Pernice Bros' Overcome by Happiness getting deluxe reissue treatment

Joe Pernice and crew are celebrating 25 years of Overcome by Happiness with an expanded 2LP reissue of their 1998 album.

Here's the scoop...

The Pernice Brothers will release Overcome by Happiness: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition on May 19th via New West Records. The original mixes were remastered by John Golden and will be available on vinyl for the first time, 25 years to the day of its original Sub Pop issue on May 19, 1998. 

The 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition includes a 13-track bonus LP featuring 8 unreleased home demos (often recorded minutes after the songs were written by Joe Pernice). The 2 LPs will be pressed on orange-and-white splatter vinyl and packaged in a hardbound, full-color, 52-page book featuring extensive liner notes written by Stephen Deusner, an introduction and track-by-track written by Joe Pernice, the Overcome by Happiness lyrics printed for the first time, and countless unpublished photographs. A 5x7 print autographed by Joe Pernice is also included in every copy. Check the pre-release trailer below. 

The story of Overcome by Happiness is one of great risk and greater payoff. It’s the story of a songwriter just finding his voice, an artist so desperate to express himself that he scrapped one band (the alt-country-adjacent Scud Mountain Boys) to form another, a frontman who jeopardized his contract with Sub Pop Records so that he could put what he heard in his head onto tape. It’s the story of a musician embracing the sounds of his childhood: AM easy listening, sophisticated chamber pop, baroque lounge music, Bread, the Carpenters, Bacharach, Manilow. The album was widely praised upon its release. The New York Times said of the debut, “Overcome taps an all-American yearning that recalls neon-lighted fairgrounds and lovers’ cars parked at the edge of a Great Lake… Beneath the beauty, each song is haunted by bitterness, but its fatalism is characteristic, too, of a land — and a season — in which dreams can be won or dashed at a sideshow roulette wheel.” AllMusic called Overcome by Happiness “...a near-perfect modern songsmith swoon album” while The Sunday Times in London exclaimed, “Let the Pernice Brothers overcome you.” 

As Joe Pernice explains, “Pouring over the demos and song sketches, photos, notebooks and of course the album itself triggered some profound memories for me: Those involving the making of the album were all good. Memories of the songs’ geneses—as one who has heard the album might imagine—ran the gamut. I’m very grateful to the people at New West Records for both involving me so completely in compiling the material for this deluxe vinyl issue, and for the stunning edition they’re releasing. To have my songs and the stories behind them treated with such care and out of a sense of love is something I neither expect or take for granted. I’m so happy about how this turned out. I honestly don’t think a more complete Overcome by Happiness ‘experience’ could have been put together.” 

The Pernice Brothers also announced two special engagements where they will perform Overcome by Happiness in its entirety with a string quartet on May 18 at the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville, MA, and May 19th at Racket NYC in New York City. Tickets for each performance go on sale this Friday, February 3, at 10:00 am Eastern.  

Joe Pernice has kept the Pernice Brothers going for twenty-five years now, weathering almost constant lineup changes and releasing seven studio albums that have sharpened, expanded, commented on, and elaborated upon the elegant orchestral pop sounds of Overcome by Happiness. But his catalog extends well beyond that band. In addition to recording a handful of solo albums (including a Barry Manilow tribute), he reconvened his first band, the Scud Mountain Boys, in the early 2010s for a new album and tour, and in 2014 he released Into the Lime with the New Mendicants, a supergroup featuring Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake. He also writes frequently for television, most notably as a staff writer for the Canadian crime drama The Detail. Joe has published a book of poetry and several works of fiction, including a novella about the Smiths for the 33 1/3 book series. And in 2009, he released a 7-inch single under the alias the Young Accuser via his first label Sub Pop Records—a tie-in with his novel It Feels So Good When I Stop. 2019 saw the release of the Pernice Brothers’ acclaimed album Spread The Feeling. 

The Pernice Brothers Overcome by Happiness: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is available for pre-order  via New West Records right here. Check the track list followed by clips of the Pernice Brothers rippin' through "Monkey Suit" in 2019, Joe Pernice performing a solo acoustic version of "Chicken Wire" at the Dakota Tavern in Toronto and the Sub Pop single B-side "Jimmy Coma". 

Overcome By Happiness - Pernice Brothers

1. Crestfallen 

2. Overcome by Happiness 

3. Sick of You 

4. Clear Spot 

5. Dimmest Star 

6. Monkey Suit 

7. Chicken Wire 

8. Wait to Stop 

9. All I Know 

10. Shoes and Clothes 

11. Wherein Obscurely 

12. Ferris Wheel 

 

13-Track Bonus LP 

1. Jimmy Coma (1997 Sub Pop Single) 

2. Monkey Suit (1997 Sub Pop Single) 

3. Square World (1997 Summershine Single) 

4. In Plain Sight (1997 Summershine Single)

5. Love My Way (Psychedelic Furs Cover / Clear Spot UK CD Single B-Side) 

6. Sick of You (Earliest Sketch Demo) 1:48 *

7. Cut You Free (Demo) 4:00 *

8. Overcome by Happiness (Earliest Sketch Demo) *

9. Clear Spot (Earliest Sketch Demo) *

10. Dimmest Star (Earliest Sketch Demo) *

11. Song #2 (The Queen of NYC) (earliest demo) *

12. Courage Up (Demo) 2:40 *

13. Let That Show (Demo) 4:00 *

* Previously Unreleased