Thurs. Jan. 14

 When singer-guitarist Joe Pernice decided to write the novel that became “It Feels So Good When I Stop,” he approached it with this premise: “I wanted to purposefully stay away from music, because I didn’t want to be seen as just a musician taking a crack at writing. I wanted it to be a serious book. But then I realized music is such a big part of my life, it’s going to find its way into these characters lives. So, the songs started entering the book.”
    Much as it does in the work of Nick Hornby or George Pelecanos. The struggling characters in Pernice’s Cape Cod-based novel set in the mid-‘90s re constantly referencing songs and artists – from Nick Drake to Del Shannon to Todd Rundgren. Once Pernice committed to including music in the book, he decided to record 10 of those on a companion CD.
   When he performs at the Lizard Lounge Thursday Jan. 14 he’ll read and play music. For the regular set, the music will come from the new CD. For encores, Pernice may draw upon his days with the Scud Mountain Boys, the Pernice Brothers and his solo efforts.
   Pernice, who grew up on the South Shore and got an MFA in Creative Writing at UMass-Amherst, now makes Toronto his home. He wrote and played a lot of music over the last couple of decades. Six years ago, he penned “Meat is Murder.” a semi-autobiographical novel related to the Smiths album of the same name.
   “It Feels So Good When I Stop” is less autobiographical, Pernice says. He took bits of his own life, sometimes, but changed them to fit the story.
    For his unnamed narrator, Pernice says, “I think deep down I wanted to make someone who is a good soul, who is maybe deeply flawed, certainly immature on many levels and self-centered. But maybe there are certain situations that he’s gotten himself into that are causing that selfishness to be peeled away whether he likes it or not.”
   He read no other books while writing. “I wanted to crate a voice that was my own,” says Pernice, “and I didn’t want to contaminate that or be influenced by trying to elevate my diction, to become too writerly.”
   Pernice’s characters hail from the slacker era and spin their wheels a lot. “For me,” he says, “that was the sweet spot of when I was that age. It was a condition common to people my age. It was like you had a million choices in front of you and you’re unable to make one.”
    The narrator exits his quickie marriage in New York, and ends up, off-season, on the Cape, having both testy and touching relationships with family and friends.
    “What I find interesting,” Pernice says, “are not so much characters on their way to redemption or finding themselves, I feel my character doesn’t even realize how clueless he is. He’s just discovering that, before he can get on the path to redemption, which may or may not come. And with all characters, I hope they can be seen as real. There’s humor – the small victories in our lives that are counter-balanced to real darkness and tragedy, I wanted to show the balance but not on a grand scheme, but on a microscopic level.” (A version of this story ran in the Boston Herald Aug.3.)
Show at 7:30 Tickets: $12 advance, $15 at door.  

1667 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-547-0759 www.brownpapertickets.com