Gordon Gano

Career Violent Femmes

Gano joined Violent Femmes in Milwaukee in 1981 with bassist Brian Ritchie and drummer Victor DeLorenzo. They soon developed an enthusiastic following thanks to songs such as "Blister in the Sun," "Kiss Off" and "Add It Up" (all included on their self-titled debut album). The band has experimented with a variety of sounds over the course of its career, such as country and western (Hallowed Ground) and gospel (The Blind Leading the Naked). Gano plays guitar, sings and writes most of the band's songs.

Other projects During a Violent Femmes hiatus in the late 1980s, Gano formed a gospel-punk group called The Mercy Seat with vocalist Zena Von Heppinstall, bassist Patrice Moran, and drummer Fernando Menendez. They toured internationally for two years and released a self-titled album in 1987 on Warner Music Group's Slash Records. The album was re-released digitally in 2009 on Wounded Bird Records.

Gano released his first solo album in 2002, titled Hitting the Ground. He shared vocal duties with Manuel Cruz, lead singer of the Portuguese rock band Ornatos Violeta in the song "Capitão Romance," with Gano singing in Portuguese. Gano also played violin on Ben Vaughn's 1990 album Dressed in Black.

Gano contributed to the 2004 multi-artist collaboration The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (alongside artists including Beck, Eels, TV on the Radio and Death Cab for Cutie), on which he provides a rendition of Daniel Johnston's "Impossible Love".

Gano wrote, recorded and performed with ex-members of The Bogmen, Billy and Brendan Ryan, under the name Gordon Gano & The Ryans. Their only album, Under the Sun, was released in September 2009 on Yep Roc Records.

Acting Gano played Mr. Zank, the first of many substitute mathematics teachers, in an episode of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, entitled "X=Why?" Gano appears as a fictional version of himself, under a love spell, in the 1997 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch episode "Hilda and Zelda: the Teenage Years". Gano voiced a newborn baby singer in the 1998 animated film The Rugrats Movie.