Bunnygrunt
| Bunnygrunt | |
|---|---|
| Origin | St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Genres | Indie pop, cuddlecore |
| Years active | 1993–1998 2003–present |
| Website | bunnygrunt |
| Members |
Matt Harnish Karen Ried Eric Von Damage |
| Past members | Renee Dullum (1993–1995) Jen Wolfe (1995–1998) Lauren Trull (2003–2005) |
Bunnygrunt are an American indie pop band from St. Louis, Missouri composed of guitarist/vocalist Matt Harnish and drummer/vocalist Karen Ried.
The band formed in early 1993, with Wally Schwartz on bass. Their first release, the "Criminal Boy" 7", came in the same year, on Silly Moo Records. In short order Rene Dullum took over the duties on bass. 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!, released 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. Later still Matt joined The Julia Sets and Karen formed The Fantasy Four.
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 Thornton 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 the 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."
...
Wikipedia