Joseph T. Pernice (born July 17, 1967) is an American
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
musician and writer, who has fronted several bands, including the
Scud Mountain Boys, Chappaquiddick Skyline, The New Mendicants and the
Pernice Brothers.
Early life
Pernice was born into a large
Italian American
Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...
family in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, in 1967. He was raised in the south shore town of
Holbrook and attended Catholic school. His father managed a trucking dealership, while his mother worked at home, taking care of six children.
Pernice received his undergraduate degree in English at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...
. After taking a year off, he was encouragemed by poet
James Tate to return to Amherst, where he completed a three-year MFA in creative writing.
Music career
Pernice formed the Scud Mountain Boys in 1992, in
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence, Massachusetts, Florence and ...
. The Scud Mountain Boys released three albums before disbanding in 1997. Pine Box (1995), Dance The Night Away (1995) and Massachusetts (1996).
After the break-up, Pernice formed the Pernice Brothers. The band released their first album ''
Overcome by Happiness'' in 1998 for
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is an independent record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana (band), Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the gru ...
. The band released ''
The World Won't End'' in 2001 on Pernice's own label, Ashmont Records and ''
Yours, Mine & 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. Also in 2006, Pernice appeared as himself in an episode of the WB television show Gilmore Girls.
In 2007, he co-produced the ''
Transnormal Skiperoo
''Transnormal Skiperoo'' is a 2007 album by Jim White (guitarist), Jim White. It was produced by Joe Pernice and Michael Deming, recorded with the band Olabelle and also features tracks with Tucker Martine and Laura Veirs, local Georgia (U.S. st ...
'' 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
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
player
Manny Ramirez
Manuel Arístides Ramírez Onelcida (born May 30, 1972) is a Dominican Americans (Dominican Republic), Dominican-American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for parts of 19 seasons. He played wit ...
which enjoyed moderate success when the
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
won the world series that year, for the first time in 86 years.
In 2012 The Scud Mountain Boys reunited after a 15 years hiatus. They released their fourth album, ''Do You Love the Sun'', in 2014.
Pernice has collaborated with
Norman Blake and
Mike Belitsky in
The New Mendicants. A New Mendicants album Into The Lime was released in 2014. He also formed Roger Lion along with musician and hip hop producer
Budo.
The duo released a studio album, ''Roger Lion'', on
Team Love Records
Team Love is an independent record label based in New Paltz, New York, and Portland, Maine. The label was founded by Conor Oberst and Nate Krenkel in 2003. It has released albums by several recording artists. Team Love also released the documen ...
in 2015.
On September 9, 2019, Pernice released ''Spread the Feeling'', the sixth studio LP by the Pernice Brothers.
Writing career
In 2001, Pernice published a collection of poetry called ''Two Blind Pigeons''. The majority of that book consists of Pernice's MFA thesis.
In 2003, as a part of
Continuum Publishing
Continuum International Publishing Group was an academic publisher of books with editorial offices in London and New York City. It was purchased by Nova Capital Management in 2005. In July 2011, it was taken over by Bloomsbury Publishing. , all n ...
'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 novella about suicide and an almost unhealthy obsession with
the Smiths
The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...
'
1985 album of the same name.
In 2009, Pernice published his first novel, ''It Feels So Good When I Stop,'' via the
Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
imprint
Riverhead Books
Riverhead Books is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) founded in 1994 by Susan Petersen Kennedy.
Writers published by Riverhead include Ali Sethi, Marlon James, Junot Díaz, George Saunders, Khaled Hosseini, Nick Hornby, Anne Lamott, Carl ...
. The book features a narrator "hiding from the wreckage of a one-day marriage by holing up in Cape Cod with his soon to be ex-brother in law."
/ref>
Pernice is also intermittently working on a screenplay for ''Meat is Murder'' with actor Neal Huff
Neal Huff is an American actor from New York City. In April 2018, he performed as Willie Oban in the Broadway revival of '' The Iceman Cometh''. In December 2018, Huff began performing in ''To Kill a Mockingbird'', adapted for stage by Aaron S ...
.
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 o
pernicebrothers.com
In 2017, Pernice was a staff writer on the Canadian television show '' The Detail''. Pernice co-wrote episode 6 with Canadian writer Adam Pettle
Adam Pettle (born 1973) is a Canadian playwright, radio producer, and television writer, most noted as the showrunner and executive producer on the CTV and Ion Television hospital drama ''Saving Hope''.
Biography
Theatre
Born in Toronto in 197 ...
.
Personal life
Pernice is currently based in Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada, where he is married to Canadian musician Laura Stein, formerly of the band Jale.
Discography
Solo
* ''Big Tobacco'' (2000)
* ''Richard'' (2020)
* ''Could It Be Magic'' (2020)
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pernice, Joe
1967 births
Living people
American rock musicians
University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program for Poets & Writers alumni
American alternative country singers
Musicians from Toronto
American emigrants to Canada
People from Holbrook, Massachusetts
Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts
Musicians from Boston
American people of Italian descent