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  • Chris Barany

It’s no secret that I am a big fan/stalker of Joe Pernice—here is your proof—and tonight I’ll violate countless restraining orders just to see him at Doug Fir. It’ll be a unique show where he performs solo and reads passages from his critically-acclaimed debut novel It Feels So Good When I Stop. Basically it’s like a reading, with music, that you can drink at (without being thrown out by Powell’s security for “making a scene” in the Young Adult section).

I’ll never set foot in the Rose Room again.

Anyway, if you are not familiar with Pernice’s wondrous catalog (under such names as the Pernice Brothers, Chappaquiddick Skyline, or the Scud Mountain Boys), he’s a brilliant writer unafraid to tackle the heaviest of topics and spin them into vivid pop numbers. Plus he wrote the single greatest drunk dial song ever, appropriately titled “Grudge Fuck.” (“Tonight I’ve got no where to go/And I thought that I would call you and see if you were home/I’m sorry but I’m pretty stoned/I hope I didn’t scare you, I hope to God you were alone…”). There are actually two versions of this song, the original (as the Scud Mountain Boys) where the recording sounds like it was done in the same phone booth where the protagonist makes his desperate hookup calls, and a later version (as the Pernice Brothers) with a more ambitious and clean arrangement. If you miss tonight’s show expect a drunk 4am call from Pernice.

LISTEN:

Pernice Brothers – “Grudge Fuck” (2006 version)

End Hits: I hope he records a third version that discusses drunk sexting.

Ezra Ace Caraeff is the former Music Editor for the Mercury, and spent nearly a third of his life working at the paper. More importantly, he is the owner of Olive, the Mercury’s unofficial office dog....

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