UPDATE Jan 20 – 2016
FURTHER TO THE BELOW A WHOLE BUNCH OF SHOWS ARE NOW SOLD OUT ! PLUS SINGLE PREMIERE….
THE VIOLENT FEMMES – ON TOUR
* March 7 – Brisbane – The Triffid
THE SINGLE ‘MEMORY’ RECEIVED ITS FIRST AUSTRALIAN SPIN ON DOUBLE J LAST FRIDAY DURING MYF’S SHOW.
VIOLENT FEMMES OFFER GLOBAL PREMIERE OF
NEW LP’S FIRST TRACK, ”MEMORY,” VIA NPR’S FIRST LISTEN -Here
WE CAN DO ANYTHING FIRST NEW ALBUM IN MORE THAN 15 YEARS OUT MARCH 4
FANS CAN PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM NOW http://umusi.cc/WCDA
Exclusive bundles available from the Official Violent Femmes Australian Store: http://umusi.cc/VFPO
(New York, NY) – Legendary American band Violent Femmes premiered the first song, “Memory,” from their long-awaited and highly anticipated new record We Can Do Anything, due out March 4 on via Universal Music Australia. The irresistible track stands out as vintage Violent Femmes, and is one of the many new songs featured on We Can Do Anything that were chosen from singer/songwriter/guitarist Gordon Gano’s voluminous archives of ancient cassette demos and old journals. NPR’s First Listen premiered “Memory” earlier today, and fans can pre-order the album now.
“There was a massive amount of material to draw from,” Gano says. “I had so many cassette tapes, with songs and musical ideas recorded over 20 years or more. First we had to bring them into the digital world as to be able to access them and then it was just an incredible amount of listening. We did a whole lot of compiling and discovering forgotten songs.”
VIOLENT FEMMES WE CAN DO ANYTHING
LEGENDARY AMERICAN BAND RETURNS WITH FIRST NEW ALBUM IN MORE THAN 15 YEARS
10-TRACK COLLECTION INCLUDES NEW CLASSICS “MEMORY” AND “ISSUES”
ON TOUR IN AUSTRALASIA – WEEK OF RELEASE
(New York, NY) – Violent Femmes have announced details of their eagerly awaited new LP. WE CAN DO ANYTHING arrives via Universal Music Australasia – March 4 2016.
Violent Femmes’ ninth studio album and first full-length collection in more than 15 years, WE CAN DO ANYTHING is among the most provocative and playful in the legendary trio’s remarkable canon. As the album’s title makes plain, the band – singer/songwriter/guitarist Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and drummer Brian Viglione – remains as intrepid and fearless as ever before, traversing genre and emotion via their immediately identifiable, still utterly idiosyncratic, mash of rambunctious folk, minimalist punk, cubist blues, cosmic jazz, and backwoods rock ‘n’ roll.
Produced by Jeff Hamilton – a longtime member of the Horns of Dilemma, Violent Femmes’ ever-evolving cabal of multi-instrumentalist backing musicians – and mixed by the legendary John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile, Dinosaur, Jr.), WE CAN DO ANYTHING was recorded in studios in Brooklyn, Nashville, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Denver, while on tour during the summer of 2015. The album’s cover image was drawn by Barenaked Ladies’ Kevin Hearn, who also contributed accordion, guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals on several recordings. Rounding out the live touring band and members of The Horns of Dilemma are John Sparrow and Blaise Garza who has been playing with the band since he was 14 years old.
Gano gathered the album’s material by diving headlong into his own voluminous archives, listening to ancient cassette demos and leafing through old journals in search of suitable songs. Among his finds were such new classics as the murderous “Big Car” and the fractured fairy tale, “I Could Be Anything,” Of the album’s more recent songs, “Foothills” and “Holy Ghost” were both penned with the team of Sam Hollander and Dave Katz (Train, Joe Cocker), while “Issues” – co-written by Gano with Hollander and Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin (Christina Perri, Howie Day) – stands out as vintage Violent Femmes, as lyrically cutting as it is musically kinetic. Penned by Gano’s big sister, gifted folk singer/songwriter/artist Cynthia Gayneau, “What You Really Mean,” the album’s sole cover, might as well be an original composition, hewing remarkably close to the frontman’s own sonic sensibility and lyrical heart. Colored by explosive arrangements that veer on a dime from hard charging stomp to intimate melancholy, WE CAN DO ANYTHING is Violent Femmes at their very finest – joyous, exciting, and eternal.
Violent Femmes will celebrate WE CAN DO ANYTHING with a full-scale tour of Australasia on the week of release.
THE VIOLENT FEMMES – ON TOUR
- March 1 – Auckland – St James
- March 2 – Auckland – St James – SOLD OUT
- March 4 – Sydney – Taronga Zoo
- March 5 – Hunter – A Day On The Green
- March 6 – Sirromet – A Day On The Green
- March 9 – Canberra – ANU
- March 11 – Adelaide – Womadelaide
- March 12 – Yarra – A Day On The Green
- March 13 – Meredith – Golden Plains
- March 14 – Launceston – A Day On The Green
- March 17 – Melbourne – Corner Hotel
- March 18 – Melbourne – Corner Hotel – SOLD OUT
- March 19 – Perth – A Day On The Green – Kings Park
For up to the minute news and information, please see www.vfemmes.com/tour.html.
One of the most beloved bands of the golden age of indie rock, Violent Femmes returned to action in 2013 with an acclaimed performance at Coachella, their first live appearance in several years. Drummer Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls, Nine Inch Nails) came aboard in 2013. The Violent Femmes embarked on a wide-ranging tour that included headline dates and ecstatically received festival sets around the world. The Guardian applauded their London show as “a triumphant rampage through their back catalogue,” declaring the band’s self-titled 1983 debut to be “a cult classic of teenage alienation – a sneerier, post-pubescent Catcher in the Rye, if you like, with added nocturnal emissions and rattling acoustic bass solos.”
Violent Femmes came together in 1981 and were quickly ranked among the era’s most inventive and original, constantly pushing forward with their singular blend of folk and punk, sarcasm and spirituality. The trio released eight studio albums and more than a dozen singles, among them such iconic classics as “American Music,” “Gone Daddy Gone,” “Nightmares, “Add It Up,” “Kiss Off” and of course, “Blister In The Sun.” Violent Femmes’ remarkable three-decade career earned them cumulative sales in excess of 10 million worldwide, with 1983’s VIOLENT FEMMES earning RIAA platinum certification eight years after its initial release.
With the turn of the millennium, Violent Femmes began a long hiatus from the studio, only coming together in 2009 to record a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” returning the favor after the psychedelic soul duo’s cover of “Gone Daddy Gone” proved a worldwide smash.
For more, please see www.vfemmes.com and www.facebook.com/officialviolentfemmes.
