You can't actually see Pernice Brother James Walbourne in this clip, but you'll have to take my word. That's him playing the guitar solo while Jerry Lee Lewis smiles!

Joe Pernice has signed a book deal with Megan Lynch of Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Books USA, for world rights.  Joe will write a novel for them, which is about one-third done, but if you ask him when he'll finish his face turns all red, and he yells, "When I finish!"  If we were betting people though, we'd bet that that the next U.S. President will be celebrating his or her first 100 days in office around the time it "streets," as they say in the music business.  If you ask Joe what the book is about, he sticks his fingers in his ears and sings "la la la la la, etc." 

Primarily known as a recording artist, Joe wrote the novella Meat is Murder for Continuum Books' 33 1/3 series in 2003.  That book remains one of the bestselling pieces in that series, and Joe is working with Neal Huff, an actor who appears regularly on HBO's The Wire, on the Meat is Murder screenplay.  Again, he is not forthcoming on when that project might see the light of day.  He also previously published a volume of poetry called Two Blind Pigeons, on his own Ashmont Books imprint.  That remains the bestselling (only) piece on Ashmont Books. 

Said Joe, "I am really excited to join the Penguin family, where I get to be label mates with writers like Homer." 

Joe Pernice began his recording career in the mid-90's with the Scud Mountain Boys, in Northampton, Massachusetts.  They released two records before signing to Seattle's Sub Pop in 1995 and releasing Massachusetts, along with The Early Year, a compilation of the two pre-Sub Pop recordings.  In 1997, he disbanded the Scuds to form Pernice Brothers, whose debut Overcome By Happiness was released by Sub Pop, as was Chappaquiddick Skyline, more of a Joe Pernice side project in 2000.  Big Tobacco, a Joe Pernice solo record was released in Europe in 2000 (and later in the US).  Later that year, Joe left Sub Pop and he and his longtime manager Joyce Linehan established Ashmont Records, based in Boston, where they have released several Pernice Brothers records:  World Won't End (2001), Yours, Mine and Ours (2003), Nobody's Watching/Nobody's Listening live album and DVD (2004), Discover a Lovelier You (2005) and Live a Little (2006).

Joe Pernice's music has been featured on television shows The Gilmore Girls and Six Feet Under, the movies Fever Pitch, On Broadway and Slaughterhouse Rule and in commercials for Sears and Southern Comfort.

Joe is also an accomplished television star, having made a 45-second appearance as a troubadour-wannabe in a 2006 episode of The Gilmore Girls.

Pernice grew up in the Boston area, and attended UMass Amherst, where he received an MFA in Creative Writing.  He currently lives in Toronto with his wife and young son.

Since being named Time's Person of the Year, I haven't been blogging/posting much.  Rather, I've been contemplating the awesome responsibility thrust upon me with that honor.  Maybe I haven't appreciated the heft of my position.  So, I stepped back to take stock, feeling bad about the fibs I've told and the half-truths I've planted, all in the name of selling records.  But recently, I realized that I've done nothing more than perpetuate the industry standard, taking my rightful place within the proud traditions of record promotion, carnival barking and the bloodsport of politics.  So, I went to confession and with a clean slate, I give you this humble update.

The rest at http://pernicebrothers.com/blog/

Joe will vouch for me on this one.  I get confused.  I mix and embellish stories.  It's not lying or misunderstanding exactly; it's adapting for my logic capacity.  For instance, when I was young, I knew that staring into the sun on Good Friday between noon and 3 p.m. would cause blindness.  I was curious about how this worked, since it's always between noon and 3 somewhere (except in Newfoundland where it's always between 12:30 and 3:30) and I did know, because he told me, not because I'm good at science, that my cousin Thomas, who lived in Nova Scotia saw the same sun I saw in Boston.  For this reason, I thought it best not the stare at the sun at all on Good Friday.  Also as a young girl, I knew that on Easter Sunday, if Jesus emerged from his cave and didn't see his shadow, spring was on the way. 

The rest at  pernicebrothers.com

In tragedy, there is often revelation.  Take this morning for instance. 

We have this email list (one of our biggest marketing assets I'm told, which is why I should guard it more carefully).  This morning, while attempting to shield you, our beloved supporter, from the 100+ emails a day that try to post to you through our list, I left one little box unchecked, and you all received an email, ostensibly from me, that posited a number of seemingly disparate things.  First, it said, and I quote, "In its entirety, Straight an extremely guiltygoing to be an architect."  While surely none of us would disagree with that, I did want to let you know that it has been confirmed by your friends in indie-rock Basil, Jim, Jake, Katherine and Steve.  I personally had no idea, but can certainly identify with anyone who feels guilty about anything (St. Brendan's K-8 and Notre Dame Academy 9-12 saw to this). 

Second, it purported to give you what we'll call, for the purposes of attempting to avoid the old spam filter, "steak tips," from me, of all people.  That's funny,

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Greetings,

I've been told by Joyce it's high time I wrote something for the blog, so here you go.

To take from Fractured Fairy Tales' Sherman and Peabody, let me set the wayback machine to December. We finished up our tour of the USA, and it went really well. We saw a few places I had never seen before, like Baton Rouge and Birmingham, Alabama. Despite me chomping at the bit

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