''Freak Magnet'' is the eighth studio album by

Violent Femmes Violent Femmes are an American folk punk band from Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The band consists of founding members Gordon Gano (guitar, lead vocals) and Brian Ritchie (bass, backing vocals), joined by multi-instrumentalist Blaise Garza ( ...

, released in 2000. It contains the single "Sleepwalkin'." Originally planned for a 1998 release on

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

, ''Freak Magnet'' was pulled when the band was dropped from the label. A reissue with live bonus tracks were released via

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

in 2005.

Critical reception

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' called the album "stuck in the Reagan decade," writing that "the Femmes still play punky hootenanny-rock with occasional potty-mouthed lyrics to assure frat-boy appeal." ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'' wrote that the Violent Femmes "tend to sound like an average band dabbling in a goofy brand of punk, save for

Gordon Gano Gordon James Gano (born June 7, 1963) is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and songwriter of American folk punk band Violent Femmes. Early life Gano was born in New York City to actor parents Norman and Faye Gano, and grew up in ...

's voice, which anyone could spot a mile away." '' Paste''s Andrew Lisle wrote: "With sarcastic, solid originals like 'Happiness Is' and 'Hollywood Is High', the boys try to achieve former glory on ''Freak Magnet'', falling just short of success." ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' called it "a strong return to form," writing that "the Femmes hang their music in thick, hard-rocking sheets of sound rather than on a skeletal acoustic frame."

Track listing

Personnel

Violent Femmes

–

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Brian Ritchie –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, keyboards,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

shakuhachi A is a Japanese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

, vocal, additional recording, cover design *

Guy Hoffman Guy Hoffman (born May 20, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a drummer and vocalist, formerly of such bands as Oil Tasters, BoDeans, Violent Femmes, Absinthe and Radio Romeo. He is a composer for films such as ''Field Day''. Life Hoffman began ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, percussion, vocal

Technical personnel

*Violent Femmes – co-producer *Warren Bruleigh – co-producer, mixing, additional recording *

Pierre Henry Henry at his home (January 2008) Pierre Georges Albert François Henry (; 9 December 1927 – 5 July 2017) was a French composer known for his significant contributions to musique concrète. Biography Henry was born in Paris, France, and bega ...

– co-producer, additional recording *Tom Grimley – co-producer, additional recording *Martin Brass – recording, mixing *David Vartanian – mixing, cover design *

Howie Weinberg Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer. Over the course of his career, he has received over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize. Career Weinberg mastered Herbie Ha ...

– mastering *Roger Lian – mastering *Bill Emmons – additional recording *Mark Mason – assistant engineer *Ken Feldman – assistant engineer *Rich Tapper – assistant engineer *Nicola Stemmer – assistant engineer

References

{{Authority control 2000 albums Violent Femmes albums Cooking Vinyl albums Beyond Records albums