Penny & The Pits - "Montenegro On Ice"

Photo by Nicole Cecile Holland

You may know Penelope Stevens as the bass player for Motherhood. She's back with a new musical project called Penny & The Pits (with Motherhood as her backing band). The band's new single, "Montenegro On Ice," is a ripper of a tune. It's part heavy math rock mixed with garage rock and punk. It's the kind of song you can just listen to on the surface and enjoy as a straight up rock song, or you can dig down and examine exactly what makes it up. For me, it's kind of like a jam session between Queens of the Stone Age, The White Stripes, and Amyl & The Sniffers. What sets "Montenegro On Ice" apart for me is Stevens' vocals. Her style of singing is usually associated with a more pop focused alt-rock sound, but for this project it creates a unique style and depth to the song.

Penelope Stevens says of her new single:

"'Montenegro on Ice' explores memory and the ways in which the past can seep out of its box and drown your present and future. I was feeling the temptation to stew in past pain, choosing to really live in it, y’know? It’s so easy to stick your fingers in your own wounds. So I wanted to make a song that had a jaunty little limp, an endearing disfigurement, that could illustrate the way I was feeling at the time - wounded, absolutely, but sort of enjoying the ride.

"The song is part of a larger mythology I’m working out in my songwriting - the allegory of the Liquid Compactor. Water has been an important force in my life, as an emotional cleanser and physical rehab. I’ve been imagining a sentient underwater machine to which I can feed my rage, my ethical malaise, my skewed memories, and allow it to compress these unsavoury bits into little building blocks."

You can listen to "Montenegro On Ice" below. The single is out now via Forward Music Group. For more on Penny & The Pits, check out the band on Instagram.