Violent Femmes (1983) | Album Review: Beyond Blister In The Sun 

Mate. I love this! Bought the cassette as a kid in 6th or 7th grade. Loaned it to a girl I had a big crush on. She loved it but her folks told her to stay away from me! “Kiss off” still hits hard. Thanks for your efforts! Love the podcasts.

I’m a 70s baby. I grew up on Rap and R&B. My sister liked alternative. We took turns with the radio in the am. She’d play em. I’d complain but they grew on me and ended being one of the first non-rap or soul albums i owned. All the songs go hard but to hear the whole album is to truly appreciate them.

This was the very first sort of indie/alternative music I ever heard, at the age of 14, in a car on the way to youth group ski night, stopping intermittantly to grab snow and throw it at each other in the car. It really does have the energy you mention, and does hold up after all these years. Very underrated album. They do perform well live, and the story about the Pretenders is true. The Violent Femmes are from Milwaukee and Racine.

Loved your review! I remember exactly where I was when I first heard this album, and then immediately headed to a record store to buy it. The Violent Femmes debut is Folk music for the angsty teen of any generation.

Thank you for this great video. I don't think it's possible to over-state just how powerful, original, eclectic and even threatening those first two femmes albums were and are. Imagine you finished your first album (on which every song is original) and then created a whole new universe with Hallowed Ground! Victor Delorenzo was the first drummer I ever heard to use brushes with punk-rock enegry. In 1984, Pete Defreitas of echo and the bunnymen used brushes on Ocean Rain (on some tracks), and I always wondered if the Femmes influenced that decision. BTW, Murmur was relased on April 12, 1983. The first Violent Femmes album was released on April 13, 1983.

Being 90 miles away from Milwaukee the Femmes were very popular im my city. Their live performances while very raw, were mesmerizing...

When I was in my late teens early 20s In the late 00s I would watch 120 Minutes On What was then VH1 Classic sadly I missed the original run of 120 Minutes in its heyday but this show played Alternative Music from the 80s and early to mid 90s and they played Blister In The Sun with the grosse point blank video and I thought it was the weirdest thing but it grew on me they also played Gone Daddy Gone and Add it Up which got me interested in The band. I also remember hearing Good Feeling on How I met your mother around this time. Then I got the album and loved it. That was actually a rough time in my life and That show and the music they played helped me through it a lot.

Great analysis, as usual, and a band I hoped you would feature. I was able to see them live in late 80s, and you really captured the stripped down, raw feeling of the band and how the musical style fit the emotion of Gano's message. Your videos make me wonder, though: how much great content is required before a creator is noticed and recognized? Keep up the great work, the quality of your content is outstanding. Perhaps, like the Violent Femmes, you will need to wait to get the platinum recognition your quality deserves.

One last thing, it’s rare to see music that is neither self aware nor self indulgent. Something that becomes rarer and rarer.

I know you dont get the views you deserve, but I adore your videos. The person to make the only The Chameleons video on RU-vid should not be underestimated PS. Would love to hear a video on Lowlife, Comsat Angels, The Sound, The Fall, Kino. And Also The Trees, Mekons, X-Ray Spex, Modern Eon, or Asylum Party. Looking forward to future content that looks at underrated punk and post-punk

Great choice, as per usual! I'll admit, my two favorites by them aren't on this record- "American Music" and "Girl Trouble"( which features in a cool movie that should have a cult following - Hold me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me. If you ever do movies, there's an under-rated one)- however, my friend Chad looked and could sing like Gordon Gano, so we used to play these songs for fun. Just one other thing- I always thought of Violent Femmes as a rockabilly act- stand up bass, and drums, high tenor vocals, basic country-meets-Blues melodies, but I've been told they're "folk punk".

Great video!

One of my favourite albums, great start to finish, few bonus tracks on the CD are great too, "ugly", " Gimme the car"

Not on their first album but the song No Killing is a masterpiece for me...

I had to laugh because I, too, discovered their music on a cassette someone made me: the debut on one side and the equally brilliant follow up on the other. What an original act, especially for their time, and even place!

All I know is that, when I first hear the rain start up, there's a real good chance I'll have "I Hear the Rain" (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IuIu4hFMgT8.html) stuck in my head for the next few hours.

My dad sent me this album via email a year ago