The music of Violent Femmes could broadly be described as punk played on acoustic instruments, and sounds like it should be the soundtrack for an Indie film with Sundance nominations (especially Blister In The Sun, which was oddly familiar).
A lot of the tracks sound like an acoustic version of The Cramps or The Dictators – Please Do Not Go is a kind of do-wop pastiche taken to levels of bathos, while Add It Up is a bit rockabilly with lyrics like “I look at your pants and I need a kiss”. They’re not taking themselves entirely seriously, I think. The best example of this is the B-52-esque Gone Daddy, the first track I’ve ever heard to feature surf-rock xylophone solo (well, I can imagine Zappa doing something like this but he’d really make sure and let you know that he’s just playing around, while Violent Femmes keep a straight face throughout).
To The Kill gets more electric with bassist Brian Ritchie delivering a sinister bassline and lead Gordon Gano adding jagged guitar of the Honeyman-Scott / Jah Wobble kind. I can see this group being another influence on Jack White, especially on his track Taking It Back Gently. Really enjoyable stuff, and varied enough that the unique style didn’t feel simply like a gimmick.
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