01-29-00

Best viewed with Courier size 10 maximized screen *********************************************************************** The Quote Of The Day: I told you once I told you twice Japanese eats lots of rice -From Life is an Adventure -Submitted by neil *********************************************************************** TOUR DATES (NEW TOUR DATES MARKED WITH **): **Feb 13- Montego Bay resort, Jamaica ** (I think this is for contest winners only) Mar 10- 7:30 p.m., Olympia, Dublin, IRL, 17.50-18.50 (P,O,T-IRL) Mar 12- Corn Exchange, Cambridge, ENG (P,O) Mar 13- 7 p.m., Hammersmith Palais, London, ENG, 14.50 (P,O,T-UK) Mar 14- Elysee Montmartre, Paris, FRA (P,O) Mar 15- Ancienne Bengique, Brussels, BEL (P,O) Mar 18- Planet Music, Vienna, AUSTRIA (P,O) Mar 20- Babylon, Munich, GER (P,O) Mar 21- Longhorn, Stuttgart, GER (P,O) Mar 22- Hugenottenhalle, Neu-Isenburg, GER (P,O) Mar 23- Hirsch, Nuremburg, GER (P,O) Mar 24- Kesselhaus, Berlin, GER (P,O) Mar 26- Live Music Hall, Cologne, GER (P,O) Mar 27- PC 69, Bielefeld, GER (P,O) Mar 29- Train, Aarhus, DEN (P,O) Mar 30- Rockefeller, Oslo, NOR (P,O) Apr 1- AAS University, NOR (cooking vinyl) Apr 2- Karen, Gothenburg, SWE (P,O) Apr 3- KD, Malmo, SWE (P,O) Apr 6- Manchester University, ENG (P,O) Apr 7- Garage, Glasgow, SCOT (P,O) Oct 25-Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC, NY 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 Hornblow USA at: hbgusa Serious inquiries only. ************************************************************************ WHO/WHERE Going to a VF concert? Want to know if anyone else on the list also going? Check here first! ************************************************************************ WEB PAGES: Official: http://www.vfemmes.com Unofficial: http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/bluenote/936/ http://www.bigfoot.com/~planetblue http://www.geocities.com/kittricken/ http://geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Show/6806/ http://www.violentfemmes.net http://www.homestead.com/lucylittleland/vf.html http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/bates/377/ Yahoo Chat: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/newtimesviolentfemmesclub Message Board: http://www.insidetheweb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi?acct=mb870757&TL= Past Tour Dates: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lounge/1725/femmes/femmes.html Guitar: http://www.smug.adelaide.edu.au/~therapy/femmes/ http://www.angelfire.com/hi/VFemmes Glenn Gano's Page: http://www.alaska.net/~ggano Charm Records: http://www.charmrec.com Victor DeLorenzo's Page: http://victordelorenzo.com *********************************************************************** ALL CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS LETTER SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO AMUSIC *********************************************************************** In Today's Issue: Hammerstein Situation FEMMES IN JAMAICA Viva the Violent Femmes! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hammerstein Situation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Someone upstairs hates me. I've followed the Femmes for 5 years but never been able to see them live because I lived in such outposts of civilization as St Louis and Texas. I actually bought tickets to see them Feb. 25 at the Hammerstein in NYC. I was going to fly up there (ostensibly to see my girlfriend...but also the femmes!) and now the show is postponed. I have two lovely but ornamental and expensive tickets to see the femmes, and also airplane tickets. I guess you shouldn't stake your plans on the femmes, huh? The news i have is that I talked to the Hammerstein people and they have no idea why the show was postponed (obviously they just HAD to go to europe) but that it probably would be rescheduled sometime in April. sigh, Josh heyzeus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FEMMES IN JAMAICA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You posted a message about your friend compiling violent femmes tour dates.....I'm the one that won the trip to see them...I have the date for you for the show in Jamaica, 2/13/00 at the sunset beach resort in Montego Bay..I get to meet the band too... Peace...Liz lizz70 -Pat. Says: Thanks for sending that in to us. I'm sure Nick will see this date and add it to the list. Have a good time, and say hi to the band from all of us. I think this show may be for contest winners only, so please don't rush out and buy plane tickets to Jamaica. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Viva the Violent Femmes! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Found this interview at CD now, http://www.cdnow.com : Viva the Violent Femmes! By Steve Baltin The Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano, Brian Ritchie, and Guy Hoffman are all grown up now, but the trio's music remains eternally young. It's been nearly 20 years since the band's debut spawned the adolescent angst classics "Blister in the Sun," "Add It Up," and "Kiss Off." And for every horny teenager who gets laid and moves on, a new one takes up the band's cries of "Why can't I get just one fuck?" With a recent live album, Viva Wisconsin, and the upcoming studio collection of all new material, Freak Magnet, the trio from Wisconsin is hoping that a new generation of youths will pick up the band's battle cries new and old. Viva finds the band celebrating its roots by playing its classic songs in the acoustic manner many of its fans have come to expect. But Freak Magnet finds them moving forward with what they call the "most rock-and-roll album of our careers." It's a busy time in the lives of the Violent Femmes as it will continue to be for as long as kids are horny, angry, and misunderstood. CDNOW: So you guys are spending most of the year on tour, correct? Brian Ritchie: It looks like at least the first half of the year we'll be touring because we have a lot of different territories to visit. We have two new records out; a live one, Viva Wisconsin, and a studio one, Freak Magnet, which will be coming out shortly. So we're gonna have to hit a lot of places as well as our usual spots, like Australia and New Zealand. Europe, we are starting to rebuild. For a while, we neglected Europe for different reasons. Some of them had to do with record company problems. Some of the labels we were affiliated with over there were not going to help us tour there efficiently, so we concentrated on the places where it was easy for us to go. Naturally, the U.S. is very easy for us because of all of the universities. We could basically throw a dart at a map of the United States, book a gig at any venue there, and attract at least about 1,000 people. I think we are one of the only bands that can do that. There are a lot of bands that can play in New York, Chicago, and L.A., but get them a gig in Idaho and see how many people show up --20. Because we've been touring constantly, building fans one by one, and showing people that the show is good, we are able to basically go anywhere. Some people will come out of the cornfields to check it out. "Our music is simple enough that when we need to learn new songs, we can learn them in about five minutes. So we generally learn new songs right before we go onstage and start to work them into the set." -- Hoffman CDNOW: Why the decision to put out the live album and the studio disc so close together? Guy Hoffman: Well the live album is coming out now because, like Brian was saying, we've been playing to over three million kids over the last six, seven years in America alone. This record is kind of like putting the cart before the horse. These kids have seen us play in concert, and we are finally offering them a live album. With Europe, it's kind of different. We are really re-establishing our name in Europe on every level. The record company thinks it's important that we interest our fans with some old material that they can grasp and that they know where it's coming from. Perhaps we'll have some better success with new music in a few months. There are also some artistic reasons for making two different kinds of albums like this. We recorded the studio album, Freak Magnet, first, and it's a very electric, very powerful rock album with pounding drums and blaring guitars. It's closer to traditional rock music than anything we've done before. I thought it would be a good idea to do an acoustic album as a counterpoint to that just to show people that we're still interested in some of the concepts that we had developed in the first place. And obviously it will continue to be an interesting document for some time to come. It's got all of our representative tunes on it. So if a kid is curious about the band and doesn't have one of our records yet, it would be an ideal way to start because it shows the band at its finest, playing our best songs live acoustically. For people who are familiar with the band, they are gonna want to hear the studio album because they want to see what we are up to now and what new directions we are going in. Basically, if you get both records, you are doing pretty well. You have a good idea what we are all about. CDNOW: What obstacles did you face coming out of Wisconsin? Ritchie: The big problem in Milwaukee is that a band that is trying to make it regionally or nationally can hope to play for maybe 50 people at a bar or maybe 200 people in a club, and that's as far as you can get in that city. You just hope you get lucky on other levels outside of your city otherwise you're stuck. It seldom happens. CDNOW: With the three of you in separate cities, (two in New York, one in Los Angeles), has it effected the band dynamic at all? Hoffman: Not since '84 have we had three band members in the same town. It's constantly shifting as to which members are in what city. Our music is simple enough that when we need to learn new songs we can learn them in about five minutes. So we generally learn new songs right before we go onstage and start to work them into the set. We don't really need to rehearse like a band like Yes. They probably have to get together for several weeks just to relearn their material plus learn new material and work on all the lighting cues. We're not like that; we're very informal. "Rock and roll really is music for youth. We're adults; I don't listen to very much rock music anymore. I listen to classical and other age-appropriate music like jazz." -- Ritchie CDNOW: Do you think the simplicity of the songs is part of what helps to make the songs timeless and appealing to new generations? Ritchie: We've gone through many new generations since we started. It's very gratifying to look out there and see young kids. Rock and roll really is music for youth. We're adults; I don't listen to very much rock music anymore. I listen to classical and other age-appropriate music like jazz. It's nice to be able to appeal to the young kids, and I think it is because the songs are very easy sing-along tunes. There are other things going on instrumentally which might be fascinating to the intellectual listener but not enough to distract kids from the basic point of the songs. [He whistles and sings the intro to "Blister in the Sun."] See it's easy to play that song. You don't even have to be a musician. That's the whole point. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~