Pennywise After years playing in local bands, Lindberg joined Pennywise in 1988 with
Fletcher Dragge on guitar,
Jason Thirsk on bass and
Byron McMackin on drums. Some of the members were previously alums from two South Bay High Schools,
Redondo Union High School and
Mira Costa (where Lindberg graduated in 1983). In 1989, the band released two EPs,
A Word from the Wise and
Wildcard, that attracted the attention of
Epitaph Records, who signed the band a year later. Lindberg left the band briefly after the release of their first album,
Pennywise, citing the escalating violence of the L.A. punk scene and was married.
Randy Bradbury filled in on bass while Thirsk moved over to vocals. Lindberg returned however to record their sophomore release,
Unknown Road, after the band's music was featured in a number of surfing and skateboarding videos attracting a less violent following. After they released their third studio release,
About Time, Thirsk left the band in late 1995, and was again replaced by Bradbury. They had moderate chart success, with the
latter album reaching the
Billboard top 100. It was hoped that Thirsk would return on bass, with Bradbury switching to rhythm guitar; unfortunately, Thirsk died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 29 of that year at the age of 28. Although Pennywise considered disbanding after Thirsk's death, the band decided to continue on with Bradbury as his permanent replacement. Since then, Pennywise continued to record and perform, releasing six more studio albums and a live recording. Along with contemporaries and fellow
Epitaph Records labelmates
Bad Religion,
NOFX,
Rancid and
The Offspring, Pennywise were one of the five main stage headliners that helped establish The Vans Warped tour as one of America's longest running traveling music festivals. In August 2009, Lindberg announced that he was leaving Pennywise. He released the following statement: It was later revealed that Lindberg left Pennywise due to creative differences and the fact that he did not want to tour as much as his bandmates aspired to. In October 2012 Pennywise announced that Lindberg would return to the band after his replacement
Zoltán Téglás was sidelined by back problems.
The Black Pacific In June 2010 Lindberg unveiled his new band
The Black Pacific. The group signed to
SideOneDummy Records and debuted two tracks, "The System" and "When It's Over". Black Pacific features Alan Vega (from Good Guys in Black) on drums and Davey Latter (from Everest) on bass, with Jim writing all of the songs, playing guitar, and singing. Produced by
Far guitarist
Shaun Lopez, Black Pacific's debut album features a variety of musical styles. Their self-titled debut was released on September 14, 2010. The Black Pacific toured in support of the album performing with
Sum 41,
The Riverboat Gamblers and Veara on the Eastpak Antidote tour in October 2010, and playing Groezrock festival,
Pukkelpop and various other European festivals in 2011, in addition to select dates on the Vans Warped tour and opening for Rise Against and Flogging Molly for a fall tour of Canada. On September 20, 2024, The Black Pacific released its second record, "Here Comes Our Wave" through Toronto-based label Dine Alone Records.
Songs from the Elkhorn Trail Lindberg released a solo acoustic album
Songs from the Elkhorn Trail in November 2021. Produced by
Ted Hutt, the album includes introspective songs about friends and relationships and features Lindberg on guitar and vocals, along with
Marc Orrell,
Joe Gittleman,
David Hidalgo Jr,
Connor Vance, and
Glen Marhevka on accompanying instruments.
Other projects A lifelong surfer, Jim has been an active supporter of the Surfrider foundation and appeared in public service announcements for various ocean related causes. He helped organize Pennywise's involvement in the Surfrider benefit compilation album,
M.O.M. (Music for Our Mother ocean), where the band recorded cover versions of popular
Beach Boys songs, and also participated in various celebrity charity surf events. Lindberg has also been active with various charity causes, including spearheading the effort to donate all proceeds of a 2000 Pennywise concert at The Los Angeles Sports Arena to charity. In 2008, Jim organized the donation of proceeds of Pennywise's "
Reason to Believe" record release party to benefit the UCLA Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Center on behalf of Cooper's Cure, an organization that helps fund awareness and research into
Duchenne muscular dystrophy. While on tour with The Black Pacific in Europe, Jim recorded a cover of the song "
Knowledge" by
Operation Ivy, with
Mike Wiebe from
Riverboat Gamblers and Radio Havana to benefit skate-aid, a charitable foundation that benefits children of the world through skateboarding related projects. In February 2011, Jim also took part in the "Rock Vs. Cancer" show to benefit the Lymphoma Society at the House of Blues in San Diego. Lindberg provided backing vocals on the
Bad Religion track "Marked" from their 1994 album
Stranger than Fiction. He also provided backing vocals for two of
The Offspring's albums
Americana and
Splinter. In October 2009, Lindberg appeared on
Flip Skateboards Extremely Sorry Soundtrack on a wholly electronic track written and produced by UK-born, Los Angeles-based DJ and producer
Baron. Lindberg has also been affiliated with cable television VOD content provider Havoc TV.
Punk Rock Dad Lindberg also released his first book in May 2007,
Punk Rock Dad. The book explores the dichotomy of being a responsible husband and parent raising 3 daughters while fronting an anti-establishment punk rock band and includes a number of anecdotes relating to each role. The book featured comments from members of
The Offspring,
NOFX and
Lagwagon and back page credits from members of
Pearl Jam,
Foo Fighters,
Everclear and
Dr. Drew Pinsky. "Punk Rock Dad" was the inspiration for the 2010 documentary
The Other F Word which was an official selection of the
South By Southwest film festival. Produced by Cristan Reilly and directed by Andrea Nevins, the film followed Lindberg at home and on tour with Pennywise, and featured interviews with various other dads from the music and actions sports world including
Flea from
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Fat Mike from
NOFX,
Mark Hoppus from
Blink 182,
Tim McIlrath of
Rise Against,
Ron Reyes of
Black Flag,
Art Alexakis of
Everclear and skateboarding legend
Tony Hawk among others. The film was picked up for distribution by Beastie Boy
Adam Yauch's film company,
Oscilloscope Laboratories. ==Personal life==