TBTS Previews: Pernice to Me and the Pernice Brothers’ Goodbye, Killer

This week, the world lost Willie Nelson’s famous braid, as revealed in recent photos, and John Oates’ formidable mustache, as revealed on the American Idol season finale. OK, so the Oatestache could have been gone for a while now, but I didn’t know about it because I hadn’t seen him in years. This absence led me to wrongly assume that he was retired from music and holed up in an Idaho bunker, plotting with other awesomely hirsute conspirators to take over the world. Turns out no—or at least not yet. He is obviously still a member of the Facial Hair Illuminati, though, thanks to the killer (blue-eyed) soul patch he was sporting on Idol.

Longtime Pernice Brothers fans will, I hope, soon see where I’m going with this hair-centric introduction. We may have lost Willie’s stoner-tail and Oates’ porn-stache, but at least we still have Pernice’s stalker-beard. You see, our musical hero Joe Pernice was once clean cut, but now he sports some serious gray-flecked bushy beard action, as demonstrated on the wonderfully unsettling cover for the upcoming Pernice Brothers album, Goodbye, Killer:

If that cover wasn’t meant to be disturbing, my apologies, Mr. Pernice. But if that was indeed your intention, mission a-fuggin-ccomplished.

Before I move on from this meaningless hair talk to quick comments on the music I’ve heard from Goodbye, Killer, I’d like to give credit to Pernice and his Ashmont Records label for consistently providing some great bonus schwag to loyal fans who pre-order his albums before their release. I have a Pernice lyrics collection, a killer four-panel cartoon featuring the band, and a CD of unreleased demos from my prior pre-orders. Now I’m eagerly awaiting the next bonus—Pernice to Me, an anthology of short communications between the apparently supremely dickish Pernice and Joyce Linehan, his put-upon Ashmont Records cohort. For example:

Pernice to me [Joyce]: It’s okay you’re not getting me any press. I’m so fucking prolific I’ll have a new record for you to screw up in no time.

But Linehan, at least at times, holds her own:

Pernice to me: Is there a band called the douchebags? Me: I don’t think so, but I think you’re the guy to start one.

I strongly recommend that you pre-order Goodbye, Killer by June 1 so that you can get your hands on this book. I’m predicting the greatest series of correspondences since Heloise and Abelard.

And the Pernice camp is also taking care of its excited fans by offering a free MP3 download of “Jacqueline Susann” and streaming three other Goodbye, Killer tracks: “Not the Loving Kind,” “Fucking and Flowers,” and “We Love the Stage.”

Together, the four tracks suggest a scaled back, looser, slightly more rocking incarnation of the Pernice Brothers this time around. On 2006′s Live a Little, Pernice indulged his penchant for rich string arrangements (with fabulous results, as far as I’m concerned). Goodbye, Killer, on the other hand, seems much more like a small group of rock musicians crowded into a closet-sized studio, playing one or two really loud takes, and calling it done.

It’s a refreshing turn, and I think it’ll satisfy fans who trace their Pernice affinity all the way back to his twangier days in the more roots-rock-oriented Scud Mountain Boys. I love the more delicate, ornate aesthetic of his more recent work, but I think the Pernice gang’s cutting loose on the new record sounds great too.

As I’ve written here before, I’m a silly fan-boy for Pernice’s writing and music, so I’d probably be on board even if he did a Justin Bieber tribute record. Come to think of it, he could probably turn “Baby” into a world-weary lament for the loss of true love…are you listening, Joe and Joyce?. That may or may not damage my credibility as a reliable evaluator of Pernice’s latest output, but regardless, I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of Goodbye, Killer with no small amount of anticipation.

I’m also excited to read more of Pernice’s verbal/texted/tweeted abuse of his business partner. It’s always a hoot to receive final confirmation, in 140-character increments, that your artistic heroes have the tendency to be total wanks.

Update: Now it seems that the Pernice Brothers’ preview page is streaming three different Goodbye, Killer tracks: the title song, “The Great Depression,” and “End of Faith.” As soon as you track it down, they always move the stash house.