SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS
''MASSACHUSETTS''
APRIL 1996
54:21
1. In A Ditch /2:42
2. Scratch Ticket /3:44
3. Penthouse In The Woods /2:42
4. Grudge '''' /5:03
5. Big Hole /4:00
6. Van Drunk /4:38
7. Lift Me Up /4:30
8. Liquor Store /4:38
9. A Ride /3:38
10. Holy Ghost /4:17
11. Cigarette Sandwich /2:58
12. Massachusetts /3:14
13. Glass Jaw /4:15
14. Knievel /4:02
Stephen Desaulniers /Bass, Bass (Acoustic), Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Piano, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Thom Monahan /Drums
Bob Pernice /Guitar
Joe Pernice /Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals
Paul Rocha /Piano
Tom Shea /Drums, Guitar (Electric), Mandolin
Bruce Tull /Guitar (Electric), Pedal Steel
REVIEW
by Kurt Wolff
In just a short time, the Scud Mountain Boys have risen from relative obscurity (two 1995 albums for indie label Chunk) to a well-earned spot on the Sub Pop roster. The Boys' new album, Massachusetts, is once again a quiet, mostly acoustic collection of soft-spoken songs based around spare country rhythms and laid-back, whisper-light melodies. Massachusetts is more down to earth than the faux-hillbilly ramble poems of Palace Music, but also far less Americana-ized than Son Volt or any of the No Depression hangers-on. The sudden national attention seems not to have spooked the Scuds, and so while Massachusetts feels better crafted than the band's previous two albums -- more mature in terms of songwriting -- it retains the easygoing, kitchen-table spirit that marked the band's earlier work. This is music that moves slowly but grows on you quickly.
BIOGRAPHY
by Kurt Wolff
The cult popularity of Uncle Tupelo and its spin-off groups Wilco and Son Volt opened the doors for what became an entirely new generation of musicians who grew up in the punk rock generation but found genuine connection with traditional country music -- especially as interpreted through Gram Parsons, who's more or less the granddaddy of country-rock. The Scud Mountain Boys -- Joe Pernice, Stephen Desaulniers, Bruce Tull, and Tom Shea -- clearly fit into this camp.
The band originally played electric rock & roll under the name the Scuds. Pernice, Desaulniers, and Tull formed the group in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1991, and they gained a respectable local following. But the bandmembers soon tired of hauling equipment around and found they much more enjoyed the after-show get-togethers playing acoustic country songs around the kitchen table at home to the stage. Finally they decided to haul the kitchen table to a club. Finding the response positive, they've stayed with the new format.
The band's debut album, Pine Box (originally just a cassette release), was recorded live around the kitchen table and featured slow, intensely quiet originals alongside covers of '70s pop-country songs such as "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" and "Please, Mr., Please." Their second album, Dance the Night Away -- which added a couple of rock songs from their Scuds days into the mix again -- came out on Chunk Records in 1995, and national interest in the band grew quickly. In early 1996 they were signed to Sub Pop, and the label released the band's third album in less than two years, Massachusetts.
It proved the band's last, however, although Pernice and his brother Bob soon recorded a new album, Overcome by Happiness. Billed under the name the Pernice Brothers, it appeared on Sub Pop in 1998. Many more followed over the next ten years, alongside solo Joe Pernice material under his own name as well as under the Chappaquiddick Skyline moniker. The Scud Mountain Boys reunited in 2012 and released a brand new collection of songs, Do You Love the Sun, the following year.
DoWnLoAd
''MASSACHUSETTS''
APRIL 1996
54:21
1. In A Ditch /2:42
2. Scratch Ticket /3:44
3. Penthouse In The Woods /2:42
4. Grudge '''' /5:03
5. Big Hole /4:00
6. Van Drunk /4:38
7. Lift Me Up /4:30
8. Liquor Store /4:38
9. A Ride /3:38
10. Holy Ghost /4:17
11. Cigarette Sandwich /2:58
12. Massachusetts /3:14
13. Glass Jaw /4:15
14. Knievel /4:02
Stephen Desaulniers /Bass, Bass (Acoustic), Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Piano, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Thom Monahan /Drums
Bob Pernice /Guitar
Joe Pernice /Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals
Paul Rocha /Piano
Tom Shea /Drums, Guitar (Electric), Mandolin
Bruce Tull /Guitar (Electric), Pedal Steel
REVIEW
by Kurt Wolff
In just a short time, the Scud Mountain Boys have risen from relative obscurity (two 1995 albums for indie label Chunk) to a well-earned spot on the Sub Pop roster. The Boys' new album, Massachusetts, is once again a quiet, mostly acoustic collection of soft-spoken songs based around spare country rhythms and laid-back, whisper-light melodies. Massachusetts is more down to earth than the faux-hillbilly ramble poems of Palace Music, but also far less Americana-ized than Son Volt or any of the No Depression hangers-on. The sudden national attention seems not to have spooked the Scuds, and so while Massachusetts feels better crafted than the band's previous two albums -- more mature in terms of songwriting -- it retains the easygoing, kitchen-table spirit that marked the band's earlier work. This is music that moves slowly but grows on you quickly.
BIOGRAPHY
by Kurt Wolff
The cult popularity of Uncle Tupelo and its spin-off groups Wilco and Son Volt opened the doors for what became an entirely new generation of musicians who grew up in the punk rock generation but found genuine connection with traditional country music -- especially as interpreted through Gram Parsons, who's more or less the granddaddy of country-rock. The Scud Mountain Boys -- Joe Pernice, Stephen Desaulniers, Bruce Tull, and Tom Shea -- clearly fit into this camp.
The band originally played electric rock & roll under the name the Scuds. Pernice, Desaulniers, and Tull formed the group in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1991, and they gained a respectable local following. But the bandmembers soon tired of hauling equipment around and found they much more enjoyed the after-show get-togethers playing acoustic country songs around the kitchen table at home to the stage. Finally they decided to haul the kitchen table to a club. Finding the response positive, they've stayed with the new format.
The band's debut album, Pine Box (originally just a cassette release), was recorded live around the kitchen table and featured slow, intensely quiet originals alongside covers of '70s pop-country songs such as "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" and "Please, Mr., Please." Their second album, Dance the Night Away -- which added a couple of rock songs from their Scuds days into the mix again -- came out on Chunk Records in 1995, and national interest in the band grew quickly. In early 1996 they were signed to Sub Pop, and the label released the band's third album in less than two years, Massachusetts.
It proved the band's last, however, although Pernice and his brother Bob soon recorded a new album, Overcome by Happiness. Billed under the name the Pernice Brothers, it appeared on Sub Pop in 1998. Many more followed over the next ten years, alongside solo Joe Pernice material under his own name as well as under the Chappaquiddick Skyline moniker. The Scud Mountain Boys reunited in 2012 and released a brand new collection of songs, Do You Love the Sun, the following year.
DoWnLoAd
