Violent Femmes discography
This is the discography of Violent Femmes, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based alternative rock group, which consists of 10 studio albums, 19 singles, five live albums and four compilation albums, in addition to a number of miscellaneous appearances on soundtracks and compilations featuring various artists. This list does not include solo material by any of the bands' members.
Violent Femmes discography | |
---|---|
Studio albums | 10 |
Live albums | 5 |
Compilation albums | 4 |
Video albums | 3 |
Music videos | 15 |
EPs | 1 |
Singles | 19 |
Miscellaneous | 16 |
Violent Femmes was formed in 1980 by vocalist/guitarist Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie and drummer Victor DeLorenzo, finding immediate success with the release of their self-titled debut album in early 1983. Featuring "Blister in the Sun", "Kiss Off", "Add It Up" and "Gone Daddy Gone", Violent Femmes became the band's biggest-selling album and was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA.[1] Although the sales success of their debut was never matched, The Blind Leading the Naked (1986), 3 (1988), Why Do Birds Sing? (1991) and New Times (1994) all peaked at higher chart positions on the Billboard 200. Throughout their career, Violent Femmes' popularity remained consistent, especially in Australia where four of their albums made the Top 40 and the debut stayed on the charts for seven months. The songs "Nightmares" and "American Music" cracked the top five on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart.[2] In 2009, Gano released a statement announcing the band's break-up.[3] However, Violent Femmes reformed in 2013, and released We Can Do Anything (their first studio album in 16 years) in 2016.[4]
Albums
Studio albums
Year | Album details | Chart peaks | Certifications (sales thresholds) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [5] |
US Indie [6] |
AUS [7] |
BEL (Vl.) [8] |
BEL (Wa.) [9] |
CAN [10] |
GER [11] |
NZ [12] |
SWE [13] |
UK [14] | |||
1983 | Violent Femmes | 171 | — | 31 | — | — | — | — | 36 | — | — | |
1984 | Hallowed Ground
|
— | — | 56 | — | — | — | — | 39 | — | — | |
1986 | The Blind Leading the Naked
|
84 | — | 31 | — | — | 77 | — | 6 | 27 | 81 | |
1989 | 3
|
93 | — | 64 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
1991 | Why Do Birds Sing?
|
141 | — | 26 | — | — | — | 67 | 31 | — | — |
|
1994 | New Times
|
90 | — | 60 | — | — | 67 | 95 | — | — | — | |
1995 | Rock!!!!!
|
— | — | 30 | — | — | — | — | 33 | — | — | |
2000 | Freak Magnet
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
2016 | We Can Do Anything
|
184 | 9 | 59 | 153 | 147 | — | — | — | — | — | |
2019 | Hotel Last Resort
|
— | 29 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
"—" denotes a release that did not chart. |
Live albums
Year | Album details |
---|---|
1999 | Viva Wisconsin
|
2005 | BBC Live
|
2006 | Archive Series No. 1: Live in Iceland
|
Archive Series No. 2: Live in Chicago Q101
| |
2017 | 2 Mics & the Truth[19][20]
|
Compilation albums
Year | Album details | Chart peaks | Certifications (sales thresholds) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [5] |
AUS [7] |
CAN [10] |
NZ [12] | ||||||
1990 | Debacle: The First Decade
|
— | 39 | — | 41 | ||||
1993 | Add It Up (1981–1993)
|
146 | 45 | 58 | 30 | ||||
2001 | Something's Wrong
|
— | — | — | — | ||||
2005 | Permanent Record: The Very Best of Violent Femmes
|
— | — | — | — | ||||
"—" denotes a release that did not chart. |
EPs
Year | EP details |
---|---|
2015 | Happy New Year[22]
|
Singles
Retail singles
Year | Single | Peak chart positions |
Album | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US Mod [23] |
AUS [7] | ||||||||
1983 | "Gone Daddy Gone" | — | — | Violent Femmes | |||||
"Ugly" | — | — | Non-album single | ||||||
1984 | "It's Gonna Rain" | — | — | Hallowed Ground | |||||
1986 | "Children of the Revolution" | — | 54 | The Blind Leading the Naked | |||||
"I Held Her in My Arms" | — | — | |||||||
1989 | "Nightmares" | 4 | 146 | 3 | |||||
1991 | "American Music" | 2 | — | Why Do Birds Sing? | |||||
"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" | — | — | |||||||
"Used to Be" | — | 90 | |||||||
1993 | "I Held Her in My Arms" (alt. version) | — | — | Add It Up (1981–1993) | |||||
1994 | "Machine" | — | — | New Times | |||||
"Breakin' Up" | 12 | — | |||||||
1995 | "Tonight" | — | 62 | Rock!!!!! | |||||
2000 | "All I Want" | — | — | Freak Magnet | |||||
"Sleepwalkin'" | — | — | |||||||
2008 | "Crazy" | — | — | Non-album single | |||||
2016 | "Memory"/"You Move Me" (Record Store Day 2016 release) | — | — | We Can Do Anything | |||||
"—" denotes a release that did not chart. |
Promotional singles
Year | Single | Album |
---|---|---|
1994 | "Don't Start Me on the Liquor" | New Times |
1995 | "She Went to Germany" | Rock!!!!! |
1997 | "Blister in the Sun" | Grosse Pointe Blank OST |
Music videos
Year | Song | Director(s) |
---|---|---|
1983 | "Gone Daddy Gone" | Douglas Martin Steven Martin |
1986 | "Children of the Revolution" | Mick Haggerty |
1989 | "Nightmares" | Martin Atkins |
1991 | "American Music" | Adam Bernstein |
"Used to Be" | Phil Waters | |
1993 | "I Held Her in My Arms" | Mick Haggerty |
1994 | "Breakin' Up" | |
"Machine" | Sean Casey | |
1995 | "Tonight" | |
1997 | "Blister in the Sun" | Evan Bernard |
2000 | "All I Want" | Dominic Engel |
2015 | "Love Love Love Love Love" | Jake Brebes |
"Good For/At Nothing" | Harley Hefford | |
2016 | "Memory" | |
"Issues" | David Gladstein |
Video albums
Year | Title |
---|---|
2005 | Permanent Record: Live & Otherwise
|
2006 | No, Let's Start Over
|
2007 | Live at the Haçienda
|
Soundtracks and compilations
Year | Title | Track(s) | Note(s) |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | I Was a Teenage Zombie: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | "Good Feeling" | |
1991 | Triple J's Live At The Wireless 2 | "Kiss Off" (live) | |
never mind the mainstream...The Best of MTV's 120 Minutes: Vol. 2 | "Gone Daddy Gone" | ||
1994 | The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | "Color Me Once" | |
Woodstock 94 | "Dance, Motherfucker, Dance!/Kiss Off" (live) | ||
1995 | Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits | "Step Right Up" | |
Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits | "Eep Opp Ork Ah-ah (Means I Love You)" | From The Jetsons. | |
1997 | Grosse Pointe Blank Soundtrack | "Blister in the Sun" | Although it appears on the soundtrack, "Blister 2000" does not appear in the actual film. |
"Blister 2000" | |||
1998 | MTV's 120 Minutes Live | "Kiss Off" (live) | |
1999 | End Sessions: The End 107.7 | "Fat" (live) | |
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture | "I Swear It (I Can Change)" | The Femmes' rendition of "I Can Change" does not appear in the actual film. | |
Mystery Men: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | "No More Heroes" | ||
The Best of KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas: Volume One | "Blister in the Sun" (live) | From Acoustic Christmas 1993. | |
2000 | Y100 Sonic Sessions: Volume Four | "Add It Up" | |
2002 | Discrespective: Big Day Out | "Girl Trouble" (live) | |
2006 | Rocket Science: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | "Blister in the Sun" | Instrumental covers of "Blister in the Sun" and "Add It Up" by Sam Matthews and Houfei Tang also appear in the film. |
"Kiss Off" | |||
2007 | Triple J's Live at the Wireless: From the Vaults | "Blister in the Sun" (live) | |
2023 | Okemah Rising | "Gotta Get to Peeskill" | The band appear on the Dropkick Murphys song from their 2023 studio album. |
References
- "RIAA Gold & Platinum Database". Recording Industry Association of America. February 1, 1991. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- "Violent Femmes Album & Song Chart History". Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- "Yeproc.com". Yeproc.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
- Bray, Ryan (March 4, 2016). "Album Review: Violent Femmes – We Can Do Anything". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
- "Violent Femmes Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- "Violent Femmes Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- Australian chart peaks:
- Top 100 (Kent Music Report) peaks to June 19, 1988: Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St. Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 330. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. N.B. the Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between mid-1983 and June 19, 1988.
- Top 50 (ARIA Chart) peaks from June 26, 1988: "australian-charts.com > Violent Femmes in Australian Charts". Hung Medien. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
- 3 (ARIA Chart) peak: "Chartifacts – Week Ending: 23 Jun 1991 (from The ARIA Report Issue No. 74)". Retrieved January 1, 2017 – via Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA).
- Top 100 (ARIA Chart) peaks from January 1990 to December 2010: Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 295.
- "Tonight" (ARIA Chart) peak: "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart – Week Ending 14 May 1995". Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA). Retrieved April 25, 2017.
- We Can Do Anything (ARIA Chart) peak: "The ARIA Report Issue #1360" (PDF). Australian Web Archive (original document published by ARIA). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 21, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
- "Nightmares" (ARIA Chart) peak: "Week commencing 8 May 1989". Bubbling Down Under. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
- "Violent Femmes – We Can Do Anything" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- "Violent Femmes – We Can Do Anything" (in French). Ultratop. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- Canadian albums chart position:
- The Blind Leading the Naked: "Albums (CD's & Cassette)". RPM. Vol. 44, no. 2. April 5, 1986. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- Add It Up: "Albums (CD's & Cassette)". RPM. Vol. 58, no. 17. November 6, 1993. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- New Times: "Albums (CD's & Cassette)". RPM. Vol. 59, no. 22. June 20, 1994. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- Official German chart positions for albums:
- Why Do Birds Sing?: "Why Do Birds Sing?". Offizielle Deutsche Charts (in German). Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- New Times: "New Times". Offizielle Deutsche Charts (in German). Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- "Violent Femmes Discography". Hung Medien New Zealand Charts. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- "Violent Femmes Discography". Swedish Hung Medien Charts Portal. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- "Violent Femmes | full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- "Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes at Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
- "The Billboard Book of Gold & Platinum Records," 1989
- "American album certifications – Violent Femmes". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
- "Violent Femmes Announce Live Album". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
- "Two Mics & The Truth: Unplugged & Unhinged In America". July 21, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 – via Amazon.
- "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2007 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on June 14, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
- "Violent Femmes Releasing EP for Record Store Day". ARTISTdirect. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
- "Violent Femmes Chart History: Alternative Songs". Billboard. Retrieved June 15, 2020.