Goodbye, Killer by Pernice Brothers is Joe Pernice first band album since 2006 Live a Little. In several weeks-long bursts of work over the course of a couple of years, in between writing a novel, recording a soundtrack for said novel, touring on both, and doing real-life things, Joe, his brother Bob, and long-time collaborators James Walbourne (Pretenders, Son Volt, Peter Bruntnell) and Ric Menck (Matthew Sweet,Velvet Crush) holed up in an attic in Boston and recorded these 10 Pernice originals. Goodbye, Killer should appease Pernice fans from all walks of life. It includes the full-on rock `n rollers, Jacqueline Susann, and Bechamel, signature pop songs The Great Depression and F***ing and Flowers, the Scuds-esque Newport Newsand The End of Faith, and two AM radio would-be classics The Loving Kind and Goodbye, Killer. Pernice refers to the undeniably show tune-y number We Love the Stage,as his homage to vaudeville, indie rock and learning to love betting against yourself.Goodbye, Killer is a versatile album thats trademark Pernice. The record is akin to a `Best Of` compilation, inasmuch as the ten well-crafted songs contain elements of Pernice past and Pernice present, all underpinned by intelligent lyrics and a knowledge of the recipe for the perfect pop song." - Platform Online. "4 stars. The first two numbers, "Bechamel" and "Jacqueline Susann," recall `70s glam rock in their straightforward, guitar-based punch, and the swagger of Pernice`s vocals (a big step away from the dour whisper that`s his trademark as a singer), "Newport News" resembles the easy but resonant twang of vintage country rock, and "We Love the Stage" is a bitterly witty tale of life on the road that sounds almost jaunty in its piano-based arrangement and lines like "it doesn`t matter if the crowd is thin/we sing to six the way we sing to ten." The rest of the album travels a more familiar stylistic path, but with Pernice`s brother Bob Pernice back in the fold, the guitars sound crisper and more aggressive, and if pop and vintage soft rock are still obvious stylistic touchstones, Goodbye, Killer has a bite that separates it from the Pernice Brothers` previous releases. This music sometimes feels spontaneous and casual, but the craft of Joe Pernice`s songwriting remains as literate and melodically absorbing as anyone working in indie pop today, and Goodbye, Killer confirms he and his collaborators haven`t lost their touch, and have even gained a bit or edgy nerve along the way. "- AMG.
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