33 1/3 THE SMITHS

THE SMITHS – MEAT IS MURDER

"Abandoning the formalities, he threw something at me, winked at me and said: 'Yours, I'm going to kill myself.' He floored the gas, leaving an impressively thick layer of rubber on the tarmac for such a merciful car. Beside the dusty, dirty pavement, I saw written in red marker on paper tape stuck to a transparent tape: 'Smiths: Meat'.

At a Catholic high school just outside of Boston, 1985 is a year of suicides, immature flirting, new smoking, asthma attacks – and an introduction to one of the defining rock records of the decade.

In this "different" book in the 33 1/3 series, Joe Pernice, later a well-known musician himself, gives a strictly experiential interpretation and tells in personal terms the turbulent and entertaining story of the Smiths' Meat is Murder.

Joe Pernice is a musician and writer, frontman for the Scud Mountain Boys, Chappaquiddick Skyline, The New Medicants and the Pernice Brothers.