b'STAYING ON TWO FEET THE PERNICE BROTHERS AND OVERCOME BY HAPPINESSStephen Deusnern 2007, an AOL Music publication countedDeath becomes the most unceremonious aspect ofthat realization only compounds the sadness of down the Most Exquisitely Sad Songs in thelife, ornamented only by the mundane contents ofChicken Wire.Whole World, and a leftfield choice topped the list.a suburban garage. Shed come so far to end her Outsadding the Beatles Eleanor Rigby and Billielife by the rusty mower and the chicken wire, byIt was all about just getting a feeling, says Joe Holidays Gloomy Sunday was a more recentthe chicken wire and the studded tire, Joe sings,Pernice 25 years later. I think we captured that song, not even ten years old, called Chicken Wire,as the song takes a breath and braces itself for afeeling, but I dont know. For me, a song is gone by the Massachusetts band the Pernice Brothers. Itshort and supremely mournful flugelhorn solo.once its been recorded, and its for other people tells the story of a woman who drives her car intoto pick it apart. For me its the engagement of the garage, leaves it running, and drifts off intoThat solowhich sounds like Taps if it had beenmaking a song. Thats really the only time I can oblivion, all with a drink in hand. Even at the end ofcomposed by Burt Bacharach, with just a bit ofcomment in a way thats not bullshitting you. Oh her life, she comes across as a vivid, lively, perhapsswing in its stepis the sighing climax of Chickenyes, Chicken Wire is about the dark juxtaposition even reckless character, her suicide an act ofWire, and in the 1990s it might have been tempt- of this happy sound with this sad lyric. Sure. defiance. You dont even know her name, but youing to hear it as ironic: a bit of pop kitsch intrudingWhatever. But for me its all about the feeling when grieve the loss just the same. on a grave moment. And it is, in a way. Thatwe made the music. Thats what I connect to most. solo complicates the song as well as its centralAfter that it starts drifting away and I connect to it What truly makes Chicken Wire so unfathomablycharacter, becoming both a eulogy for someoneless and less.sad, however, is the mundanity of her death. Joewho couldnt be saved, maybe didnt even want Pernice, who wrote and sang the song for theto be saved, and a devastating acknowledgementThats what Joe Pernice does so well: He captures Pernice Brothers 1998 debut album, Overcomeof the limitations of pop music. Even the loveliesta particular feeling in the amber of music, using by Happiness, tells us that the last thing she evermelody and the most scintillating horn solo cantthe melody and the lyric and the arrangement saw in this world was a spool of chicken wire inconvey the incredibly fine gradients of humanto evoke an emotional reaction, such that what the corner. Thats the image she takes into eternity.emotion. A good pop song is never enough, andisnt saidwhat cant be said using the tools of'