Biography
Emerging from the American indie pop landscape after the 1990s, Joe Pernice ranks among its most compelling talents. Recognition first arrived through his role in the downbeat alt-country outfit the Scud Mountain Boys, yet subsequent work across numerous projects has established him as a craftsman of intelligent, introspective pop songs whose darkly witty tone aligns with his exceptional melodic gift. Studio high points for the Scud Mountain Boys arrived with Massachusetts in 1996, while the Pernice Brothers register most strongly on The World Won't End in 2001 and Yours, Mine & Ours in 2003; Richard, an exceptional solo album, followed in 2020.
Born and raised in Massachusetts within an Italian immigrant family, Pernice absorbed the alternative rock sounds of the late 1970s and mid-1980s, naming the Clash and the Smiths among his key influences. Following stints in several teenage groups during the late 1980s, he joined singer and guitarist Bruce Tull in 1991 to launch the Scuds, which evolved into the Scud Mountain Boys by 1993; the group’s spare, acoustic-driven approach heightened the emotional rawness already present in the alternative country movement of that period.
Two self-recorded albums, Dance the Night Away and Pine Box, appeared on the local Chunk Records label in 1995. Sub Pop signed the Scud Mountain Boys in 1996 and issued both Massachusetts and The Early Year, the latter a two-disc collection containing the prior albums in full plus additional unreleased tracks. Soon after Massachusetts, Joe Pernice and his brother Bob Pernice issued a more pop-oriented single that expanded on the broader textures of the Scud Mountain Boys’ third album; Joe chose to follow this direction, prompting the Scud Mountain Boys to disband while the Pernice Brothers prepared their Sub Pop debut, Overcome by Happiness, which arrived in 1998 and included New Radiant Storm King guitarist Peyton Pinkerton along with carefully arranged string and horn parts.
Because Bob Pernice maintained a scientific career and could not commit to extensive touring, the road lineup—featuring Laura Stein and Mike Belitsky of Jale plus Pinkerton, Mike Deming, and Thom Monahan—became the basis for Joe Pernice’s subsequent project, Chappaquiddick Skyline, whose self-titled Sub Pop album appeared in early 2000. Stein would contribute to numerous later Pernice recordings, and the pair later married. For the 2001 album issued on Ashmont Records, the label he started with manager Joyce Linehan after leaving Sub Pop, Pernice used the name Big Tobacco; he later noted that both this and the Chappaquiddick Skyline release appeared under alternate names because he felt the material fell short of his standards, although both sets earned strong reviews. Later that year he reinstated the Pernice Brothers name for The World Won't End, the first of four studio albums plus one live CD/DVD package issued across five years. In 2004 a minor Boston hit emerged with “Moonshot, Manny (Pega Luna, Manny),” his tribute to Boston Red Sox hitter Manny Ramirez; released as a digital single, proceeds supported charity.
Attention turned to writing in 2001 with the self-published poetry collection Two Blind Pigeons, issued through Ashmont Books. Continuum Books’ “33 1/3” series published the 2003 novella Meat Is Murder, drawn from his teenage Smiths fandom; the work was optioned for film, and Riverhead Books released his first novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop, in 2009. Pernice also recorded a companion album of songs referenced in the novel, among them an original track credited to the Young Accuser, the fictional band fronted by the book’s protagonist in his youth. Fiction crossed into reality when Sub Pop invited him to release a Young Accuser single—the same label that rejects the band’s demo inside the novel.
Following the 2010 Pernice Brothers album Goodbye Killer, Joe Pernice largely set music aside to concentrate on writing and Canadian television work, though select projects continued. With Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub he formed the New Mendicants, which toured—documented on the 2013 EP Australia 2013 E.P.—and recorded the 2014 studio album Into the Lime. Electronic producer Budo contacted Pernice about remixing a Scud Mountain Boys track, resulting in the 2015 collaborative album issued as Roger Lion. Spread the Feeling, the first Pernice Brothers album in nine years, arrived in 2019 as a return to the group’s earlier sound and approach. Richard, a low-key and primarily acoustic solo album, appeared in 2020.
Born and raised in Massachusetts within an Italian immigrant family, Pernice absorbed the alternative rock sounds of the late 1970s and mid-1980s, naming the Clash and the Smiths among his key influences. Following stints in several teenage groups during the late 1980s, he joined singer and guitarist Bruce Tull in 1991 to launch the Scuds, which evolved into the Scud Mountain Boys by 1993; the group’s spare, acoustic-driven approach heightened the emotional rawness already present in the alternative country movement of that period.
Two self-recorded albums, Dance the Night Away and Pine Box, appeared on the local Chunk Records label in 1995. Sub Pop signed the Scud Mountain Boys in 1996 and issued both Massachusetts and The Early Year, the latter a two-disc collection containing the prior albums in full plus additional unreleased tracks. Soon after Massachusetts, Joe Pernice and his brother Bob Pernice issued a more pop-oriented single that expanded on the broader textures of the Scud Mountain Boys’ third album; Joe chose to follow this direction, prompting the Scud Mountain Boys to disband while the Pernice Brothers prepared their Sub Pop debut, Overcome by Happiness, which arrived in 1998 and included New Radiant Storm King guitarist Peyton Pinkerton along with carefully arranged string and horn parts.
Because Bob Pernice maintained a scientific career and could not commit to extensive touring, the road lineup—featuring Laura Stein and Mike Belitsky of Jale plus Pinkerton, Mike Deming, and Thom Monahan—became the basis for Joe Pernice’s subsequent project, Chappaquiddick Skyline, whose self-titled Sub Pop album appeared in early 2000. Stein would contribute to numerous later Pernice recordings, and the pair later married. For the 2001 album issued on Ashmont Records, the label he started with manager Joyce Linehan after leaving Sub Pop, Pernice used the name Big Tobacco; he later noted that both this and the Chappaquiddick Skyline release appeared under alternate names because he felt the material fell short of his standards, although both sets earned strong reviews. Later that year he reinstated the Pernice Brothers name for The World Won't End, the first of four studio albums plus one live CD/DVD package issued across five years. In 2004 a minor Boston hit emerged with “Moonshot, Manny (Pega Luna, Manny),” his tribute to Boston Red Sox hitter Manny Ramirez; released as a digital single, proceeds supported charity.
Attention turned to writing in 2001 with the self-published poetry collection Two Blind Pigeons, issued through Ashmont Books. Continuum Books’ “33 1/3” series published the 2003 novella Meat Is Murder, drawn from his teenage Smiths fandom; the work was optioned for film, and Riverhead Books released his first novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop, in 2009. Pernice also recorded a companion album of songs referenced in the novel, among them an original track credited to the Young Accuser, the fictional band fronted by the book’s protagonist in his youth. Fiction crossed into reality when Sub Pop invited him to release a Young Accuser single—the same label that rejects the band’s demo inside the novel.
Following the 2010 Pernice Brothers album Goodbye Killer, Joe Pernice largely set music aside to concentrate on writing and Canadian television work, though select projects continued. With Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub he formed the New Mendicants, which toured—documented on the 2013 EP Australia 2013 E.P.—and recorded the 2014 studio album Into the Lime. Electronic producer Budo contacted Pernice about remixing a Scud Mountain Boys track, resulting in the 2015 collaborative album issued as Roger Lion. Spread the Feeling, the first Pernice Brothers album in nine years, arrived in 2019 as a return to the group’s earlier sound and approach. Richard, a low-key and primarily acoustic solo album, appeared in 2020.
Albums
Could It Be Magic
2020
Richard
2020
It Feels So Good When I Stop (Novel Soundtrack)
2009
It Feels So Good When I Stop
2009
Big Tobacco
2001
Singles
