''Why Do Birds Sing?'' is the fifth 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 on April 30, 1991. It was the band's last album with original drummer

Victor DeLorenzo Victor DeLorenzo (born October 25, 1954) is an American musician, actor and filmmaker who was the founding drummer for the folk-punk band Violent Femmes. Biography DeLorenzo was born in 1954, the son of Victor and Charlotte DeLorenzo, grew up i ...

, who left two years later to devote his time to acting, and was produced by

Michael Beinhorn Michael James Beinhorn is a North American record producer, composer, author, and musician. He has produced albums for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Hole, Korn, Kensington and Marilyn Manson. Career 1977–1983: early years, Material, Her ...

, best-known then for his work with

Red Hot Chili Peppers The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1982, consisting of Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Flea (musician), Flea (bass), John Frusciante (guitar), and Chad Smith (drums). Their music incorporates elements of a ...

on '' Mother's Milk'' and ''

The Uplift Mofo Party Plan ''The Uplift Mofo Party Plan'' is the third studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 29, 1987, by EMI Manhattan. Due to prior obligations resulting in temporary personnel changes following the band's format ...

''. The album featured the single "American Music," which rose to number 2 on ''Billboard''s Modern Rock chart during the week of May 18, 1991, and became a staple of the band's live shows.

Track listing

Personnel

Violent Femmes

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 ...

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

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 Brian Ritchie (born November 21, 1960) is an American musician, best known as the bassist for the alternative rock band Violent Femmes. Ritchie was born and raised in the United States and is currently a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia, w ...

–

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 ...

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

, mouth harp,

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

, vocals *

–

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 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 ...

, tranceaphone, vocals

Additional musicians

–

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

on "American Music",

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

on "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Used To Be",

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

on "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "I'm Free",

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

on "Used To Be" *

Sid Page Sid Page is an American violinist who has been active in many genres of music since the late 1960s. He has been a member of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. From 1973 to 1974, he was a member of Sly and the Family Stone and appeared on their album ...

, Suzie Katayama, Ilene Novog, Larry Corbett – strings on "Used To Be" *

Tommy Mandel Tommy Mandel (born June 2, 1949) is an American keyboardist most notable for playing with Bryan Adams from 1981 to 1998, starting with the album ''You Want It You Got It''. Career Prior to joining Bryan Adams' band, Mandel released a self-title ...

– keyboards on "American Music"

Production

– Producer * Eric "ET" Thorngren – Engineer, mixing * David Vartanian – Mixing * Susan Rogers – Engineer * Tom Fritze – Assistant engineer * Lori Fumar – Assistant engineer * Mike Kloster – Assistant engineer *

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 * Mary Jones – Photography

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Violent Femmes albums 1991 albums Albums produced by Michael Beinhorn Reprise Records albums