Michael Penn is an American singer, songwriter and composer. He is the
eldest son of actor/director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother
of actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn. Career
Michael Penn is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter and film composer.
Prior to the release of his 1989 debut album March, Penn was a member of the
Los Angeles band Doll Congress, and had appeared as an extra on a few television
series, including St. Elsewhere. March, particularly the first single,
"No Myth," brought Penn attention, as well as the 1990 MTV Video Music Award
for Best New Artist. Penn's follow-up albums Free-for-All, Resigned, MP4: Days
Since a Lost Time Accident, Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 and Palms and Runes,
Tarot and Tea weren't able to match the commercial success of March, although
critics continued to praise his songcraft.
It was with Free-for-All that Penn faced the specter of the one-hit wonder. The
album, while praised by critics, was not as successful as Penn's debut, though it
had more than its share of supporters. Rolling Stone called it "stunning" and
CMJ wrote that the album "exhausts any doubts" about whether March was a fluke.
In Vox magazine, critic Gary Leboff acknowledged that Penn could be
"pig-headedly uncommercial," but, he conceded, "the payoff is sublime".
Leboff continues, "His freeform songwriting creates tracks of startling
shape and originality, offering literate reflections on the human condition..."
Penn collaborated with the renowned surrealist animators The Brothers Quay
on "Long Way Down," which found a home not on MTV but in film festivals around
the country, winning awards along the way.
He has worked extensively creating original music for film; among his first
work in this field was for 1993's Tales From the Vienna Woods. He scored two
movies released by Paul Thomas Anderson in 1997, Hard Eight and Boogie Nights;
he also appears in the latter in a cameo role playing Nick, a recording engineer.
During the editing of the film, Anderson directed a music video with Penn for
"Try" from Resigned. Other films scored by Penn include Alan Cumming's first two
directorial efforts, The Anniversary Party and Suffering Man's Charity;
American Teen, Sunshine Cleaning; the documentary The Comedians of Comedy; and
The Last Kiss. In 2003, he was nominated for a DVDX Award for Best Original Score
in a DVD Premiere Movie for Melvin Goes to Dinner.
Penn has produced recordings for Aimee Mann, The Wallflowers and Liz Phair.
In August 2005, Penn released Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 on his own
Mimeograph Records label. Its songs are set against the background of post-World
War II Los Angeles; Penn said he chose the year because of several notable
events that took place then, including the passage of the National Security Act
and the invention of the transistor. The album was reissued by Legacy Recordings
in April 2007 with bonus tracks from a KCRW session.
The reissue came in conjunction with Legacy's release of Palms and Runes,
Tarot and Tea: A Michael Penn Collection, a compilation that includes
several alternate versions and previously unreleased songs. Penn said
his goal in compiling, ordering tracks for and producing Palms and Runes was to
"make it feel like an album" in its own right.
In late 2009, Penn composed the music for the film That Evening Sun.
In 2012 Penn began work as the composer for the HBO TV show Girls.
In January 2013, the "Girls VOL.1" soundtrack was released on iTunes. The
album contained a new song by Michael Penn titled "On Your Way", which was
featured in the finale of Season 1. He also joined the crew of Showtime's
Masters of Sex in 2013 as series composer. The show's pilot episode was
initially set to be scored by Thomas Newman, but this did not come to
fruition and Penn scored both the pilot and the rest of the series.
Personal life Penn met fellow singer-songwriter Aimee
Mann, and during the recording of her album I'm with Stupid, the two struck up
a friendship, which blossomed into romance and their December 29, 1997
marriage. Together with manager Michael Hausman they formed United Musicians, an
independent music collective founded on "the principle that every artist should
be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created and that
this ownership is the basis for artistic strength and true independence." Penn
and Mann live in Los Angeles. Discography
= Solo albums= March US #31
Free-For-All US #160 Resigned
MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947
Cinemascope Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea: A
Michael Penn Collection Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947
= Singles= = With Gabriele Morgan and Doll
Congress/Doll Congress= Buried Treasure
Doll Congress 12" "Give Up Your Ghost" and "I Will Be
Around" appear on the soundtrack to Welcome to 18
= Appearances= "Retribution" on Randell Kirsch, LuAnn
Olson and Chris Hickey's Show of Hands "Body and Soul?" on Thelonious Monster's
Beautiful Mess "It's Not Safe" on Aimee Mann's I'm With
Stupid "Christmastime", with Aimee Mann on Just
Say Noel "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", with Mark
Mothersbaugh on The Moog Cookbook's Ye Olde Space Bande
"Macy Day Parade" on Godzilla: The Album "Reason to Believe", with Aimee Mann on
Badlands: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska
"Wise Up" on Aimee Mann's Bachelor No. 2 "How Am I Different", "Susan" on Aimee
Mann's Bachelor No. 2 "Red Vines" on Aimee Mann's Bachelor No.
"Satellite" on Aimee Mann's Bachelor No. "Driving Sideways" on Aimee Mann's
Bachelor No. 2 "Susan", on Aimee Mann's Bachelor No. 2
Co-produced The Wallflowers' "Two of Us", with Aimee Mann on I Am Sam
"It's Sweet", "Little Digger" on Liz Phair's self-titled fourth album
"Red Light Fever", "Take A Look", "Friend of Mine" on Liz Phair
= Film Scores= Tales From The Vienna Woods
Hard Eight, with Jon Brion Boogie Nights
The Anniversary Party Melvin Goes to Dinner
The Comedians of Comedy The Last Kiss
Suffering Man's Charity American Teen
Sunshine Cleaning That Evening Sun
Bollywood Hero Solitary Man
= Acting= St. Elsewhere
Boogie Nights References
External links Michael Penn.com official site
Bunker Hill fan site United Musicians
MySpace page Discogs page
Michael Penn at the Internet Movie Database
Michael Penn at AllMusic