Pennies for a Dime: 'AC/DC minus the suck'

Of all the new Duluth bands, Pennies for a Dime stands out as being the most unexpected.

Featuring Portraits for Judith frontman Dustin Fennessey and Number One Common's guitarist extraordinaire, Mikey Trifilette, one would assume that Pennies would be as hard -- if not harder -- than those two groups.

But you'd be wrong. Way wrong.

In fact, the hardest moments on the band's five-song demo actually come from powerhouse drummer Faye Baron, who isn't afraid to disrupt the predominately relaxed melodies by giving her set a good thrashing every once in a while.

"I don't know why, but it reminds me of older, Civil War-era blues music," said Fennessey, who mentioned that the group is even looking for a piano player. "Like a bunch of people sitting in a tin shack writing music.

"'Foot-stompin' music' -- how's that?"

While the Pennies sound is hard to pinpoint, "acoustic-based alternative rock" is probably the safest way to explain it, like latter-day Red Hot Chili Peppers without the funk influence or, as Fennessey jokingly put it, "AC/DC minus the suck."

Either way, it's a far cry from Number One Common and Portraits.

Where does this decidedly non-metal sound come from, then?

"Each person writes their own part," said Trifilette, who recorded the band's demo in his home studio. "We all have an influence on it."

Any shared influences?

"I really enjoy Stevie Nicks," Baron is quick to admit. "She is my hero."

"Who I think is like a goat on crack," Fennessey shoots back. "... No, but that's why I think it's cool: Everyone has their own influences, everyone brings their own flavor."

Fennessey went on to describe the group's songwriting process as "very organic" and that it is "probably the most painless writing I've ever been involved in."

Baron explained how they do things -- after they get those couple minutes of prerequisite "BSing" out of the way, that is.

"(Mikey will) have a riff and he'll say, 'What do you think of this?'" she said, mimicking a guitar riff. "Then we'll all just start playing -- or, like the last time, they were like, 'Why don't you just start playing a beat.'"

"And then we were like, 'No, we don't like that beat,'" Trifilette countered, laughing.

Kidding aside, Trifilette, best known around the Twin Ports as Number One Common's resident axeman, said Pennies' radical departure from his other group wasn't intentional.

"But I didn't want to be in something just like Number One Common," he added.

Fennessey said he was a little more proactive in exploring other genres with the new group.

"I might've been a little bit conscious," the former member of Dogrust said. "I've been in progressive bands for the last five years, and it's awesome, I love it, but, at the same time ... Mikey and I both listen to heavy music, but it's not all we listen to by any means."

Besides being an outlet for their eclectic music tastes, they feel Pennies' genre, whatever that might be, will also open up more doors than the hard-charging approach of their other groups.

"It'll be easier to set up a tour, for one thing," Trifilette said. "If we wanted to play somewhere every day and just go on a little jaunt, we don't have to be at a bar. There are more places to play with this, like [coffee shops like] Beaner's."

It's more than just venues, though.

"I don't know if a lot of Number One Common or Portraits for Judith fans will like it, but I can see younger people and my parents listening to it," Fennessey said. "And I like the sound. I'm pretty stoked."

Though they joke around -- a lot -- global domination isn't a subject the members of Pennies take lightly.

"If you have something to offer, and people like it, why wouldn't you get that out?" asked Baron, who started drumming in her hometown of Baudette, Minn.

Fennessey took that sentiment one step further.

"It's one of those things where I would do anything I could to take it as far as I could," he said. "If we got offered a show out West, I would make time for it.

"I don't want to play the same two spots around Duluth, like a lot of bands."

But Fennessey also understands why that happens to a lot of groups.

"It's one of those things where it gets harder the older you get," he said. "People get real jobs, and you can't get mad when somebody says 'Hey, I have to work overtime' or 'I want to spend time with my kid.'

"But it's also one of those things where I'm going to find time no matter what. Music's still my thing."

NEWS TO USE
Pennies for a Dime will make its live debut Friday, Sept. 19, at Bev's Jook Joint in Superior. The show, a PinupPistols party, will also feature A Fresh Hell, door prizes, merch and a kissing booth (with the girls, not the bands...). Doors at 9 p.m. Cost is $3 or free with donation of two non-perishable food items. More support acts TBA. For more, visit www.myspace.com/penniesforadime .