Live A Little

EDITORIAL REVIEWS
LIVE A LITTLE is the sixth recording by The Pernice Brothers, and it marks as much a return to form as it does departure from what came before it. LIVE A LITTLE has strings and horns, which have not been part of a Pernice album since their debut. But, and this is a mighty exception, it's much more of a rock record then that was, representing the running of big fat analog tape while sweaty guys played on well-crafted instruments through amplifiers and pounded on sweet, old, drum kits.

AMAZON
During and after his days as the leader of Massachusetts band the Scud Mountain Boys, which fizzled after their dazzling 1996 Sub Pop release, Joe Pernice has crafted his songs with a juxtaposed blueprint--hummable melodies and a lush pop tenor camouflaging lyrics that reek of anxiety and aggravation. "Struggling through the S's/Through the tunnels in the trees/Through the sticky optimism hardening in me," he mordantly confesses in "PCH One," among the best of the dozen songs that make up the Pernices' sixth full-length record. Backed by brother Bob and ace guitarist Peyton Pinkerton, Pernice's unblemished voice is the key instrument, whether lamenting a spurious hometown ("Somerville") or summating a breakup ("Conscience Clean") with one telltale line: "So I threw a dart at Europe/She hit Michigan." But the band saves the most poignant track for last, a remake of the Scuds' "Grudge F***," in which Pernice pleads for one last encounter with an ex-lover. It's the kind of song that once sold a million for AM radio bands like Bread, and wraps up in 4:57 what the Pernice Brothers are all about. --Scott Holter.