Live A Little

Mojo - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Pernice once again proves his gift for bringing together various strands of literate, melancholy and melodically rich music." Spin - Ranked #24 in Spin's "The 40 Best Albums of 2006" -- "[With] sun-dappled Beatles-isms, elegant arrangements, and lyrics whose doubt feels optimistic." Magnet - "[A] small injection of hope makes the album float and fly, repeatedly bull's-eyeing the balance of melancholy and brightness that characterizes Pernice's finest moments." Spin - 4 stars out of 5 -- "This time round, he offers swinging '60s horns, 'Bungalow Bill' bounce, and a chilling ballad....[A] stunning album..." Rolling Stone - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[A]nother lovely little package, tossing in modest horns-and-strings accompaniment and mellow sweetness." Q - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[They] now craft lushly orchestrated pop that nods inevitably to The Beach Boys....Sometimes elegiac -- especially on 'Automaton'..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Pernice once again proves his gift for bringing together various strands of literate, melancholy and melodically rich music."

On 2006's LIVE A LITTLE, singer/guitarist Joe Pernice leads his New England-based cadre through another set of highly melodic indie-pop, proving yet again that he is one of the most sorely underrated songwriters of his generation. With this album, Pernice places the 1980s post-punk fixation of previous outings back in the attic, emerging with a bright, buoyant chamber-pop sound that recalls the band's lauded debut, OVERCOME BY HAPPINESS. (This is no coincidence, since this record shares the former disc's producer, Michael Deming.) In addition to charming, literate tunes such as "Somerville" and "Zero Refills," LIVE A LITTLE features a reworked version of the desperate, lovesick "Grudge F***," one of Pernice's finest songs from his Scud Mountain Boys days, drawing an arc over the span of his remarkably consistent career.|

Joe Pernice and his compatriots have taken one step forward and one step back on the fifth studio album from the Pernice Brothers, Live a Little, and both moves have served them well. Live a Little finds the band teaming up again with Michael Deming, the producer who worked with Joe Pernice during the latter days of the Scud Mountain Boys and was behind the board for Overcome by Happiness, the Pernice Brothers' debut. Live a Little lacks the gloss of Discover a Lovelier You or the harder surfaces of Yours, Mine & Ours (both of which were produced by Thom Monahan), but it also feels considerably fuller and more mature than the quiet, tentative texture of the debut. Live a Little sounds more open and roomy than the past few Pernice Brothers efforts, while at the same time reflecting the lusher pop sound the band has embraced since 1998; a bit of the gingerbread has been stripped away, but the sound is still classic-style pop at its most delicious, buoyed by Deming's subtle string charts. And while there's a bit less of the "sunshine pop for a cloudy day" mood of their previous albums on Live a Little, Joe Pernice remains one of the finest songwriters at work today, and these 11 new songs (plus a remake of "Grudge F***" from the final Scud Mountain Boys album) find him in superb form -- the melodies are intelligent but hooky, with the touches of tart sophistication never getting in the way of their sweetness, and his lyrics walk a glorious tightrope between the classic adolescent obsessions of rock (i.e., girls) and the more troubling concerns of adulthood (i.e., women). And as usual, Joe's collaborators deliver the goods, especially Peyton Pinkerton on guitar and James Wallborne on keyboards, playing these songs with the passion and skill they richly deserve. No one in indie pop has consistently delivered such impressive results in the new millennium as Joe Pernice, and Live a Little makes it clear he isn't done making superb music anytime soon. ~ Mark Deming