Song title: Blister in the Sun
Artist: Violent Femmes
Year: 1982
Why I like this song:
What can I say? It hasn't aged a day and seems to be known by everyone that one would think it's required listening for any frustrated teenager.
I always felt that this song came across as the younger brother of the punk movement from the preceding decade. It has the attitude but traded in the rage for mischief and melody more befitting a nursery rhyme. But whatever this song is doing, it's doing it well.
Violent Femmes
Being a teenager and being into punk, it was somewhat inevitable that I would stumble across these guys. I could say it was the economy in the playing, the heavy usage of acoustic instrumentation, the use of a hyperactive bass player, the cheekiness and youthful vigour stamped across each and every song and the way this music was written to each and every misfit on the planet. But no, the single most important thing the Violent Femmes was, when my interest in punk music reached it’s peak, was that it’s not about playing short songs, playing really fast or swearing in one’s music. No, it’s about the attitude. It’s one of the keystones of punk music and something that many of punk’s successors have failed to pick up on. Yes all you emo bands I am looking at YOU.
Key Album: Violent Femmes (1982) Essential listening for any teenager that has both ever existed and to come. Funny, angsty, snappy, angry, pathetic and poignant all at the same time. And boy do I love it. It sounds even better live too ;)