BRIAN RITCHIE
Brian Ritchie (born 21 November 1960) is the bass guitarist for the alternative rock band Violent Femmes. In addition to his bass playing, Ritchie is proficient at the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute. He acquired a Jun Shihan (shakuhachi teaching license) in March 2003 from James Nyoraku Schlefer, and his professional name is “Tairaku” (“big music” in Japanese). In 1987, Ritchie released his first solo album, The Blend. Beginning in 2009, he has curated the first Mona Foma (MoFo) festival in Hobart, Tasmania. At the 2012 MoFo, he organised an impromptu performance of the entire Violent Femmes first album by a ‘super band’ consisting of musicians playing at MoFo. (More from Wikipedia)
Violent Femmes could be viewed as the quintessential indie rock band, with its near-acoustic sound and alternative-rock sensibility. Gordon Gano (guitar and lead vocals) formed the band while he was still in high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the early 1980’s with Brian Ritchie (bass guitar) and Victor DeLorenzo (drums). Their debut album, Violent Femmes (1983) featured angst-ridden crowd-pleasers like “Blister in the Sun”, “Kiss Off”, “Add it Up”, and “Gone Daddy Gone” (including a verse from a Willie Dixon song).
(November 2014)
