Joe Pernice

All Music Guide:

Joe Pernice is one of the most interesting figures to emerge from the American indie pop scene since the 1990s; while he first gained recognition as part of the downbeat alt-country act the Scud Mountain Boys, since then he's performed and recorded with a variety of projects that have shown him to be a master of smart, beautifully crafted pop songs with intelligent, introspective lyrics and a darkly witty undertow that dovetails with his superb melodic sense. Born and raised in Massachusetts to a family of Italian immigrants, Pernice cut his musical teeth on the alternative rock of the late '70s and mid-'80s, citing the Clash and the Smiths as particular favorites. After playing with a handful of teenage bands in the late '80s, Pernice teamed up with singer and guitarist Bruce Tull in 1991 to form a group called the Scuds. In 1993, they would evolve into the Scud Mountain Boys, whose spare, acoustic-based sound magnified the angst of the then-thriving alternative country scene.

The Scud Mountain Boys recorded a pair of homemade albums, Dance the Night Away and Pine Box, which were released through the local Chunk Records label in 1995. In 1996, the Scud Mountain Boys were signed to Sub Pop Records, which issued their third album, Massachusetts, as well as The Early Year, a two-disc set that featured Dance the Night Away and Pine Box in toto along with some unreleased material. Shortly after the release of Massachusetts, Joe Pernice and his brother Bob Pernice released a more pop-oriented single that built on the more expansive sound of the third Scud Mountain Boys album; Joe soon decided he wanted to pursue this new direction, and the Scud Mountain Boys broke up as the Pernice Brothers recorded their debut album for Sub Pop, 1998's Overcome by Happiness, which featured New Radiant Storm King guitarist Peyton Pinkerton and several artfully executed string and horn charts.

Bob Pernice, who had a career as a scientist, wasn't available to tour extensively behind the album, and the touring version of the Pernice Brothers, featuring Laura Stein and Mike Belitsky of Jale along with Pinkerton, Mike Deming, and Thom Monahan, became Joe Pernice's next project, Chappaquiddick Skyline, who released a self-titled album for Sub Pop in early 2000. (Stein would play on a number of future Pernice projects, and the two would eventually marry.) Pernice opted for yet another band name, Big Tobacco, when he released his next album in 2001, which appeared on Ashmont Records, a label he founded with his manager Joyce Linehan after parting ways with Sub Pop. (Like Chappaquiddick Skyline, Pernice would later say Big Tobacco was released under another group name because he felt the songs weren't up to his usual standards, though both albums received enthusiastic reviews.) Later in 2001, Pernice revived the Pernice Brothers for an outstanding album, The World Won't End, which became the first of four studio albums (as well as a live CD/DVD package) they would release over the space of five years. In 2004, Pernice even enjoyed a minor hit in the Boston area with "Moonshot, Manny (Pega Luna, Manny)," a tribute to Boston Red Sox hitter Manny Ramirez; Pernice released the tune as a digital single, with proceeds going to charity.

In 2001, Pernice turned his attention to the written word when he self-published a book of poetry, Two Blind Pigeons, though his Ashmont Books imprint. In 2003, Pernice published Meat Is Murder, a novella inspired by his teenage years as a Smiths fan, as part of Continuum Books' "33 1/3" series of book-length appreciations of great albums. Meat Is Murder was optioned for a film adaptation, and in 2009 Riverhead Books published Pernice's first full-length novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop. Pernice also recorded a companion album of popular songs cited in the novel, including an original tune by the Young Accuser, a fictive rock band the book's leading character fronted as a teenager. Fiction became reality when Pernice was invited to record a Young Accuser single for Sub Pop Records (the same label that passes on the band's demo in the novel).

Wikipedia:

Joe Pernice is an American indie rock musician and writer, who has fronted several bands, including the Scud Mountain Boys, Chappaquiddick Skyline and the Pernice Brothers.

He is currently based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he is married to Canadian musician Laura Stein, formerly of the band Jale.

Music career

Pernice formed the Scud Mountain Boys in 1991, in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Scud Mountain Boys released three albums before disbanding in 1997.

After the break-up, Pernice formed the Pernice Brothers. The band released their first album Overcome by Happiness in 1998 for Sub Pop. The band released The World Won't End in 2001, under Pernice's own label, Ashmont Records and Yours, Mine and Ours in 2003. After a 2004 tour, the band released their first live album in early 2005, Nobody's Watching/Nobody's Listening, and, in June of the same year, released their fourth studio album, Discover a Lovelier You. The band released Live a Little, their fifth studio album, in October 2006. In 2007 he co-produced the Transnormal Skiperoo album for Jim White. In 2009, Pernice released a solo album called It Feels So Good When I Stop, which was an album of cover songs, marketed as a soundtrack for his debut novel of the same name. In June 2010, the band released its first album in four years, Goodbye, Killer.

During the 1999-2000 hiatus of the Pernice Brothers, Pernice recorded under his own name, issuing the album Big Tobacco, and as Chappaquiddick Skyline, who issued their sole self-titled album on the Sub Pop label. Chappaquiddick Skyline was made up of Pernice Brothers band members playing songs written by Pernice, which he joked were not worthy of the Pernice Brothers banner. He has also released a single "Pega Luna Manny" along with Jose Ayerve, a member of the Pernice Brothers, a song about Boston Red Sox player Manny Ramirez which enjoyed moderate success when the Boston Red Sox won the world series that year, for the first time in 86 years.

In 2012 Pernice recorded a version of the Joe Jackson song "It's Different for Girls" for a fund raising cd titled "Super Hits Of The Seventies" for radio station WFMU.

Writing career

In 2003, as a part of Continuum Publishing's 33 1/3 series of short books about some of rock music's most important and influential albums, Pernice issued Meat Is Murder, a semi-autobiographical novelette about the Smiths' 1985 album of the same name, and its impact on his teenage years.

In 2009 Pernice published his first novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop, via the Penguin Books imprint Riverhead Books. The book features a narrator down on his luck, "hiding from the wreckage of a one-day marriage by holing up in Cape Cod with his soon to be ex-brother in law." The book is somewhat based on Pernice's own life experiences. He is also intermittently working on a screenplay for Meat is Murder with actor Neal Huff.

Along with the release of his latest CD, Goodbye, Killer, Ashmont Records published a limited-edition collection of Twitter tweets between Pernice and his label co-owner Joyce Linehan. These tweets currently are serving as the basis for an ongoing series of short, humorous videos featuring puppets of Pernice, Linehan and some other characters. The videos can be seen on pernicebrothers.com.