Bunnygrunt

Originally hailing from St. Louis, the cuddlecore trio Bunnygrunt earned a reputation as the world’s cutest band. Guitarist Matt Harnish, drummer Karen Ried, and bassist Renee Dullum made up the initial lineup, with vocal chores rotating among all three members. The group came together in early 1993 and issued its first release, the Silly Moo single “Criminal Boy,” before the year ended. Additional 7-inch records soon appeared, among them the EPs Standing Hampton and The Bunnygrunt Family Notebook. After signing with No Life, the band tracked its debut album, Action Pants!, which surfaced in 1995. According to longstanding rumor, bassist Dullum departed before the sessions wrapped and withdrew every song she had contributed, leaving the finished LP with an unusually short duration and limited track count. Bassist Jen Wolfe joined soon afterward, enabling Bunnygrunt to deliver the stronger follow-up Jen-Fi in 1998. The trio split not long after, though Harnish and Ried kept performing together under the name the See-Thrus. A reunion took place in 2003, after which the rarities set In the Valley of Lonesome Phil emerged in 2004. Happy Happy Birthday to Me issued the full-length Karen Hater’s Club the following year. Matt Harnish & Other Delights arrived in 2009, while the tribute album You Wanna Be Just Like Bunnygrunt appeared in 2013. Vol. 4—actually the band’s fifth studio effort—came out in 2015. Silly Moo released the compilation My First Bells 1993-1994 in 2018.