review: 08.04.01- Pernice Brothers at Spaceland (Los Angleles), by Wayne Lewis
As we do from time to time, let us now take a moment to praise the
criminally underappreciated. Joe Pernice has spent the past half-dozen
years or so crafting, under numerous guises, some of the most sad and
beautiful pop music that no one ever seems to hear. The Scud Mountain Boys released three seldom-heard alt-country albums as close in spirit to Glen Campbell as Hank Williams. After dissolving that group, Pernice made a right turn into the exquisite Big Star/Bacharach-informed pure pop of the Pernice Brothers, only to follow up with an album of narcoleptic home recordings under the Chappaquidick Skyline handle, then release an import-only solo album bearing the name Big Tobacco. The man is restless, if nothing else. The first-ever Los Angeles appearance by his main outfit, fresh from the near self-release of another gem, The World Won't End, was a can't-miss show.
After the charming and catchy but nondescript pop/rock of Rocket and the
Weezerisms of Arlo, the Pernice Brothers took the stage minus the second
titular brother, Bob Pernice, and the small string section that adds lush
flourishes to their recordings. The players were an interesting collection
of alt-rock survivors. Peyton Pinkerton of noise rockers New Radiant Storm
King (speaking of criminally underappreciated, their wonderful Hurricane
Necklace is absolutely worth seeking out) handled the electric git duties,
switching between chiming jangle, rocking crunch, or spaghetti western
tremolo punctuation. Laura Stein, the "l" in defunct Canadian popsters
jale, added keyboard accents, Mike Belitsky (who once replaced the "a" in
jale) kept the tempo going behind the drum kit, and producer/engineer Thom
Monahan (Lilys, Silver Jews, J Mascis) plucked out the molasses-rich bass
lines that underlie Pernice's compositions. Pernice laid down the backbone
of the material in acoustic strums and mellow, tobacco-tinged vocals.
The band's set at Spaceland covered ground from all of Pernice's projects.
The first half of the set grouped together slower, softer songs like Skyline
standout "Everyone Else Is Evolving," that then segued into more upbeat fare
such as the effervescent new "Working Girls (Sunlight Shines)" and gems from
the first Pernice Brothers album, "Overcome By Happiness" and "Wait To
Stop." A solo acoustic encore including the noir-ish minor-key folk of Big
Tobacco's "Bum Leg" was followed by full-band renditions of the Scuds' Jim
Croce-evoking sex-plea/wonder "Grudge Fuck" and Pernice Brothers
song-about-asphyxiation "Chicken Wire" to close out the night.
The necessarily stripped-down renditions of the Pernice oeuvre, absent the
chamber pop honey, still presented the material more than adequately. The
low-mixed backing vocals were the only hitch, rendering the ooh's and aah's
bookending "Everyone Else Is Evolving" and "Crestfallen" rather earth-bound.
Even so, the breakdown of Zombies/Herman's Hermits ba-da-ba's at the end of
"7:30" was perfect, irresistibly grin-inducing.
Given sample sentiments such as "I hate my life," "Contemplating suicide or
a graduate degree," and "I never stopped to see if I was dead," there seems
to be somewhat of a limited audience for this kind of endeavor. But hope
leavens nearly every song and soaring melodies counterbalance the depression
outlined in the lyrics. These are sounds that should find more ears
stateside. Sad sack has rarely sounded so heavenly.