Few labels are more dedicated to the dissemination of tried-and-true twee indie pop than Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records of Athens, GA. That means reissues of classic albums like Bunnygrunt’s Action Pants! 30th Anniversary Director’s Cut, which is freshly out courtesy of HHBTM and Silly Moo, and also new material from survivors on the scene such as Tullycraft, whose latest long-player, the outfit’s eighth, Shoot the Point, has also just landed in the racks. We lend an ear to both releases below.
Bunnygrunt was based in St. Louis, MO, USA, a big city to be sure but not a hotbed of indie pop activity. They came together in 1993 with the constant members being guitarist-vocalist Matt Harnish and drummer Karen Ried. After a spate of 7-inch platters they issued Action Pants! in 1995 on No Life Records, a label that called Los Angeles home.
With the departure of bassist Renee Dullum, Action Pants! lost a handful of songs that have now been added to this anniversary reissue. The original release, which gathered just eight cuts, barreled forth with the aura of punk brevity. Now expanded with four more tunes, the punk thrust hasn’t dissipated but has instead been refined as Bunnygrunt’s raucous indie pop bona fides are strutted forth even stronger.
As was the case with punk and indie, the descriptor of twee often stuck in the craw of the bands saddled with the tag. And that’s fair; being called twee, or even worse, “cuddlecore” (a term so odious it inspires urges to swat the utterer of the phrase in the kidneys with a baseball bat) regularly led to negative assumptions and reinforced stereotyping.
But on Action Pants! Bunnygrunt are riled up, riffy and raw in their melodiousness. For evidence, see “Eggy Greggy” and especially “G.I.2.K.,” with its outbursts of noise. Just as importantly, there is a lack of the contrived, which is all the more impressive as the band possesses a bit of a bubblegum streak, and right out of the gate with “Superstar 666.”
Across the record the alternating guy-gal leads are a plus, the added tracks are all worthwhile, particularly the Holland–Dozier–Holland swipe of “Maude (Returns)” and the boisterous riffing of “Inanimate Objects.” The 12-minute art-punky fiesta “Open Up and Say Oblina” closes Action Pants! 30th Anniversary Director’s Cut with panache.
Coming together in Seattle in 1995, Tullycraft have long been savvy embracers of the twee. Now eight albums deep with Shoot the Point, the band’s current lineup features vocalists Sean Tollefson and Jenny Mears, guitarists Chris Munford and Corianton Hale, bassist Ethan Jones, and drummer Guy Patterson.
If calculatedly cute in orientation, Tullycraft’s sound consistently registers as explicitly crafted for a flailing bedroom pogo. The shared vocal action, with Mears accenting Tollefson’s conversational lead with short phrases and woah-woahs, but occasionally with a lead of her own as in “Love on the Left Bank” and more often shared choruses, as in album highlight “Jeanie’s Up Again and Blaring Faith by the Cure,” is one of the band’s marks of distinction and also something of a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.
Simultaneously giddy and sharp, Tullycraft could easily win over pop-punk fans with much of Shoot the Point, and in particular “Rhinestone Tease.” Focused on music fandom and loaded with references, “Street Hassle Plays on Repeat,” “Purple Leopard Print Suitcase,” and the ludicrously catchy “Modern Lovers” all stand out in this regard, and any risks toward the formulaic across the album are ultimately beaten back with shear chutzpah.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Bunnygrunt, Action Pants! 30th Anniversary Director’s Cut
A-
Tullycraft, Shoot the Point
B+
