Pennywise

Pennywise are a punk rock band from Hermosa Beach, California, formed in 1988. They take their name from Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the antagonist in Stephen King’s novel It. The group is associated with melodic hardcore, punk, punk rock, rock and skate punk, and it is also described as a politically minded punk band.

Career and recordings

The band releases music through Epitaph Records for much of its early career, with an album arriving every two years between its 1991 debut and The Fuse in 2005. Across its catalogue, Pennywise releases twelve full-length studio albums, one live album, two EPs and one DVD. Its first two studio albums receive critical praise, while broader commercial recognition arrives with About Time in 1995. That album reaches number 96 on the Billboard 200 and number 55 in Australia.

Pennywise’s wider profile grows during the 1990s alongside other California punk bands including NOFX, Rancid, Blink-182, Bad Religion, Green Day, The Offspring, Lagwagon and Sublime. By 2007, the band has independently sold more than three million records worldwide. Its studio albums include Pennywise, Unknown Road, About Time, Full Circle, Straight Ahead, Land of the Free?, From the Ashes, The Fuse, Reason to Believe, All or Nothing, Yesterdays and Never Gonna Die.

Line-up

The band’s original line-up includes vocalist Jim Lindberg, guitarist Fletcher Dragge, bassist Jason Thirsk and drummer Byron McMackin. Thirsk dies in 1996 and Randy Bradbury joins on bass in his place. Lindberg leaves in 2009 and is replaced in 2010 by Ignite singer Zoli Téglás. Téglás records All or Nothing with the band before Lindberg returns later that year after Téglás is sidelined by a back injury.

Pennywise is active from 1988 to the present.