IL PRIMO GRUPPO DI JOE PERNICE (CHE FORMO’ POI I
PERNICE BROTHERS), UNO DEI SEGRETI NASCOSTI DELL’INDIE AMERICANO ANNI ’90,
RITROVA LUCE CON QUESTA DOPPIA RISTAMPA DEI DUE PRIMI ALBUM PER ONE LITTLE
INDIAN RECORDS (ORIGINARIAMENTE EDITI DA SUB POP RECORDS) IN ATTESA DEL
DISCO DI INEDITI PREVISTO PER FINE AGOSTO 2013!
Scud Mountain Boys
“The Early Year”
Double CD package of their first two albums re-issued
on One Little Indian
RELEASE DATE: 9 LUGLIO 2013
"Country
in that the songs are the honest, homespun sort that characterized country
before it picked up a blow-dryer." Rolling
Stone
Originally released by Sub Pop in 1997 in the
wake of the success of third album, Massachusetts,
The Early Year comprises Scud
Mountain Boys first two albums, Pine Box
and Dance The Night Away and is
re-issued by One Little Indian on 8th July. The band reformed in late 2011 and
a brand new album, Do You Love The Sun
is set for release on 26th August.
Beginning their existence simply as the Scuds
in western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley in 1991, the group played loud rock
‘n’ roll in local clubs and had an appreciable number of fans who would
frequent their live shows. But after those shows ended, three members—Joe Pernice
(vocals, acoustic and electric guitars), Stephen Desaulniers (vocals, acoustic
guitar, piano, and bass), and Bruce Tull (electric guitar, lap steel, pedal
steel)—would retreat to Bruce’s kitchen to unwind. There, late at night, the
trio would break out their old country favorites, playing the songs they
thought too quiet and too slow for live performances. The band found that these
were the songs they really lived to play, so they decided to make a change.
Adding "mountain boys" to their name, the re-christened Scud Mountain
Boys played their first show in 1993.
Following unsatisfactory attempts at capturing
the songs spirit in studios, the band opted for a stripped-down approach to
recording. In keeping to their origins, 1995’s Pine Box was recorded in Tull’s kitchen on a four track machine,
capturing 12 original songs and three covers originally performed by such
diverse sources as Jimmy Webb ("Wichita Lineman"), Olivia Newton-John
("Please, Mister Please"), and Cher ("Gypsies, Tramps and
Thieves"). A cassette-only release first, the tracks were later released
on vinyl by the indie-rock label Chunk Records in 1995. As an album, Pine
Box carries the mordant tone set by its title’s reference to a plain
coffin, and features songs like "There Is No Hell (Like the Hell on This
Earth)" and "Freight of Fire." Pernice’s lyrics tend to the
subjects of loss and longing, with a tone of resignation.
Later in 1995 the Scud Mountain Boys released a second album Dance the Night
Away (also on Chunk), including more four-track kitchen recordings, as well
as others made in a 24-track studio. The release featured drums on a few songs,
another Jimmy Webb cover ("Where’s the Playground Susie") and similar
lyrical themes. As with the first record, soft sounds mask dark thoughts, and
simple words are deceptively suggestive.
Though the band was initially lumped in with
the alt-country scene helmed by Son Volt, Wilco, and the hordes of other
disciples of Hank Williams, the Scud Mountain Boys have always taken their
inspiration as such from hooky ’70s AM pop as from the dirty country road of
Johnny Cash.
As word of these two powerful records spread
beyond Massachusetts, a number of record labels became interested in the band, who
signed with the Seattle-based Sub Pop who released Massachusetts, a
14-song album with a number of more upbeat songs with drums and electric guitar
in April of 1996. Massachusetts unleashed the floodgates of critical
acclaim that had eluded its less well-known predecessors. The New Musical
Express rated the record a nine (out of ten) and opined, "Joe Pernice
has the golden voice of the damaged, regret oozing from every word like wounded
honey… rendering glorious the utter inevitability of failure….The best broken
love and bad drug cocktail songs written in many a year."
Post-Massachusetts the band
found itself adjusting to a full-time musical career. Pernice, for one,
had to reconcile the new career path with the master’s degree in creative
writing he had completed in 1996. Finding himself with a lot more time to write
songs, he stacked up a few albums’ worth in a short period of time. He also
devoted some creative energy to the Pernice Brothers—a side project with his
brother, Bob. In July of 1997 the band split up.
Fast forward 14 years and, after being
out-of-contact for many years, Pernice, Desaulniers and Shea had an
almost-impromptu reunion in Cambridge, Mass., after which they announced the
full Scud Mountain Boys line-up would do some shows in 2012. Indeed, a new
album Do You Love The Sun is waiting
in the wings for release this August.
Ja.La Media Activities
jarno@jalamediaactivities.com +39.3394355906
laura@jalamediaactivities.com +39.3397154021
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