Holy moly! The Newport Folk Festival just announced the addition of the Violent Femmes to their 2016 lineup!!!
Violent Femmes came together in 1981 and were quickly applauded as one of the most inventive and original bands of the era, constantly pushing forward with their singular blend of folk and punk, sarcasm and spirituality. The Milwaukee-based band first attracted attention while busking in front of their hometown’s Oriental Theatre. The performance caught the ears of that night’s headliners, Pretenders Chrissie Hynde and the late James Honeyman-Scott, who invited the young group to open the sold out concert with a brief acoustic set. From there Violent Femmes released eight studio albums and more than a dozen iconic singles, among them such classics as “American Music,” “Gone Daddy Gone,” “Nightmares, “Add It Up,” and of course, “Blister In The Sun.” Violent Femmes’ remarkable three-decade-plus career has earned them cumulative worldwide sales in excess of 10 million, with 1983’s VIOLENT FEMMES awarded with RIAA platinum certification eight years after its initial release.
The turn of the millennium saw Violent Femmes begin a long hiatus from the studio, only coming together to record a 2009 cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” – returning the favor after Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse’s psychedelic soul version of “Gone Daddy Gone” proved a worldwide smash. Violent Femmes officially returned to full time action in 2013 with an acclaimed performance at Coachella before embarking on a wide-ranging tour that included headline dates and ecstatically received festival sets around the world.
“We went a few years without playing together,” Gano says, “but when we did it was just instant. There it is. There’s the sound we make when we play music together. When we get together to do this thing called Violent Femmes, there’s an energy between us that’s just very intuitive. That was right from the very start and it hasn’t changed.”
The Femmes will play the sold-out folk festival on Friday, July 22nd.
