Pennywise (band)

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Pennywise
Pennywise at Warped Tour 2007
Background information
Origin	Hermosa Beach, California, U.S.
Genres	Punk rock skate punk hardcore punk melodic hardcore
Discography	Pennywise discography
Years active	1988 (1988)–present
Labels	Theologian Epitaph MySpace
Members	Fletcher Dragge Byron McMackin Jim Lindberg Randy Bradbury
Past members	Jason Thirsk Zoli Téglás
Website	pennywisdom.com

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 the Dancing Clown.^[1]

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 studio albums, one live album, two EPs 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.^[2]

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.^[3] With Téglás, the band recorded their tenth studio album All or Nothing, which was released on May 1, 2012.^[4] Lindberg rejoined the band later that year after Téglás was sidelined by a back injury.