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Craft Recordings celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Violent Femmes' Why Do Birds Sing? with a new vinyl LP reissue of the bestselling album from the folk-punk pioneers featuring freshly remastered favorites like "American Music" and the band's inspired cover of Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me."
As the band recorded Why Do Birds Sing? with producer Michael Beinhorn – a former member of the pioneering group Material who went on to helm albums by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, and Soul Asylum - they found themselves returning to their classic Violent Femmes-era sound, particularly with songs like "Out The Window" and "Look Like That." They also revisited several compositions from their earliest days, including "Girl Trouble," "Life is a Scream," and "Flamingo Baby." Additionally, upon Beinhorn's urging, the band chose to record an unlikely cover: Culture Club's 1982 hit, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me." "We took it as a challenge," says Gordon Gano, who reworked the majority of the lyrics, making the song sound like a Violent Femmes original. Brian Ritchie adds, "It was an experiment that turned out really well...in fact, we bumped into Boy George once in a hotel bar and he told us, ‘That is the best cover of any of our songs anyone's ever done.'"
Why Do Birds Sing? also included one of the group's most commercially successful singles, "American Music," which hit No. 2 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart and has since become an essential song at shows. Based on a vintage-inspired shuffle, the track stands out in the Violent Femmes' catalog. "‘American Music' communicates a lot," notes Ritchie. "But the arrangement has a lot of very interesting touches, and we thought it was a good production of a great song that encapsulated a lot of music history in one track, so that's why it led off the album."
Released in the spring of 1991, Why Do Birds Sing? pushed the Violent Femmes into their highest level of mainstream success – nearly a decade into their career. It also marks the trio's final album to feature their original line-up, before drummer Victor DeLorenzo departed the group.
As the band recorded Why Do Birds Sing? with producer Michael Beinhorn – a former member of the pioneering group Material who went on to helm albums by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, and Soul Asylum - they found themselves returning to their classic Violent Femmes-era sound, particularly with songs like "Out The Window" and "Look Like That." They also revisited several compositions from their earliest days, including "Girl Trouble," "Life is a Scream," and "Flamingo Baby." Additionally, upon Beinhorn's urging, the band chose to record an unlikely cover: Culture Club's 1982 hit, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me." "We took it as a challenge," says Gordon Gano, who reworked the majority of the lyrics, making the song sound like a Violent Femmes original. Brian Ritchie adds, "It was an experiment that turned out really well...in fact, we bumped into Boy George once in a hotel bar and he told us, ‘That is the best cover of any of our songs anyone's ever done.'"
Why Do Birds Sing? also included one of the group's most commercially successful singles, "American Music," which hit No. 2 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart and has since become an essential song at shows. Based on a vintage-inspired shuffle, the track stands out in the Violent Femmes' catalog. "‘American Music' communicates a lot," notes Ritchie. "But the arrangement has a lot of very interesting touches, and we thought it was a good production of a great song that encapsulated a lot of music history in one track, so that's why it led off the album."
Released in the spring of 1991, Why Do Birds Sing? pushed the Violent Femmes into their highest level of mainstream success – nearly a decade into their career. It also marks the trio's final album to feature their original line-up, before drummer Victor DeLorenzo departed the group.