Hotel Last Resort

The Violent Femmes release Hotel Last Resort, the band’s 10th studio album and first in three years — and the first recorded by the group’s new four-piece lineup. The Femmes — original members Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie, now joined by longtime Horns of Dilemma members John Sparrow and Blaise Garza — recorded the 13-track album in Denver, enlisting help from both Tom Verlaine and pro skateboarder Stefan Janoski, who sings a “rambunctious” new version of I’m Nothing off 1994’s New Times. The album also features a cover of I’m Not Gonna Cry by Greek band Pyx Lax, apparently translated from Greek by Gano himself. And the record ends with a new arrangement of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, complete with “an improvised free jazz coda that serves as an ideal encapsulation of both the American spirit and Violent Femmes’ own remarkable contribution to the country’s musical canon.”