorenzo
Instruments-Brian Ritchie, Victor DeLorenzo
Drake Scott
Produced by Violent Femmes
Radio Spot recorded by Victor DeLorenzo for a show at the oriental theater in Milwaukee, WI March 29, 1985
Written by Brian Ritchie and
Victor DeLorenzo
(c) 1993 Humidor/Defendimusics BMI

16 DANCE, MOTHERFUCKER, DANCE! 3:17
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, guitar, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Caleb Alexander-tenor sax
Sigmund Snopek III-trombone, piano
Peter Balestrieri-baritone sax
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded at Stebbing Studio, Auckland, New Zealand, February, 1986
Mixed by unknown
Previously released only as a B-side in Australia and Europe
Written by Voot Warnings, Glenn Rehse,
John Frankovic
(c) 1986 Refraction Music/Floral Drape Music BMI
After we recorded this, the master tape disappeared for many years, then a finished mix mysteriously showed up at our record company’s office, anyone knowing who mixed it or the whereabouts of our original master, please contact us

17 LIES 5:45
Gordon Gano-vocal, banjo, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Ashwin Batish-sitar
Studio portio produced by Violent Femmes and Warren Bruleigh at Carriage House, Stamford, CT
From “3,” 1988
Previously unreleased live portion-board cassette recorded by Caleb Alexander at Leavy Activities Center Santa Clara, CA, April 3, 1992
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1989 Gorno Music ASCAP

18 AMERICAN MUSIC 3:55
Gordon Gano-vocal, banjo, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, didgeridoo, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Tom Mandel-keyboards
Michael Beinhorn-organ
Produced by Michael Beinhorn
Additional production by Violent Femmes
Recorded by Susan Rogers at American Recording, Woodland Hills, CA
Mixed by Eric “E.T.” Thorngren at the hit factory, New York, NY
From “Why Do Birds Sing?,” 1990
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1990 Gorno Music ASCAP

19 OUT THE WINDOW 2:54
Gordon Gano-vocal, banjo, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Michael Beinhorn
Additional production by Violent Femmes
Recorded by Susan Rogers at American Recording, Woodland Hills, CA
Mixed by David Vartanian at DV’s Perversion Room, Milwaukee, WI
From “Why Do Birds Sing?,” 1990
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1990 Gorno Music ASCAP

20 KISS OFF 4:55
Gordon Gano-vocal, banjo, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded live at The Palace, Melbourne, Australia, November 8, 1990
Recorded by Chris Thomas
Mixed by David Vartanian at DV’s Perversion Room, Milwaukee, WI
Previously released only as a B-side
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1978 Gorno Music ASCAP

21 ADD IT UP 5:56
Gordon Gano-vocal, banjo, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass, vocal
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, vocal
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded live at The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA, July 21, 1991
Recorded by David Vartanian
Mixed by David Vartanian at DV’s Perversion Room, Milwaukee, WI
Previously unreleased
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1980 Gorno Music ASCAP

22 VANCOUVER 2:15
Gordon Gano-guitar
Brian Ritchie-didgeridoo
Victor DeLorenzo-drums, whistle
Caleb Alexander-tenor sax
Mike Kashou-conch
Dominic Placco-trumpet
Jerry Harrison-soprano sax
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded live at The Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, Canada, April 6, 1992
Board tape recorded by
Written by B. Ritchie, G. Gano,
V. DeLorenzo, C. Lentzner,
M. Kashou, D. Placco, J. Harrison
(c) 1993 Gorno Music ASCAP
Jerry Harrison appears courtesy of Sire Records Company

23 JOHNNY 5:24
Gordon Gano-vocal, guitar
Brian Ritchie-bass
Victor DeLorenzo-drums
Produced by Violent Femmes
Recorded live by Victor DeLorenzo at The Beneath It All Cafe, Milwaukee, WI, September 12, 1981
Previously unreleased
Written by Gordon Gano
(c) 1978 Gorno Music ASCAP

Management:
Borman Entertainment, Inc. Los Angeles, California
Gary Borman, Joni Foraker Business Management:
Howard Comart C.P.A. New York, New York
Howard Comart, Lysa Aultman
Booking Agent:
Monterey Penninsula Artists Frank Riley
Publicist: Les Schwartz
Crew:
Willie Macinnes, Caleb Lentzner, Mike Kashou, Darren Brown, Dominic Placco
Merchandiser:
Brockman Merchandising, New York, NY

For Fan Club information write to:
Violent Femmes
14755 Ventura Boulevard, I-710
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

Design and Direction by: Ken Hanson, Hanson Graphic
Cover Illustration & CD Label by: Jack Hargreaves
Back cover and tray photo by: Francis Ford
Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York

Photo Credits:
Daniel Corrigan: Page 7 Center
Francis Ford: Page 8 Top, Page 11 Center, and back cover & tray photo
Fay Gano: Page 14 Center
Ken Hanson: Pages 6 & 7 Round Inset Photos
George Lange: Pages 4, 11 Bottom Right, 12 & 13 Top and Bottom, 14 Top and 15
Bob Melkonian: Page 12 inset
Paul Natkin: Page 11 Upper Left
Howard Rosenberg: Page 8 Bottom
Rocky Schenck: Page 10, Page 11 Bottom Left
Sigmund Snopek: Pages 2 & 3 Center, Page 11 Upper Right
David Vartanian, Page 7 Background
Geoff Worman, Page 2, Page 6 Background

(C) SLASH RECORDS, MADE IN U.S.A.
(C) 1993 Slash Records. (p) 1983.
1984, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1993 Slash Records, P.O. Box 48888, Los Angeles, CA 90048-0888.

Manufactured and Distributed by Warner Bros.
Records Inc., A Time Warner Company,
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Made in U.S.A.
All rights reserved.
Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. Slash logo is a registered trademark of Slash Records, Reprise logo is a registered trademark of Warner Bros. Records Inc.