b'resh out of grad school with a shiny newAnd what were the things that made me want tothe songs out while driving Joes rattling jalopy MFA, Joe Pernice was living in a glorifiedlisten to a song over and over? I thought a lot aboutthrough the hills of western Massachusetts. I broom closet in Northampton, which set him backvibe. The guitar tone or the drum sound can behad this old car that my Uncle Ducky gave mea a mere $250 a month. He had a little money fromotherworldly, but that only matters insofar as it lends1979 Pontiac Bonneville. It was a big fucking boat the Scud Mountain Boys and an advance from Subto the vibe of the song, to the feeling that makes youwith velour interior. The back bumper was rusted Pop on what would be the Pernice Brothers full- want to keep listening to it. out, so in order to pass inspection, we built one length debut, so I had nothing to do but focus onout of wood and bolted it to the car. It was a big, music. I had really sharpened my writing and edit- In his apartment Joe recorded rough demos ofpowder-blue monster with a wooden bumper and ing skills in grad school, so I was in the zone. I wasthese new songs onto cassette tapes, often justan eight-track. I had to buy an adapter to play writing a lot of songs. I can remember sometimesmoments after hed written them. Some are fullycassettes, and we would drive around for hours writing two a day. I think I had 30 or 40 songs torealized compositions, others just the basic ideaslistening to music, looking for ideas and taking choose from.to expand later. Most were inspired by closenotes. That was our pre-production. We never friends and some not-so-close acquaintances,sat around and rehearsed. (The Bonneville was Those songs were different than the ones he hadincluding Sick of You. His original demo wascommemorated on the back of the Scud Mountain written for the Scud Mountain Boys. Hed been think- only about two minutes long, but it seemed tooBoys Massachusetts.)ing more carefully about the shape of the song andmean-spirited, despite its eloquent melody. So he how it conveyedor didnt conveywhat he wantedstruck most of the lyrics, and in its finished formIn November 1997 the third Pernice Brothers line- to say. He found himself editing down, paring back,it clocks in at just under a minute and a half. (Thatup convened at Studio .45 in Hartford, Connecticuttaking his red pen to his lyrics in order to find thedemo is one of several included on the bonus LP.) so named because the building was formerly a kernel of the song. I tried to get to the basics. I triedfirearms factory. It was the first time they had ever to think about the things that were important to me.Joe asked Monahan to produce the Pernicebeen in the same room together. It was the first What were the things that made me feel something?Brothers first record, and together, they mappedtime theyd ever played together as a band.'