Biography
The influence of Uncle Tupelo along with its offshoots Wilco and Son Volt created an opening for an entirely fresh cohort of players who emerged from the punk rock era yet forged a real bond with traditional country, above all in the form handed down by Gram Parsons, the foundational figure of country-rock. The Scud Mountain Boys—Joe Pernice, Stephen Desaulniers, Bruce Tull, and Tom Shea—belonged squarely to that lineage.
At first the group performed under the name the Scuds and specialized in electric rock & roll. Pernice, Desaulniers, and Tull launched the project in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1991 and built a reliable local following. Before long, however, the musicians grew weary of transporting heavy gear and discovered greater satisfaction in the casual acoustic country performances they held around a kitchen table after gigs. They eventually carried the table itself into a club. Audience approval was immediate, so the acoustic format remained.
Their first album, Pine Box—initially available only as a cassette—documented those table-side sessions and paired understated, hushed originals with renditions of 1970s pop-country numbers such as "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" and "Please, Mr. Please." The second album, Dance the Night Away, reintroduced a handful of rock tracks from the Scuds period and surfaced on Chunk Records in 1995, after which national interest accelerated. Sub Pop signed the band in early 1996 and issued its third album, Massachusetts, less than two years later.
That release proved to be the group’s final one, although Pernice soon joined his brother Bob to record Overcome by Happiness under the Pernice Brothers name; the album appeared on Sub Pop in 1998. Numerous further projects followed over the next decade, together with solo work issued by Joe Pernice both under his own name and as Chappaquiddick Skyline. The Scud Mountain Boys reconvened in 2012 and delivered the new collection Do You Love the Sun the following year.
At first the group performed under the name the Scuds and specialized in electric rock & roll. Pernice, Desaulniers, and Tull launched the project in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1991 and built a reliable local following. Before long, however, the musicians grew weary of transporting heavy gear and discovered greater satisfaction in the casual acoustic country performances they held around a kitchen table after gigs. They eventually carried the table itself into a club. Audience approval was immediate, so the acoustic format remained.
Their first album, Pine Box—initially available only as a cassette—documented those table-side sessions and paired understated, hushed originals with renditions of 1970s pop-country numbers such as "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" and "Please, Mr. Please." The second album, Dance the Night Away, reintroduced a handful of rock tracks from the Scuds period and surfaced on Chunk Records in 1995, after which national interest accelerated. Sub Pop signed the band in early 1996 and issued its third album, Massachusetts, less than two years later.
That release proved to be the group’s final one, although Pernice soon joined his brother Bob to record Overcome by Happiness under the Pernice Brothers name; the album appeared on Sub Pop in 1998. Numerous further projects followed over the next decade, together with solo work issued by Joe Pernice both under his own name and as Chappaquiddick Skyline. The Scud Mountain Boys reconvened in 2012 and delivered the new collection Do You Love the Sun the following year.
Albums
