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Pennywise is an American punk rock band from Hermosa Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band took its name from the antagonist in Stephen King's horror novel It known as Pennywise.
Between their 1991 self-titled debut and 2005's The Fuse, Pennywise released an album every two years on Epitaph Records, a label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. To date, the band has released twelve full-length , one live album, two Extended play and one DVD. Although their first two studio albums were critically acclaimed, Pennywise would not experience worldwide commercial success until the 1995 release of their third studio album, About Time, which peaked at number ninety-six on the Billboard 200, and number fifty-five on Australia's ARIA Charts. The band's mainstream success coincided with a growing interest in punk rock during the 1990s, along with fellow California bands NOFX, Rancid, Blink-182, Bad Religion, Green Day, The Offspring, Lagwagon, and Sublime. By 2007, the band had independently sold over three million records worldwide.
Pennywise's current line-up consists of Jim Lindberg (vocals), Fletcher Dragge (guitars), Randy Bradbury (bass), and Byron McMackin (drums). They had kept their original line-up together until bassist Jason Thirsk died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1996, after which Bradbury joined as his replacement. In August 2009, Lindberg decided to leave the band; he was replaced in February 2010 by Ignite singer Zoli Téglás. "Pennywise officially names Zoli Teglas of Ignite as new vocalist." Punknews.org. February 16, 2010. With Téglás, the band recorded their tenth studio album, All or Nothing, which was released on May 1, 2012. Lindberg rejoined the band later that year after Téglás was sidelined by a back injury.
The staff of Consequence ranked the band at number 31 on their list of "The 100 Best Pop Punk Bands" in 2019.
The group signed to Epitaph Records in 1990 and released their first album, Pennywise (1991). The album quickly circulated throughout the punk community, earning the band some nationwide recognition. Lyrics in the album endorsed a positive mental attitude, helping promote progressive ideals for Generation X. Lindberg left the band six months after the release of the debut record, citing a lack of motivation and security by rock groups in the area. During this time Thirsk moved from bass to vocals, with Randy Bradbury taking over bass. Lindberg rejoined the group in late 1992, Bradbury left, and Thirsk returned to bass.
About Time, Pennywise's third studio album, was released on June 13, 1995. It was their first album to chart on the Billboard 200, ranking 96. It also charted 55 on the Australian Album Chart, and produced two singles, "Same Old Story" and "Searching". This was also the last album to feature Jason Thirsk playing bass throughout.
In 1996, Pennywise began recording their fourth album. Thirsk left the band in an attempt to conquer his alcoholism. While initially successful, he relapsed and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest on July 29, 1996. Their following album, Full Circle, was dedicated to his memory.
The band's next album, Straight Ahead, was released in 1999. The album reached 62 on the Billboard 200, and 8 on the Australian Albums Chart. The album produced two singles: "Alien", which reached 36 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks, and "Victim of Reality". An 18th track was released only in Australia and New Zealand, a cover of the Men at Work song "Down Under." The band ran into trouble while promoting their 1999 performance at KROQ's Weenie Roast on the Loveline radio show when an intoxicated Dragge held bandmate Bradbury and hosts Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew hostage in the studio by barricading the door with his 6-foot 5-inch, 300 pound body. The guitarist then said he was going to defecate into his hand and make Carolla eat it, threatened the hosts' lives, and claimed to have a hand grenade, but didn't. Police were called, but charges were not filed.
A live album, Live @ the Key Club, was released in 2000.. Chart Attack. October 24, 2000 By: Debbie Bento It contained songs from all their previous albums. Land of the Free? was released in 2001 and ranked 67 on the Billboard 200 and number 21 on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart. The song "Who's on Your Side" was co-written by Brett Gurewitz (also known as Mr. Brett), a guitarist and songwriter for Bad Religion. That year the band took part in the Vans Warped 2001 tour.. Chart Attack, August 23, 2001. Review by: Vanessa Bruno
Pennywise's music was featured in the 1997 SEGA arcade game Top Skater.
Home Movies, the band's long-out of print 1995 VHS, was released on DVD for the first time in 2004. More footage of Pennywise can be seen on the Steve Martin film 45 Revolutions: A Slice of XVI St. Life, XVI St. being the place where Jason and Fletcher hung out in Hermosa Beach. Home Movies hosted on Vimeo
The band's eighth album, The Fuse, was released in Europe on June 27 and in North America on August 9, 2005. The album retained 15 tracks and charted number 36 on the Australian ARIA Album Charts. The band's Australian tour was canceled leading to breakup rumors, which Lindberg denied. Also that year, digitally-remastered versions of the first four studio albums were released.
Around 2006, Pennywise recorded a cover of Sick of It All's "My Life" for the band's 2007 tribute album, Our Impact Will Be Felt. Pennywise were one of many bands to contribute to the tribute.
In August 2009, Jim Lindberg announced he was leaving the band. "Vocalist Jim Lindberg leaves Pennywise." Punknews.org. August 21, 2009. By the time Lindberg left the group, Pennywise had begun writing new material for a tenth studio album. "Pennywise writing next album." Punknews.org. June 2, 2009. After the departure Lindberg formed the band The Black Pacific.
It was announced on February 16, 2010, that Téglás would become Jim's permanent replacement. In an interview with Zoli, he talked about his joining Pennywise and plans for a brand new Pennywise album. Ignite will continue on as a band with Zoli. However, the release of their new album was delayed, partly due to commitments with the 2010 Warped Tour. Guitarist Fletcher Dragge said in a July 2010 that it would be released around the beginning of 2011. The album's release date has since been pushed back again. On October 19, 2011, Pennywise announced on their Twitter page that they had begun work on their new album. On March 7, 2012, the band released the song "All or Nothing" from the album with the same title on KROQ-FM's website.
Pennywise did a six-date South American tour in December 2010. After that, they toured Europe in January and February 2011, followed by Australia's Soundwave in February and March and three live dates in Japan in April.
As early as 2013, Pennywise began work on their eleventh studio album, Yesterdays, which was released on July 15, 2014, and is the band's first with Lindberg on vocals since 2008's Reason to Believe. Although Yesterdays is considered to be a proper studio album, it is a compilation of never-before released songs written by Pennywise's original bassist Jason Thirsk, and includes re-recordings of two songs, "No Way Out" and "Slowdown". To support Yesterdays, Pennywise embarked on the Summer Nationals 2014 from July to September, sharing the bill with Bad Religion, The Offspring, The Vandals, Stiff Little Fingers and Naked Raygun. The band also plans to release a box set.
As early as 2016, Pennywise began working on their twelfth studio album. In an October 2017 interview, Lindberg confirmed that Pennywise had finished recording their twelfth studio album, which was expected to be released in early 2018. On March 6, 2018, the band announced that the album, titled Never Gonna Die, would be released on April 20.
As of June 2020, Pennywise has been working on a new album.
Pennywise's songs and lyrics tend to focus on themes such as positive mental attitude, as well as political and social events that the band finds wrong or disagreeable.
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