(Slash/Warner Bros)
The Violent Femmes self-titled debut, released way back in the dark days of 1983, was an unnatural shot in the dark. It was one of those rarities you encounter occasionally in the wild and wooly world of pop music — a debut album by a completely unknown band that emerges full-blown in your face and so totally takes over your life that you can’t imagine why nobody ever thought of this before. Lead singer Gordon Gano told grim tales of futile lust while his band produced this unique noise, featuring Gano’s speed freak from hell guitar playing, Brian Ritchie’s bass-lines — some of the best playing since early John Entwhistle — and Victor DeLorenzo’s spare but insistent drumming. The fact that the guitar was mostly acoustic, the bass was often stand-up, and the “drums” were a snare drum with a metal wash basin placed over it made the music they created singularly memorable.