Collaboration between Joe Pernice (Scud Mountain Boys, Pernice Brothers, New Mendicants) and Budo (Macklemore). Here they drop the Scud Mountain alt-country stylings, but add lushly-orchestrated beats, lilting horns, fuzzy tripped out electric guitar riffs and Pernice’s honeyed vocal style.

Joe Pernice claims the songs on the album are based around Josh Ritter and Dawn Landes’ divorce. He explains:

2013. I get a Twitter message from Budo: “I’d love to remix a Scud Mountain Boys track.”
Me (to my wife): Here we fucking go again.
Wife: Do you even know who he is?
Me: What’s there to know? He’s some young white kid who plays with Macklemore. (Long silence) Hello? You know, Macklemore? That tune Pawn Shop?
Wife: And that is exactly why you will always be a dinosaur in the new economy.
Me: I bet he wears those enormous red-framed glasses Sally Jessie Raphael wore before he was even conceived.
Wife: You’re an idiot.
Me: I can see this prick now with his Nazi U-boat pilot haircut, eating artisanal pepperoncini while cruising Seattle on a fucking penny farthing.
Wife: Let’s divorce.

What can I say. I’m a skeptic. But thankfully I also have a drunkard’s unquenchable thirst for music. I cued up Budo’s record The Finger And The Moon. It totally blew my mind. The tune “Berlin” made me cry, which isn’t easy to do since my heart is made up mostly of wire coathangers. I dug deeper into his remixes on Soundcloud, and they were epic. I started referring to Budo as The Spoon Bender. After some defensive circling and sizing up via email, the Spoon Bender and I finally talked on the phone:

Me: Do you know who Josh Ritter is?
Budo: I love his music.
Me: Want to try making a record about his divorce?
Budo: For real?
Me: Kind of. Actually, I don’t know Jack Shit about his divorce or his marriage. I don’t even know his ex wife’s name for that matter. And I don’t want to know. But for some reason I’ve been writing these songs, thinking about Josh Ritter’s divorce.
Budo: That’s a little fucked up.
Me: Hey, man, you wrote to me.
Budo: Did you know his ex wife is…
Me: Dude, come on. You’ll fucking wreck it.
Budo: Sorry.
Me: (long beat) So, you in?
Budo: As long as we never meet.
Me: You and Ritter’s ex?
Budo: No, me and you.

–JP, 2015, Toronto >>