THE PERNICE BROTHERS
Overcome by Happiness
Independent / Sub Pop
Release date : July 15th '98
Ireland only
Overcome by Happiness, with its conspicuous lack of country
leanings, is an astoundingly brave move for someone so critically
adored by the alternative set. It's both a gorgeous and lyrical
album. Say hello to the Pernice Brothers.
"I just wanted to make a pretty and
mellow pop record. And I'm not
afraid to use the word pop.
There's nothing shameful about it."
-Joe Pernice
Overcome by Happiness is more than simply a pretty, mellow pop
record. It's a bold, often dramatic revamping of Pernice's
artistic sound and vision, a gigantic leap from his work with the
Scud Mountain Boys, the Northampton, Massachusetts-based quartet
who quietly carved out a unique place in the ever-growing pantheon
of neo-country outfits such as Uncle Tupelo, the Bottle Rockets,
Son Volt, and Wilco. But where the three albums recorded by the
Scuds -- the 1995 Chunk-issued Pine Box and Dance the Night Away,
now available on Sub Pop's reissue The Early Year; and
Massachusetts, the group's '96 debut for Sub Pop -- were
minimalist-country constructions presented with few frills and
even fewer overdubs, Overcome by Happiness is a relatively lavish
effort adorned with sweeping orchestrations, plaintive piano
fills, and soaring horn work. The twelve songs, all Pernice
originals, transcend the boundaries of alterna-country and span
the stylistic gamut between his traditionalist work with the Scuds
and the melancholic power-pop romanticism of the Raspberries, Big
Star, and Runt-era Todd Rundgren.
"It is definitely more of a pop album than a country or Americana
record" admits Pernice, "but this is the record I wanted to
make. " That's why, in the summer of 1997, Pernice left the Scud
Mountain Boys. "I think we went as far as we could go
stylistically and it became very limiting, " Pernice says of the
split. "It was just time to move on. I'm not knocking that kind of
traditional country music we were doing, but for me it was getting
a little boring. I was thinking that a lot of the songs I was
writing at the time [of the Scuds' breakup] were suited for things
like strings and piano. Really, I just wanted to expand the sound
a bit and try different instruments and to really indulge myself,
which I couldn't do in the Scud Mountain Boys. "
After debuting the Pernice Brothers in January '97 with a Sub Pop
single, Pernice gathered together his guitar-playing brother Bob
and some friends from area bands (including New Radiant Storm King
guitarist Peyton Pinkerton and, from the Lilys, bassist/producer
Thom Monahan, drummer Aaron Sperske, and pianist/string
arranger/producer Mike Deming) and headed to Hartford,
Connecticut's Studio .45 to lay down tracks for Overcome by
Happiness. A stylistic departure that bristles with a sense of
discovery and liberation, Happiness moves gracefully from lilting
pop gems such as Crestfallen to the lover's kiss-off Clear
Spot; from the pulsating riff that propels the wistfully cynical
title track to the gloriously beautiful Wait to Stop, a string-
laden weeper that is something of a throwback to the complex
studio concoctions of Brian Wilson's best work with the Beach
Boys.
Overcome by Happiness, with its conspicuous lack of country
leanings, is an astoundingly brave move for someone so critically
adored by the alternative set. It's both a gorgeous and lyrical
album. Say hello to the Pernice Brothers.