Korn let fans design the cover of Issues, Smash Mouth let fans name their new album, but leave it to perennial punkers Pennywise to let fans actually sing on their upcoming release, Land of the Free.

The band chose twelve people randomly from thousands of registered users on their official Web site, pennywisdom.com, and had them fly into Los Angeles for the recording session. Winners, ranging in age from fourteen to thirty, came from as far off as Canada and Florida to spend the weekend hanging out with the band and recording backing vocals on three songs for Land of the Free, which is scheduled to hit shelves in June.

"Most of them thought it was a joke," says guitarist Fletcher Dragge, who personally notified each of the winners. "It was actually really fun to call them and hear how stoked they were. I didn't realize the impact it was having on people until I saw them there and saw them singing."

The winners, their friends and several friends of the band -- about fifty people in total -- called themselves the Pennywise Choir, and packed into the recording booth to sing. "A couple of the songs actually had a little bit of melody and the kids did really well," Dragge recalls. "Actually, one of my friends was horrible. Everybody would stop and he'd still be singing. But you could tell that everybody was really into it."

"One kid came out a couple of days early," says Dragge. "I picked him up from the airport and he stayed at my house for a few days. We brought him to the studio and he critiqued our music for us and gave us a couple of pointers."

Pennywise will also be appearing on Epitaph Records' Punk O' Rama 6, 2001 compilation with a cover of X's "We're Desperate." The track features a duet with X's Exene Cervenka. The latest Punk O' Rama installment hits stores June 5th. It will assemble twenty-three tracks, including five previously unreleased tracks, from a mix of the labels biggest names (Descendents, NOFX ) and freshest faces (Deviates, Hot Water Music).

JOE HAULER
(April 3, 2001)