Honeybunch

(perhaps one day my relationship to ILM will be more than parasitic. once i've assimilated everything i've learned here in the past four years i will surely make up for it with a relentless string of enlightening, well-considered, otm posts.)

they released a compilation of stuff on a cd called time trial, it's alright, better than velvet crush which Jeffrey borchardt/underhill is/was also a member of. They don't really sound like the field mice, lower and slower, have more of a traditional band sound, possibly more like velvet crush but not as dreadful as that.

it's available on itunes. but i think you can order it from elefant for like 2 dollars or something.

honeybunch had maybe 5 singles? something like that. they were patchy but occasionally fantastic. the summershine one is my favourite and the compilation is totally worth getting. keith mostly otm above, although that first velvet crush album is better than both honeybunch and the subsequent VC catalogue put together

The Time Trials roundup is great, I think -- especially love "My Contribution to the Greenhouse Effect," "Mine Your Own Business," "Walking into Walls," "Count Your Blessings" ...

There's a certain very relaxed and very "pure" sound that some of that era's indiepop/twee stuff went for (and yes, the first Field Mice record gets at it, in spots, with stuff like "Emma's House" or maybe "You're Kidding, Aren't You"). Honeybunch seem like a peak of that quality, to me -- they're not really chirpy, not really "dreamy," just this really graceful, well-contained kind of movement. And not bland, either: I'd feel silly using words like "passion" or "soul" here, but their better songs have a real emotive spark to them, reserved as it might be!