Violent Femmes’ ninth studio album and first full-length collection in more than 15 years, We Can Do Anything is among the most provocative and playful in the legendary trio’s remarkable canon. As the album’s title makes plain, the band – singer/songwriter/guitarist Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and drummer Brian Viglione – remains as intrepid and fearless as ever before, traversing genre and emotion via their immediately identifiable, still utterly idiosyncratic, mash of rambunctious folk, minimalist punk, cubist blues, cosmic jazz, and backwoods rock ‘n’ roll.
Produced by Jeff Hamilton – a longtime member of the Horns of Dilemma, Violent Femmes’ ever-evolving cabal of multi-instrumentalist backing musicians – and mixed by the legendary John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile, Dinosaur, Jr.), We Can Do Anything was recorded in studios in Brooklyn, Nashville, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Denver, while on tour during the summer of 2015. The album’s cover image was drawn by Barenaked Ladies’ Kevin Hearn, who also contributed accordion, guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals on several recordings.