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).

Since 1998, he has collaborated with American shakuhachi maker Ken LaCosse developing a wide bore style of shakuhachi called Taimu.

In 2007 Ritchie produced and toured with the Italian punk/folk band The Zen Circus, which subsequently changed its name to The Zen Circus And Brian Ritchie. The first international album of the band, Villa Inferno was released in 2008 for the Italian record label Unhip Records.

In 2008, Ritchie and his wife, Dr Varuni Kulasekera, moved to Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, where he has guested in a band called The Green Mist. Brian Ritchie does most of his work in DV (David Vartanian) Studios. On Australia Day 2012, Ritchie and his wife were naturalised as Australian citizens.

Violent Femmes

Violent Femmes are an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active from 1980 to 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009. As of 2013, they are active again. The band has performed as a trio, including singer, guitarist and songwriter Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and three drummers: Victor DeLorenzo (1980–1993, 2002–2009 and 2013), Guy Hoffman (1993–2002) and Brian Viglione (2013–2016).

The Violent Femmes have released eight studio albums and fifteen singles during the course of their career. The band found immediate success with the release of their self-titled debut album in early 1983. Featuring many of their well-known songs, including "Blister in the Sun", "Kiss Off", "Add It Up" and "Gone Daddy Gone", Violent Femmes became the band's biggest-selling album and was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA. Violent Femmes went on to become one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the 1980s, selling over 9 million albums by 2005. After the release of their third album The Blind Leading the Naked (1986), the band's future was uncertain and they split up in 1987, when Gano and Ritchie went solo. However, they regrouped a year later, releasing the album 3 (1989). Since then, Violent Femmes' popularity continued to grow, especially in the United States where the songs "Nightmares" and "American Music" cracked the top five on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Brian

Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meaning "high" or "noble". For example, the element bre means "hill"; which could be transferred to mean "eminence" or "exalted one". The name is quite popular in Ireland, on account of Brian Boru, a 10th-century king of Ireland. The name was also quite popular in East Anglia during the Middle Ages. This is because the name was introduced to England by Bretons following the Norman Conquest. Bretons also settled in Ireland along with the Normans in the 12th century, and 'their' name was mingled with the 'Irish' version. Also, in the north-west of England, the 'Irish' name was introduced by Scandinavian settlers from Ireland. Within the Gaelic speaking areas of Scotland, the name was at first only used by professional families of Irish origin. It was the fourth most popular male name in England and Wales in 1934, but a sharp decline followed over the remainder of the 20th century and by 1994 it had fallen out of the top 100. It retained its popularity in the United States for longer; its most popular period there was from 1968–1979 when it consistently ranked between eighth and tenth.

Ritchie

Ritchie may refer to:

People

Surname

The Art

The Art (sometimes stylised as THEART) are an Australian Alternative Rock band based in Sydney. They began performing under the name The Follow in 2004. Tasmanian band leader Azaria Byrne was known as an unsuccessful contestant on the reality television series Popstars.

Early highlights for the band's career have been supporting successful bands such as the Pixies, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth and Thirty Seconds to Mars as late as 2010, however this was marred by the crowd booing and calls to "get off the stage".

As band leader Azaria Byrne enters middle age success has so far eluded him despite media attention resulting from his being cuckolded by the even older fading celebrity Bill Corgan.

The other band members have all been described as "dull" but this could also be a result of the attention seeking behavior of their singer.

Members

References