by Chris Ridder
The Violent Femmes exploded onto the national music scene from their home in Milwaukee in 1982. Their multi-platinum, self-titled debut album was packed with songs full of rage, angst and frustration, and lyrics that would make our parents cringe. 'Gimmie the Car,' which got lead singer Gordon Gano kicked out of the National Honor Society when he played it at his graduation ceremony, is a prime example: "...Come on Dad, Gimmie the Car/I'm gonna pick her up/I'm gonna get her drunk/I'm gonna get her high/I'm gonna make her cry..."
Gordon says he almost always composes music and lyrics with a guitar in his hands, rarely separating words from music. The music is raw, emotional; downright honest and at the same time sarcastic; ironic and defiant, tortured, but positive if you know where to look.
The sound is punk, with a good deal of classical music training behind it. Country, jazz, and a heavy Lou Reed influence serve as the backdrop to three musicians wielding an impressive array of acoustic and electric instruments. The standard guitar, bass and drum trio has plenty of room for horns, banjo and a xylophone, among others.
"We like things that are discordant," says Gordon. "We like the 'wrong' notes as well as the right notes. Like the 'Country Death Song' -- it's a straight country song, but the improv section is, not to label anything, psychedelic -- or other that straight-ahead country music. There's sections of songs where we go where there's no key anymore. Sometimes it takes off in a different direction -- there's rhythm or no rhythm, or a different key..."
"I took a class recently, and we were talking about composers who did things that caused riots with these incredibly discordant sounds. And now we say 'where is it?' We're adjusted to hearing now what was revolutionary then," he says. "We bring a lot of that into our music. "
Gano's lyrics are powerful and personal, often sung by an emotionally troubled first-person narrator -- someone disenchanted with people, the society at large, and most characteristically plagued by a string of painful, twisted relationships. Despite the trying times depicted in the music, theirs is a message of self-exploration, honesty and the importance of emotion.
12 years and six albums later, they're coming to Anchorage. And I'm speaking with Gordon on the phone, reassured that I took the time to talk to his brother Glenn, who lives and plays music in Anchorage.
Because if there's one question that seems to be burning in people's minds about the Femmes, it's how the band reconciles the plethora of clashing and conflicting values in their music. Gordon, one of seven siblings and the son of a Baptist Minister, is a Christian. "Gordon is very nice and clean-cut," says Glenn, "He's someone you take home to meet your parents."
Both Gordon and Glenn have been strong Baptists since childhood, and since Gordon was a teenager, he's been composing a wide variety of music, partially inspired by a musically gifted family where almost everyone plays instruments and composes songs. "I heard a lot of those songs when Gordon had just written them," says Glenn, "He played them on his acoustic guitar in our living room, everything from 'Jesus Walking on the Water,' to 'Add it Up'. But I never dreamed this [kind of success] would happen."
Glenn and Gordon both agree that despite lyrics that could make even the most cynical atheists cringe, their parents were highly supportive of Gordon's musical exploration. "People think that Christians are very conservative," says Glenn, "But in fact there's a long liberal tradition in the faith, starting with Jesus himself."
"My family has always been very encouraging," says Gordon, though he admits, "There are certain songs they don't care for much." But, he says, his mother never expressed any reservations about the content of his music until she believed it could pose a threat to someone's safety.
"The first song my mother had any reservations about was 'Out the Window,' says Gordon. "And when she mentioned that she wanted to have a discussion about it, I said, 'Mom, why did you wait so long?' But she was worried that someone may see the song as a soundtrack for suicide. If you think about it, it really is saying 'don't go out the window,' but she said some people may not be that sophisticated."
Nonetheless, Gordon struck out his own course and trusted the public's ability to interpret his music. "If I had to worry about how the lowest common denominator would receive the music, I'd never produce anything worthwhile," he says.
When I asked Gordon if he had ever questioned his faith, I began to get an idea of how it worked for him, of how Gordon's faith and the power of his self-reflection were synergistic -- how in his music he's transcended the boundaries of good taste in the interests of expressing himself fully, and almost paradoxically come out smelling like a rose.
"Questioning the basics of my faith -- I've never had that. Questioning things of myself and how I fit into that or don't fit in, or seeing myself differently from how I thought I would and being shaken by that, then yes. And then, I don't have step one two and three for coming out of that -- it's just a continuing process," he says.
Brian Ritchie, the band's bassist and a devout atheist, was against including the religious songs on the band's first album, but eventually gave in. It may have hurt the group for a while, but they've emerged with a broader range and an extra dose of the ironic edge that initially brought them to the top of the charts. With the release of their 1994 album "New Times," Ritchie said, "We don't really think it's our job to provide a consistent viewpoint. People are not consistent. Why should we be? We're not interested in selling people a message. We think it's better to just be ourselves, and if people are confused, that's fine. We're confused."
Confusion certainly hasn't hurt the band, whose members seem to have the mystical gift of turning chaos into order and vice versa, in both words and music. As a lyricist, Gano has a tremendous gift for conveying ironies within ironies, turning the basic premise of a song on its head in subtle ways.
"I do think it comes across like that," says Gordon, "which is strange for me. And the mood at our concerts is always up -- people don't come to get down and dark. And for me, there is a lot of humor there. The concerts are characteristic of a lot of songs -- we express negative things, but there's a sense of humor or irony throughout. And that's usually not a concept I had at first, it just happens. "
Gordon wants to make sure that people know the narrator in the songs is not him. "Sometimes there's a song stating something contrary to good values or what I'd hope to have as my values," he says, "So it's interesting, and not always presented as something I'm opposed to -- just, 'here it is'. Some people have problems not just with my songs, but with many things in the arts. Just because someone is singing in the first person doesn't mean they believe [what they're singing], or that they did it."
"He's not a tortured soul," says Glenn, who sees the music as good therapy and cathartic release both for Gordon and his fans, "he's just thinking about life experience."
Gordon is a pretty private person, and at first told me he prefers that others turn their critical eye on the text, rather than the author. "If someone likes Bob Dylan's music, I'm skeptical that they'd gain greater enjoyment, and might lose some, if they knew Bob," he says. "Or if knowing certain painters would help you appreciate their art more..."
Later, though, he acknowledged the other perspective with respect to his inquiries into philosophy. "When I read some grand philosopher, I wonder, 'what was their life like, who did they like -- did they live their philosophy? And if they did, what were the fruits?'"
The fruits of Gordon's songwriting are juicy indeed. The band is recording their eighth album, which is due out this year. Gordon just returned from Greece, where he says some of the band's best concerts have been held. He's been working on learning Greek and, after putting a Greek poem to music and singing it at a concert, he was invited by a band to sing on their next album. "Pix Lax is a really popular band in Greece," says Gordon, "They combine older Greek instruments with modern rock, and it's real emotional."
The last time I saw the Femmes was at the Warfield in San Francisco, '94. They played their instruments with more precision, more complicated rhythms, and more inspired improvisation than on their recorded albums. Practice and hard work has paid off for the band, and an association with Julliard School of Music has opened new doors for Gordon.
"We usually play for a good two hours, " he says. "I'll play electric guitar (I usually do live), and Brian will start with the acoustic bass and move to electric." While this concert won't feature horns, Glenn Gano will most likely take the stage for 'Jesus Walking on the Water,' and perhaps a couple additional tunes.
The concert starts at 8 p.m. Feb. 13, at the Egan Center. It's currently sold out. You can see Glenn Gano on Thursday the 15th at Kaladi Brothers from 8:30-10:30.