Formed after the 1997 breakup of singer/songwriter
Joe Pernice's alt-country group
the Scud Mountain Boys,
the Pernice Brothers did an about-face from the spare but well-crafted '70s country sound of their final album,
Massachusetts, and came up with the lush, orchestrated pop of 1998's
Overcome by Happiness. There were almost no traces of country left in
Pernice's sound; instead, influences like
Brian Wilson,
the Left Banke, and
Todd Rundgren seemed to be his main inspiration.
The Pernice Brothers dug deeper into their journey into pop on their second LP, 2001's excellent
The World Won't End, and to the end of the decade, they released a series of consistently strong albums, with 2006's
Live a Little and 2010's
Goodbye, Killer finding the group sounding less mannered and more straightforward. After nearly a decade spent pursuing other projects,
the Pernice Brothers made an impressive return with 2019's Spread the Feeling.
Recorded for Sub Pop, which released the final
Scud Mountain Boys album,
Overcome by Happiness featured the initial lineup of
the Pernice Brothers, with
Joe joined by his brother
Bob (the lone holdover from
the Scuds), guitarist
Peyton Pinkerton from the
New Radiant Storm Kings, bassist/producer
Thom Monahan, drummer
Aaron Sperske, and pianist/producer
Mike Deming. It was a 12-song revelation for fans of smart and arranged modern pop music, and earned enthusiastic reviews. Following the release of their debut album, the band went into a self-imposed hiatus as
Joe Pernice released a record in early 2000 on Sub Pop under the name and title of
Chappaquiddick Skyline. The record featured personnel made up of the
Pernice Brothers' touring band: bassist
Monahan, guitarist
Pinkerton, new keyboardist
Laura Stein, and drummer Mike Belitsky (both of whom were members of the Nova Scotia group
Jale). The record was more sparse and downcast-sounding than
the Pernice Brothers' debut. Both that record and
Pernice's solo record from late 2000, Big Tobacco (which also featured
Monahan,
Pinkerton, and
Stein), were, according to
Pernice, made up of songs he considered not good enough to be released under the
Pernice Brothers banner.
He finally came up with enough songs he deemed worthy of release by the band, and in 2001 the less orchestrated but still wonderful
The World Won't End was released to a ringing chorus of justified critical praise. The album featured the core band of both
Pernice brothers,
Pinkerton,
Monahan,
Stein, and Belitsky, and was released on Ashmont Records, a label that
Pernice and business partner Joyce Linehan formed after
Pernice parted ways somewhat acrimoniously with Sub Pop and found no other label that wanted to sign the group or that he wanted to sign with.
The band set off on a worldwide tour and returned to the studio in 2002 to craft their next release. Released in 2003,
Yours, Mine & Ours had a less lush and arranged sound than the previous two records but showed no signs of artistic decline, as it was a strong batch of smart pop tunes by one of the finest bands anywhere in the early 2000s. Following its release, Belitsky and
Stein left the group and were replaced by drummer Pat Berkery (also of
the Bigger Lovers) and keyboardist
James Walbourne (who played with
Peter Bruntnell). Nobody's Watching/Nobody's Listening, a live album/DVD set recorded during their 2004 tour, was released in early 2005.
Meanwhile, the group (which at this point consisted of
Pernice,
Monahan,
Pinkerton, Berkery, and
Walbourne) were recording their fifth album in Brooklyn, Massachusetts, Toronto, and Los Angeles. Titled
Discover a Lovelier You, it was released in June 2005 on Ashmont Records. 2006's
Live a Little was the band's first record since
Overcome by Happiness to be produced by
Mike Deming and accordingly featured the return of that album's horns and strings, resulting in a sound that successfully melded the ornate approach of the group's debut and the (relatively new) stripped-down pop/rock sound. The group (
Pernice,
Walbourne and drummer
Ric Menck with help from the returning
Bob Pernice) successfully balanced both worlds on 2010's
Goodbye, Killer.
Following the release of
Goodbye, Killer,
the Pernice Brothers went on hiatus as
Joe pursued other interests. In 2003 he published a novella as part of Continuum Publishing's 33 ⅓ series, a bittersweet observation of adolescence informed by
the Smiths'
Meat Is Murder. It was followed in 2009 by his first full-length novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop, which was published concurrently with an album of the same name featuring new songs, readings from the book, and covers of songs mentioned in the story. In 2012,
the Scud Mountain Boys reunited for a tour and a new album,
Do You Love the Sun, issued in 2014.
Pernice also launched a project with Norman Blake of
Teenage Fanclub and Mike Belitsky called
the New Mendicants, cutting an album,
Into the Lime, that came out in 2014.
Pernice was approached by producer
Budo, known for his work in hip-hop and electronic music, about remixing a
Scud Mountain Boys track, and their discussions led to a collaborative album that was brought out in 2015 under the group name
Roger Lion. And while working on and off on a screenplay adapted from the
Meat Is Murder novella,
Pernice landed a gig as a staff writer on the Canadian TV series The Detail (he relocated to Toronto after marrying former bandmate
Laura Stein). In 2019,
the Pernice Brothers returned with a new album, Spread the Feeling. Recorded in Boston, Toronto, and the American Pacific Northwest, the set included contributions from
Peyton Pinkerton,
James Walbourne, Patrick Berkery,
Bob Pernice,
Ric Menck, and
Neko Case. ~ Tim Sendra & Mark Deming