Violent Femmes

[Oxy]

1983.

Unbelievable.

I don't consider it among the best albums ever, but it has to be among the most "timeless" albums ever.  I swear that if you asked 100 naive 22 year old ears in what year the album was made, you'd get responses from 1965 to 2015....I'm not sure if 22 year olds know what an "album" is but play along...

[Thurston Fluff]

I tried to like them but just don't. I like that style of music but the guys voice just grates on me.

[LouisEly]

Several years ago I saw the Femmes at Summerfest.  For some reason they weren't at the main stage, just one of the side stages.  As you can imagine, it was packed.  Some millennial hipster band was playing at the stage next to them.  They had something weird going on stage, had some people in costume as monsters or something like that, almost like a story within the music or something.  After the Femmes were done playing I'm walking past the back of the stands for that stage and I hear some hipster millennial talking about the Femmes concert who had no clue who they were.  They said something like, "All of the sudden I hear this huge roar from the crowd (for the stage next to them) and I was trying to figure out what was going on..."

Silly millennial... it's the FEMMES!!

[owbc]

Are you sure it was a millennial??? The Femmes were all over alternative rock radio when I was growing up in the 90s/early 00s. I can see someone who is like 20 or 25 years old not knowing who they are, but it would be crazy to me if 30-somethings don't know them. 

[Hopper]

Didn't like them in the 80;s, was too much of a metal head to give them a chance, really got into that album in the early 90's, now it is a staple.  There is so much more to that album than Blister In The Sun and Add it Up.  Every single track on that album is great, and if you have the version with the two extra tracks, Ugly, and Gimme the Car, then you got yourself the bonus plan!  (Gimme the Car is one of my favorites on the album)

I love the dude's voice, no one sounds like him, which I love!

[Oxy]

7 hours ago, owbc said:

Are you sure it was a millennial??? The Femmes were all over alternative rock radio when I was growing up in the 90s/early 00s. I can see someone who is like 20 or 25 years old not knowing who they are, but it would be crazy to me if 30-somethings don't know them. 

This is kind of what I was getting at in my post...I'm 40.  I was a very casual music fan in the 90s, then got into more alternative/indie stuff in the early 2000s.  It wasn't until recently that I realized how early that Femmes album came out.  I just figured they were contemporaries with Cake and Primus or even Sublime, as that's who I associated them with on the radio in the 90s.  But 1983 seems like crazy early for that sound.  Plus, as Hopper said, the 3 songs after Gone Daddy Gone (Good Feeling, Ugly, and Gimme the Car) are exceptional.

[homer]

I know some guys that went to UWM way back in the day that vividly remember the Femmes playing for change on the sidewalk outside what is now Hooligan's.

[LouisEly]

21 hours ago, owbc said:

Are you sure it was a millennial??? The Femmes were all over alternative rock radio when I was growing up in the 90s/early 00s. I can see someone who is like 20 or 25 years old not knowing who they are, but it would be crazy to me if 30-somethings don't know them. 

It was between 2015-2017, and they appeared to be mid-20's, which would put them at about 30 now.

They also didn't appear to be the types to listen to "alternative rock".

[Samurai Bucky]

I played them a lot during my radio show on the student radio station at Madison.  They Might Be Giants was on the playlist as well.