Pernice Brothers

Formed after the 1997 breakup of singer/songwriter Joe Pernice's alt-country group Scud Mountain Boys, the Pernice Brothers did an about-face with the lush, orchestrated pop of 1998's Overcome by Happiness. Influences like Brian Wilson, the Left Banke, and Todd Rundgren replaced country and folk as his main inspiration. The Pernice Brothers dug deeper into their journey into pop on their second LP, 2001's excellent The World Won't End, and through the end of the decade, they released a series of consistently strong albums, with 2006's Live a Little and 2010's Goodbye, Killer finding the group sounding less mannered and more straightforward. After nearly ten years spent pursuing other projects, the Pernice Brothers made an impressive return with 2019's Spread the Feeling, and 2024's Who Will You Believe was an especially personal and emotionally literate effort, informed by the unexpected deaths of friends and family.