Day 23: Pop Underground

Chappaquiddick Skyline
Chappaquiddick Skyline

"Don't you mean 'indie pop?'"

Nope.

Sure, any band that could be rightly placed in the "pop underground" could be called indie pop and few would bat an eye lash. The problem is that the term "indie," has been so often used and so often abused, that it (a) no longer functions with any precision, and (b) now has a pejorative connotation in many circles. There is perhaps no more reliably easy way to dismiss a "next big thing" band than to raise one eyebrow, sneer, and say "Pssh, that's just some indie rock bullshit." In short, "indie rock" and "indie pop" have come to stand more clearly for "hyped by hipsters" than for any underlying musical aesthetic.

Fine. But what about the acts that are part of the pop underground--genuinely below the mainstream radar, and yet ignored or unendorsed by the tastemakers of the day?

What about the Pernice Brothers? They're six albums deep and yet Joe Pernice--easily one of the finest pop composers of the past 10 years--and his current band have yet to release a single record to universal acclaim among the indie institutions. Instead, each album's share of high praise (which comes mostly from the scattered mainstream publications that take note) is dampened by an equal share of lukewarm reviews that regurgitate the same stupid cliche that Pernice's songs are either too depressing (this from Ian Curtis worshipers of all people!) or too impeccably crafted to be any good. This is the kind of nonsense that makes me almost sympathesize with the great Tin Pan Alley scholar Alec Wilder, who has been quoted as saying "after 1955, all the amateurs took over." It also may help explain why, when I saw Pernice perform at a dive bar in Buffalo last summer, he was playing to a crowd of locals who came to get drunk, not Pitchfork readers who came to be seen.

In 2000, Pernice issued a set of his songs under the monikor Chappaquiddick Skyline that wasn't reviewed frequently enough to get much of bum rap. While it lacks the incandescent hooks the songs he has penned for the Pernice Brothers, the record is nevetheless stunning in its ability to sustain a melancholy mood without overwhelming or boring the listener. "I hate my life," Pernice says in the opening line of the first track, pretty well summing up the emotional state of the set. The sadness is so gorgeous, however, that it allows for no ill-will or bitterness. Slow-burners like "Solitary Swedish Houses," and "The Two of You Sleep" use simple acoustic guitar strums, lullaby-like melodies and Pernice's pristine voice to bare a man's soul. Pernice never loses his focus, and when the instrumentation picks up--as on the stirring New Order cover "Leave Me Alone"--the mood only intensifies.

Conclusion: "indie pop" doesn't even do Pernice's side projects justice.

To hear audio clips of Chappaquiddick Skyline, click here.