Bunnygrunt
Encyclopedia
Bunnygrunt are an American
indie pop
band from St. Louis, Missouri
composed of guitarist
/vocalist Matt Harnish and drummer
/vocalist Karen Ried.
, which would see release on No Life Records. This release was not without its problems. Dullum was fired from the band before the album was released, taking her songs with her. This meant that the album's running time was rather short - now being only 8 songs long, and around 20 minutes in length (partly due to the 10 minute long 'Open Wide and Say Oblina', the album's closer). The band then recruited bassist Jen Wolfe, and continued to release 7"s, including The Bunnygrunt Family Notebook, and Blue Christmas (a Christmas 7", with their cover of the holiday standard on the one side, and an original, 'Season's Freaklings', on the other). In 1998, they released their second album, Jen-Fi, again on No Life. This had double the tracks of their first album, although the running time was again very brief, as few songs broke the 2 minute mark. The album attracted favourable reviews, yet the band disappeared soon after this, with little fanfare. Matt and Karen went on to form The See-Thrus.
movie, Bad Santa
, enhancing the band's popularity. In the fall of 2004, a new collection of Bunnygrunt's old tracks and rarities, entitled In the Valley of Lonesome Phil, was released on Harnish's own label, 'The Bert Dax Cavalcade of Stars'. Ried had been playing with various local musicians as The Fantasy Four, and Harnish was busy at various points since Bunnygrunt's secession into relative non-existence around 1998 with running his Bert Dax label (which releases, among other things, a compilation of local artists playing original and traditional holiday songs every Christmas season), playing bass for the St. Louis-based Julia Sets (who had a split EP with the Fantasy Four on the Bert Dax label in 2001), and working at popular local record store Vintage Vinyl. The band played a house party with Lauren Trull on bass to celebrate release of Bad Santa
and decided to reform full time, playing the Athens PopFest (to which they have returned as recently as August 2010, and at which they are one of only three acts to appear every single year since its inception, alongside Cars Can Be Blue and Casper And The Cookies) later that year. The band released their latest album, Karen Haters Club, on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records
, in the fall of 2005. Trull has since left the band, and Ried and Harnish now continue officially as a two-piece, with Eric Von Damage (formerly of Corbeta Corbata and The Adversary Workers) on drums, though a set arsenal of regular guests with whom they play live shows and record has been established, including Jason Hutto of Walkie Talkie U.S.A. and Phonocaptors fame, Mario Viele of the Pubes and Sex Robots, as well as Erik Seaver of the Museum Mutters, Parker's Back, Lost to Metric, and the Five Deadly Venoms. At the 2007 Athens Popfest, Bunnygrunt was joined onstage by the horn section of HHBTM label-mates Red Pony Clock for a cover of Carmelita by Warren Zevon. At the 2010 Athens Popfest, Bunnygrunt was joined onstage by several friends for a cover of Red Pony Clock's "Don't Forget Who Your Friends Are."
In 2009, the band released a new full length on HHBTM entitled "Matt Harnish and Other Delights"
However, the band's position as twee was only solidified when their first major show after their 2004 reformation took place at the Athens PopFest, a music festival
organised by noted twee label Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records
, who also released Karen Haters Club. The style of music prevalent on this album, however, is not exactly what one might call twee pop, the band creating a far heavier sound, more akin to simple punk rock
. However, the band's twee label persists, though mainly by association.
, for example, 'Superstar 666', from Action Pants!, which features Reed proclaiming herself to be a celebrity
, a theme which continues in several Bunnygrunt songs. Due to the band's apparent lack of wish for commercial success, it can be seen that this is, indeed, a satirical element.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
indie pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
band from St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
composed of guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
/vocalist Matt Harnish and drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
/vocalist Karen Ried.
1993 - 1998
The band formed in early 1993, with Renee Dullum on bass. Their first release, the Criminal Boy 7", came in the same year, on Silly Moo records. They continued to release 7"s and EPs, drawing attention for this and for their rapid release schedule, until they recorded their debut full-length in 1995, titled Action Pants!Action Pants!
Action Pants! is the first album by indie pop band Bunnygrunt. It was released in 1995 by No Life Records.-Track listing:# "Superstar 666" – 1:44# "Transportation Pants" – 2:14# "I Am Curious Partridge" – 2:30...
, which would see release on No Life Records. This release was not without its problems. Dullum was fired from the band before the album was released, taking her songs with her. This meant that the album's running time was rather short - now being only 8 songs long, and around 20 minutes in length (partly due to the 10 minute long 'Open Wide and Say Oblina', the album's closer). The band then recruited bassist Jen Wolfe, and continued to release 7"s, including The Bunnygrunt Family Notebook, and Blue Christmas (a Christmas 7", with their cover of the holiday standard on the one side, and an original, 'Season's Freaklings', on the other). In 1998, they released their second album, Jen-Fi, again on No Life. This had double the tracks of their first album, although the running time was again very brief, as few songs broke the 2 minute mark. The album attracted favourable reviews, yet the band disappeared soon after this, with little fanfare. Matt and Karen went on to form The See-Thrus.
2004 - present
In 2003, the earlier-recorded Bunnygrunt song 'Season's Freaklings' (also previously featured on a compilation entitled 'Better Than Fruitcake' which was a forerunner to the Bert Dax Christmas compilations—see below) was used on the soundtrack to the Billy Bob ThorntonBilly Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
movie, Bad Santa
Bad Santa
Bad Santa is a 2003 American screwball black comedy film directed and co-written by Terry Zwigoff, produced by the Coen brothers, and starring Billy Bob Thornton as the title character and Tony Cox as his partner in crime. Actors Bernie Mac and John Ritter co-star...
, enhancing the band's popularity. In the fall of 2004, a new collection of Bunnygrunt's old tracks and rarities, entitled In the Valley of Lonesome Phil, was released on Harnish's own label, 'The Bert Dax Cavalcade of Stars'. Ried had been playing with various local musicians as The Fantasy Four, and Harnish was busy at various points since Bunnygrunt's secession into relative non-existence around 1998 with running his Bert Dax label (which releases, among other things, a compilation of local artists playing original and traditional holiday songs every Christmas season), playing bass for the St. Louis-based Julia Sets (who had a split EP with the Fantasy Four on the Bert Dax label in 2001), and working at popular local record store Vintage Vinyl. The band played a house party with Lauren Trull on bass to celebrate release of Bad Santa
Bad Santa
Bad Santa is a 2003 American screwball black comedy film directed and co-written by Terry Zwigoff, produced by the Coen brothers, and starring Billy Bob Thornton as the title character and Tony Cox as his partner in crime. Actors Bernie Mac and John Ritter co-star...
and decided to reform full time, playing the Athens PopFest (to which they have returned as recently as August 2010, and at which they are one of only three acts to appear every single year since its inception, alongside Cars Can Be Blue and Casper And The Cookies) later that year. The band released their latest album, Karen Haters Club, on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records
Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records
Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records is an American independent record label based in Athens, Georgia, whose catalogue is rather heavily weighted towards twee indie pop music, with several of its bands being related to or influenced by The Elephant 6 Recording Company...
, in the fall of 2005. Trull has since left the band, and Ried and Harnish now continue officially as a two-piece, with Eric Von Damage (formerly of Corbeta Corbata and The Adversary Workers) on drums, though a set arsenal of regular guests with whom they play live shows and record has been established, including Jason Hutto of Walkie Talkie U.S.A. and Phonocaptors fame, Mario Viele of the Pubes and Sex Robots, as well as Erik Seaver of the Museum Mutters, Parker's Back, Lost to Metric, and the Five Deadly Venoms. At the 2007 Athens Popfest, Bunnygrunt was joined onstage by the horn section of HHBTM label-mates Red Pony Clock for a cover of Carmelita by Warren Zevon. At the 2010 Athens Popfest, Bunnygrunt was joined onstage by several friends for a cover of Red Pony Clock's "Don't Forget Who Your Friends Are."
In 2009, the band released a new full length on HHBTM entitled "Matt Harnish and Other Delights"
Twee?
During their original lifespan, Bunnygrunt's sound changed only marginally, being centred around a sound that was primarily labelled as twee pop or cuddlecore, which led to Allmusic naming them 'The World's Cutest Band'.[] While the accuracy of this label is open to dispute, it is clear that the band themselves were not happy with being presented in this way, or indeed even being classified as 'twee', due to the connotations associated with such a label (deliberately sloppy instrumentalism, overly 'cutesy' presentation). Indeed, Harnish noted that he "hated" the label, and this aspect of twee music.http://www.playbackstl.com/classic/Current/profiles/bunnygrunt.htmHowever, the band's position as twee was only solidified when their first major show after their 2004 reformation took place at the Athens PopFest, a music festival
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
organised by noted twee label Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records
Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records
Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records is an American independent record label based in Athens, Georgia, whose catalogue is rather heavily weighted towards twee indie pop music, with several of its bands being related to or influenced by The Elephant 6 Recording Company...
, who also released Karen Haters Club. The style of music prevalent on this album, however, is not exactly what one might call twee pop, the band creating a far heavier sound, more akin to simple punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
. However, the band's twee label persists, though mainly by association.
Lyrics
Bunnygrunt's lyrics cover a wide range of material, but are not often particularly serious, as song titles such as 'I Mock You With My Monkey Pants', 'I Dated a Zombie' and 'I Just Had Broken Heart Surgery, Love Won't Bypass Me Again' attest. At times, their lyrics have taken on leanings towards the satiricalSatire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, for example, 'Superstar 666', from Action Pants!, which features Reed proclaiming herself to be a celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, a theme which continues in several Bunnygrunt songs. Due to the band's apparent lack of wish for commercial success, it can be seen that this is, indeed, a satirical element.
Commerciality
Despite one of their songs being used in a major Hollywood movie, Bunnygrunt seem to be, whether deliberately or not, unbothered regarding commercial success. Information on the band is scarce and at times hard to find. Action Pants! and Jen-Fi were previously impossible-to-find records, until Happy Happy Birthday To Me records began to distribute them, and coming across one of their earlier singles is very likely to be impossible.Albums
- Action Pants!Action Pants!Action Pants! is the first album by indie pop band Bunnygrunt. It was released in 1995 by No Life Records.-Track listing:# "Superstar 666" – 1:44# "Transportation Pants" – 2:14# "I Am Curious Partridge" – 2:30...
(No Life Records, (No Life Records, 1995) - Jen-Fi (No Life Records, (No Life Records, 1998)
- In The Valley Of Lonesome Phil, (The Bert Dax Cavalcade of Stars, 2004)
- Karen Haters Club (Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records, 2005)
- Matt Harnish and Other Delights (Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records, 2009)
EPs/Singles
- Criminal Boy (7", 1993)
- The Northerns Meet Bunnygrunt (7", World Control Records, 1994)
- Standing Hampton (7", No Life Records, 1994)
- Bunnygrunt Family Notebook (7", March Records, 1995)
- Split with Beanpole, Wack Cat, and Recycled Pop ("Repulsion" on "Pop Goes the World" 7", Love Me Not... Records)
- Split with Lydia's Trumpet, Crime Squad, Darling Little Jackhammer, Mr. Pink Jeans, the Northerns, and Give Her a Lizard ("Spot the Mommyhead" on "Roller Skates" 7", unmarked Silly Moo)
- Johnny Angel (7", Septophilia, 1996)
- Blue Christmas (7", Septophilia, 1996)
- Team Bunnygrunt Vs. Team Tullycraft (7", KittyBoo Records, 1997)
- Split with B'ehl, Kitty Craft, Naysay, and Tummybug ("I Mock You With My Monkey Pants" on "Bumping Up and Down" 7", Little Red Wagon Recordings, 1999)
- The 1000% Hot EP (EP, WeePOP! Records, 2007)
- Split with Phil Wilson (7", Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records, 2007)
- Split with Sex Robots (7", Bert Dax Records, 2008)
External links
- [ Bunnygrunt on Allmusic]
- Bunnygrunt on Twee.net
- Interview with Bunnygrunt
- Label website
- Official Bunnygrunt Myspace Page