PERNICE BROTHERS

The Pernice Brothers come to a Ireland as a three piece in a fortnight's time. Joining Joe will be longtime collaborator and always a Pernice Brother, chef and guitar player extraordinaire Peyton Pinkerton. Completing the line up will be James Walbourne who first came to our notice whizzing up and down  the frets in Peter Bruntnell's band  but has since become an ivory tinkling Pernice Brother.

These shows give you the chance to hear some of the highlights from the exquisite Pernice Brothers album 'Your, Mine & Ours' as well as older material from Joe’s Scuds, solo and side projects. If you get a chance, check out Joe’s first work of fiction ‘Meat Is Murder’ which has just come out as part of the 33 1/3 series on Continuum books. A wry humorous recollection of growing up in Catholic school in Boston, there’s teenage angst and obsession with The Smiths aplenty.

The Belles hail from Laurence, Kansas (as in the Josh Ritter song and by strange coincidence they played with him at a storming 100 Club gig in London earlier this week) and have been described as a combination of Elliot Smith and the Lemonheads. We love their tunes '(Who will be) here to hear?)' and 'Never Said Anything' from their forthcoming Omerta album.

Half Moon, Cork - Wednesday 3rd March

Whelan's - Thursday 4th March
Tickets from Ticketmaster, Soundcellar and Road Records

Cleere's, Kilkenny - Friday 5th March

Spirit Store, Dundalk - Saturday 6th March

Empire, Belfast - Sunday 7th March

And here’s  the messsage that went out to the Pernice Brothers mailing list at the beginning of the year.

Happy New Years Everyone,

“Hope 2004 goes the right way for all of you. I've already started practicing casting my vote for the 2004 election. I'm a little stiff from all of the touring, but I figure by November I'll be as loose as a peaking Oilcan Boyd. Vote early and often. By my count we played about 110 shows since last March. That's a lot of times carrying gear in and out of a club. Our arms are starting to look like Popeye's. Thanks a lot to everyone who came to the shows. I know I speak for the entire band when I say it was a kick playing the songs off the new record (as well as the older ones). We capped off the touring year by recording the last two shows at the Mercury Lounge in New York. The idea was that after so many shows during the year, we would probably be salty enough as a band to immortalize (God help us) a gig or two. Only the tapes will tell. A live album, or EP could show up this year some time. Unless it stinks. For the next couple months we'll be home, co-writing (and hopefully recording) some songs for a follow-up Chappaquiddick Skyline album. I've never written songs with a group before, so this should be interesting. Will write an update soon. As I write this, Thom is connecting cables to equipment five feet away from me. Peyton is slaving over a hot stove, boiling last night's chicken down to a potent broth. James is asleep. No, he's walking around. No, he's asleep. As for me, I've been up since early this morning, applying naval jelly to my frame. Let me clarify that. In the downtime, I've taken up a restoration project: I recently found a 1970 HPE CAT Slingshot 350x mini bike frame and fork. The same one I had as a kid, except this one was a rust bucket. I've just about stripped it down to bare metal. It's going to be insane when I'm done tracking down all of the missing parts. Green with gold flecks. Lots of chrome. My wife thinks I'm insane, and I probably am. My good friend Warren Zanes said, "Oh, I get it: revisiting the boy to discover the man. What's your wife think about that?" Anyway, I digress. Come March, Peyton, James and I will be going to Europe for a couple weeks of stripped down playing. We'll finish up in Paris, at which time I'll begin my honeymoon in Southern France. In late March/early April, the whole band will be back on tour in America. We'll be doing shows with The Long Winters, which ought to be a good time. I think that about covers it for now. Again, hope everyone has a Happy New Year, and that 2004 is A LOT MORE PEACEFUL than 2003.”  -JP, Brooklyn, 2004

Pernice Brothers Year-End Best of 2003

 "The follow-up to their 2001 masterpiece The World Won't End, Joe Pernice's corrosive wit and uncanny human observation again come cloaked in velvety pop smarts. Intriguingly, his Anglophile bent - New Order, The Smiths, The Cure - is clearly discernible amid the nods to Jimmy Webb and Eric Carmen. Classy." - € Uncut Magazine January 2004 (UK) #48

 “The love I have for you is ruinous and true,” sings poet and novelist Joe Pernice to a chiming melody on “The Weakest Shade of Blue.” Bittersweet and beautiful, Yours Mine and Ours marries downcast lyrics to uplifting melodies, and the songs float effortlessly.” - € Harp Magazine (US) Steve Klinge #23

 Arguably rock’s most neglected genius, Joe Pernice possesses a seemingly inexhaustible resource of melodies that show no sign of running out. His band’s third release, Yours, Mine & Ours, is a more straightforward, live-in-the-studio-sounding affair that doesn’t break any new ground for the former alt.country darling but further solidifies his status as a leading proponent of smart, hook-laden indie pop.—Matt Fink -  € Paste Magazine (US)

€ The Onion (US) #9 Noel Murray € No Depression (Critics Poll, #6) € The Big Takeover #7 Jack Rabid € Corey DuBrowa (Magnet Magazine) #4

josh ritter

Thanks to everyone who bought the Snow Is Gone e.p., it went into the Irish singles charts at number 15 today !! Result. Josh’s U.K. career seems to be just about to take off. He had a great review in the Guardian today. Golden Age Of Radio has just come out over there and Hello Starling is being released on Setanta Records on March 22nd.  Check out the Guardian review below.

100 Club, London
Four stars out of five
The Guardian - Friday February 20, 2004

This must be a fine time to be Josh Ritter. Which could be why his face is locked in a broad grin. One minute the 25-year-old from Idaho is just another American singer-songwriter with a big acoustic guitar and a couple of records under his belt. The next everyone's discovering him. Even if they are not sure what they're discovering. In the States they're calling him the new Norah Jones, while in Ireland (where he's so popular he's released a third record, just for Irish fans) he is pitted against Justin Timberlake and David Bowie for a Meteor award.

As far as demographics go, tonight's audience doesn't help. It's such an assortment - NME readers, 30s-plus folkies, adoring girls at the front - it barely looks like a London crowd. But, like much of this mini headlining tour, it is sold out. So something's going on. And it might well propel him up the charts.

 Ritter's folky songs are easy on the ears and instantly familiar (something he plays with by quoting chunks of Neil Young and Gillian Welch). But there's a dynamism to them that is partly to do with having their roots in Americana as opposed to pastoral UK folk. Harrisburg, with images of cars and trains, and Me and Jiggs nod to America's greats: Springsteen, Guthrie, coffee-house Dylan. And Leonard Cohen too. He's just as comfortable rocking out with his three-piece band as singing alone, as in the encore, without even a microphone.

 What makes Ritter special is that mix of the poetic and conversational. And if we forget how much solid road work went into this, he dedicates You Don't Make It Easy to his hotel in Wolverhampton: "I'm going to have to get arrested to stay somewhere nicer." He may look like a pre-Raphaelite Nick Drake, but the boy's got substance. - Sylvie Simmons

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