biographies
Here you have the whole story of the band,if you want to make a tribute to JASON click over the photo and you'll see his story,form birth to his premature death.
go to Jason' s tribute page
Pennywise formed in the garages of Hermosa Beach in 1988. A small beach community south of Los Angeles, Hermosa is the cradle of Southern California Hardcore - having been the birthplace of such legendary hardcore bands as Black Flag, Circle Jerks and the Descendents. By 1989, Pennywise managed to record and release a five song EP “Word from the Wise” on Theologian records. Pennywise began to develop their reputation as a ferocious live band. Pennywise signed to Epitaph records where they released Pennywise S/T, Unknown Road and About Time .
Relying on the board culture for support, Pennywise lent their music to a variety of skate and surf videos and established their music as the soundtrack for skaters, surfers and punks everywhere. The intensity of the music coupled with the bands righteous anger spoke to a legion of fans that wanted something more than frivolity of pop or nihilistic drudgery of grunge. Pennywise have always tried to pose solutions and have aimed to inspire their fans to embrace life and live every day to its fullest. For the members of Pennywise, everything that the band stood for was tested in July of 1996 when founding member Jason Mathew Thirsk tragically lost his life, the remaining members of PENNYWISE were forced to re-evaluate and re-dedicate themselves to their message, which now took on a tragic sense of urgency. “We had written these songs that so many others had found inspiration in and now we had to come to grips with these things ourselves,” remembers Dragge. “It suddenly all became real…our time is short and you can’t waste a single second.” PENNYWISE dealt with this realization on their next album Full Circle, an emotional eulogy to Thirsk that expresses their grief and recommitment to the positive message embodied in the lyrics of songs like “Brohymm” and “Unknown Road.”
After a year of touring in support of Full Circle, the band returned to the studio to begin work on their sixth album, Straight Ahead. The band’s goal in the making of Straight Ahead was to create an album that would both deliver goods for their long time fans as well as take chances with different material. Again the band turned toward social relevancy for inspiration; My Own Country explores the individual desire for autonomy and separation from a government more concerned with scandal and the cult of personality than the will of the people. A voice in the wilderness, Pennywise speak out to inspire courage and determination to create a better world in Might Be A Dream and Still Can Be Great while pointing out the problems within our culture, our communities, and our world in songs like Victim of Reality and Can’t Believe It. The result of almost 5 months of constant work, the band was driven to write their strongest and most diverse album to-date.
The band’s first four albums (Word From The Wise, S/T, Unknown Road and About Time) became the soundtrack to the lives of their fiercely loyal fans who feel personally connected to both the band’s inspirational message and charging beats. The band returns that loyalty by keeping ticket and merch prices low and constantly intervening to make sure the rights of their fans are not violated. When confronted with having to raise their merchandise prices to accommodate an exorbitant venue fee at one-stop along the Warped Tour, the band refused to sell their merch on site and instead organized a barbeque outside of the venue where exiting fans could buy the Warped tour band’s t-shirts at a more reasonable cost.
Through over a decade together the members of
Pennywise have remained doggedly faithful to the ideas and inspiration that
launched them. Although the band has grown to a level beyond any of their
expectations the band at its core remains just another punk band from Hermosa
Beach. Their first purpose is to serve their fans and give voice and inspiration
to a to a generation searching for a world better than the one they have
inherited. In the final song on Straight Ahead, Badge of Pride, Jim Lindberg
sings about what it means to remain true to these ideals -"I’ll believe what
I wanna believe / true to myself that’s how it’s gotta be", and still
"For
us, Punk music for us is about righteous anger and the naïve belief that in
some small way together we can change the world,” says Lindberg. “At some
point, punk rock came along and deeply effected the lives of everyone in this
band, changed it, defined it and in many ways, saved it. We know it can do the
same for others. We know punk can change the world and we’re never going to
stop trying."
