The Mercy Seat album actually came out in 1985 or 86. I just was never reissued on CD until around 2009.
It’s an absolutely crazy album. Gospel tinged with acoustic guitar at breakneck speeds. Truly unique and I never understood why it just disappeared so quickly.
Boss shoes with those jean shorts, man.
i am only slightly exaggerating if i say that their eponymous tape was in my backpack every single day of my high school career. heavily rotated. And i scored the LP from a Vandy student’s yard sale for like a buck. still got it. the impact that album had is astounding. a huge gateway for a lot of us as young kids into a culture spread by zines, shows, word of mouth, and tape trading. thank god. top 40 and MTV was so dull.
i had Hallowed Ground for a while because i loved the country death song but couldn’t get into the entire album. i didn’t have a copy but remember Why Do Birds Sing as being a good one.
No Victor no Femmes. Unless Gordon exorcises the Wendy’s commercial permanently from my memory.
I can’t remember what year i saw Violent Femmes in Vegas when i lived there… 2011-ish perhaps Maybe 2010. But i loved seeing them live, i’m not sure if it was all the original members but i still had a hell of a time. Looking forward to this new album.
I’m happy to see someone else give some love (as well as awareness of its existence) to The Mercy Seat. It’s easily one of my all-time favorite records and was the point of entry for my enduring love of both punk rock and old-school gospel.
I saw the Violent Femmes open for Nina Hagen (of all people) in Madison, WI, probably before their first album was released (so late 1982). There were only a handful of people there in this very small club who were interested in the Femmes, since they were so different musically, but I thought they were amazing. I remember that Brian Ritchie was basically pogo’ing on his bass (which must have been massively reworked internally to support him) and Gordon Gano was playing a round-bellied silver spanish guitar. Victor DeLorenzo played a battered old snare drum inside a metal garbage can. It was an amazing set and a treasured memory of my college experience,
VIG!
I know! He’s a phenomenal drummer! (We’ve talked about this before, haven’t we?)
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