Violent Femmes return, as unsettling as ever

June 2, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

The Violent Femmes’ latest EP “Happy New Year” is perhaps the greatest album cover to date. Sure, such a claim comes across as hyperbole, but one look at this photo draws you in like nothing else.

The “Mad Men”-esque cover shows what appears to be a middle-aged couple dressed up for a special occasion. Only the clean-cut man, replete with a flower neatly adorning his suit, looks unsettled staring at the camera, while what one assumes is his wife downs a bottle of champagne. Oh, there’s also a crucifix hanging in the background for good measure and possible context.

All at once, the photo conjures up thoughts of celebration, misery and utter confusion about life itself in what otherwise appears to be a faded photo from great-grandma and great-grandpa’s dreary lives.

In other words, the emotions and feelings of the EP cover accurately capture the essence of the Violent Femmes.

“We knew we were going to call the EP ‘Happy New Year’ simply because we recorded it on New Year’s Eve,” said bassist Brian Ritchie calling from Milwaukee. “The Femmes have always been dealing with these kinds of anxiety-ridden moments, so it fits in with what we do. Also, the photo kind of represents our old albums with cheesy cut-and-paste stuff like that.”

Ritchie added that the EP material, including song “Good At/For Nothing,” possesses the same crazed, ambivalent and kind of odd American style mania that has defined the Violent Femmes 30-some year career.

“It’s the juxtaposition between really negative kind of lyrics and really upbeat music. Those are our trademarks, not that we were trying to create our trademarks, but it happens to come out that way.”

Those trademarks appeared to have been set in stone considering the Violent Femmes not only released its last album at the turn of the century but ended up calling it quits in 2009. For Richie, the reason behind disbanding had simply been the lack of new music. He said Femmes frontman Gordon Gano was content touring as a heritage act.

After the band broke up, Richie moved to Australia, where he played in other bands and eventually became curator of an art museum. Then last year, Gano contacted him about new material he had been writing. Skeptical at first, Richie said the singer had more than 100 hours of ideas. That’s when the bassist knew the Violent Femmes were back.

“My only agenda was to do it live and to do it like really raw and spontaneous,” Richie said. “I’m thinking if we have a lot of material to deal with, I don’t want to be trying to create Sgt. Pepper every time we go into the studio. Anyway, every time we try to do that, it had mixed results. So I think we’re at our best when we’re just very raw, primitive, live and playing as a band.”

Fans of the “Blister in the Sun” outfit can hear some new tracks as well as its classics when the Violent Femmes open for the Barenaked Ladies Saturday at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica in Cleveland and June 23 at Stage AE in Pittsburgh.

Looking ahead, Richie said the band has nine new songs already recorded for a studio album due out next year with a headlining tour to follow.