Pennywise is an American punk rock band that was formed in 1988, and is named after the monster It from the Stephen King novel, It.

Since Pennywise's 1991 self-titled debut, the band had released an album every two years on Epitaph Records, a label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. To date, Pennywise have released eight full-length studio albums, one live album, two EPs and one DVD. A new album, Reason To Believe, will be released on March 25, 2008 for free through a partnership between MySpace, and Textango, a mobile music distributor . In addition the album would be for sale in stores through MySpace Records in the United States and Epitaph in Europe. Pennywise have had their current line-up, consisting of Jim Lindberg (vocals), Fletcher Dragge (guitars), Randy Bradbury (bass) and Byron McMackin (drums), since 1996. The band kept their original line-up until former bassist Jason Thirsk committed suicide in 1996, after which Bradbury joined as his replacement.

Pennywise was formed in 1988 in Hermosa Beach, California by four members Jim Lindberg (vocals), Fletcher Dragge (guitar), Byron McMackin (drums) and Jason Thirsk (bass). They released two EPs: A Word from the Wise (1989) and Wildcard (1992). Each of the band members had played in other bands in the Hermosa Beach, California area and attended the same high school. The group signed to Epitaph Records in 1990 and released Pennywise in 1991; the album quickly spread throughout the punk community, e