tunabunny – HHBTM Records

Antlered Auntlord – Daniel Johnston Covers

diana@hhbtm.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 22:04:12 +0000

When we started Happy Happy Birthday To Me twenty-one years ago, we did so in hopes of sharing the music of the outsider. Simple but smart, earnest but lighthearted -- bands and musicians who channeled a real sense of self without conforming to the musical status quo. People who not just marched to the beat of their own drum, but built that drum themselves. Naturally, we found inspiration in the work of late Texas poet and musician Daniel Johnston—a man more intent in getting his feelings set to tape than he was about sound quality. He understood—even if only on a subconscious level—that the sound of hiss and noise not only didn’t matter, it made his words of hope and heartbreak and fear and desire even more special. We were honored to have him perform at the 2007 Athens Popfest; his set will forever be one of our greatest Popfest performances. Jump to 2016. We were thrilled to have Daniel Johnston return to Athens Popfest as our special guest and festival headliner. We had to provide his backing band, so we put together an in-house super-duper backing group featuring Jesse Stinnard from Antlered Aunt Lord / Tunabunny and Jake Ward and Marie A. Uhler from Eureka California. Daniel gave us some leeway and some direction for his setlist, and once settled, the band recorded it and sent Daniel a copy so he could rehearse. Unfortunately, the day of the show, the Gulf Coast was hit with a tropical depression, and all flights from Houston were grounded. We at HHBTM wanted to pay tribute to one of our biggest influences. After some time passed, we listened to the practice recordings, and we knew what we had to do—but we knew we had to make it special. Thus we present you with some of those recordings, The Daniel Johnston Covers Tape, packaged on limited edition cassette with only 100 copies being made. The setlist offers a healthy mix of his classic songs and deeper cuts from all points in his career. Like the spontaneous, raw recordings of his Stress Records releases, Antlered Auntlord: The Daniel Johnston Covers Tape captures a moment in time from when Daniel was an “is” and not a “was.” Any other tribute would have fallen short; Daniel was life, not death, and while his passing should be mourned, his music should never be treated mournfully.

Tunabunny – Genius Fatigue (LP / Cassette)

diana@hhbtm.com — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 20:54:39 +0000

Athens, Georgia quartet Tunabunny’s third album is another fierce, fun, and impressive outing. Drawing from the power of punk, the ferocity of riot grrrl, and the anything-goes spirit of similarly wild and loose bands through the ages (such as fellow townies the B-52s), the two guys and two girls make a noise that is both liberating and fascinating. The focal point of their sound is the vocals of Brigette Herron, who has a snarl that could scare the toughest hardhat and a beguiling croon that contrasts nicely when she breaks it out. When she teams with Mary Jane Hassell to sing in unison (or rough harmonies), they create a powerful racket that headphones can barely contain. Comes with mp3 download emailed after purchase!

Tunabunny – Tunabunny LP

diana@hhbtm.com — Tue, 07 May 2019 16:32:56 +0000

Tracklisting:

Flowers On the Stage
Cotton Candy Steamroller
Outer Space #1
When We Go Out
Bloodstream
Mrs. Captain Beefheart
Play Dead
You Can Stop If You Want To
Puzzle Piece
Gasmasks
When I Fucked Up The Words
Ladykillers
I Miss You (You Miss Me Yes)
Tribe
Vegetable Chemistry

Tunabunny – PCP Presents Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Double LP)

diana@hhbtm.com — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 20:25:05 +0000

A 75-minute double-vinyl masterpiece, PCP Presents Alice In Wonderland Jr, the fifth album from Athens, Georgia’s Tunabunny, is the most creatively ambitious album in the band’s history. Featuring singles like ‘Incinerate,’ ‘The Rest of Us,’ and ‘Nevermind the Cobblestones,’ the band takes their experimental rock into a place that is both stranger and more accessible than anything they’ve done before. It’s ferocious, passionate, smart. political, desperate, feminist, and alive. Every song is important. Every song goes someplace the others don’t. There are no accidents; there is no filler.

28 songs structured as a song-by-song response to The Beatles’ White Album (there’s even an experimental track called ‘Revolution None’), PCPPAIWJR is packed w/hits, and packed w/originality. On PCPPAIWJR, Tunabunny proves they can do anything. It takes the sonic breakthroughs of 2014’s Kingdom Technology to a place that’s less claustrophobic and more open. Songs about surveillance, songs about futility; songs about alchemy & winter, metamorphosis & anger. Side Four features a twisting song cycle about motherhood—from pregnancy to birth, through postpartum emotional desolation, to the rebirth of self.

PCPPAIWJR creates a universe of sound, music for the internet age. As our access to music expands, its entire history sits at our fingertips just waiting to be heard. Just waiting to inspire, this is the future of music—a glorious eclecticism that results in something original and urgently now. You can hear echoes of T Rex, Slits, Electrelane, Chills, Human League, John Cage, John Cale, GBV, Beefheart, Ono, Eno, Fine Young Cannibals, Fleetwood Mac, Luc Ferrari, Bananarama, ? and the Mysterians, Smiths, Syd Barrett, Sun Ra, and on, and on.