Biography by Jason Ankeny
Power pop singer/guitarist Mike Viola was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and had self-released a solo album before teaming with schoolmate Todd Foulsham in the short-lived '80s band Snap! Viola and Foulsham then relocated to New York City and formed the Candy Butchers; Viola also played with local pop bands including Ivy and They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh's side project Mono Puff. With Ivy's Adam Schlesinger, he co-wrote and sang the Grammy-winning title song to Tom Hanks' 1996 rock & roll comedy, That Thing You Do! That same year, the Candy Butchers signed to Blue Thumb and issued their debut EP, Live at La Bonbonniere. The duo's self-titled debut LP went unreleased after Blue Thumb went bankrupt, however, and in 1999 the Candy Butchers finally landed at the Sony affiliate RPM to issue Falling Into Place.
In 2004, RPM released Hang on Mike, again credited to Candy Butchers. Viola went completely independent as of 2005, releasing his next album, the live solo acoustic collection Just Before Dark, on his own Good Morning Monkey label. Released in 2006, Making Up Time contained previously unreleased archival recordings of Candy Butchers, 1994-1998.
In 2007, Viola released another archival disc, Temple of Static, a collection of songs and studio whimsy he had recorded in 2001, followed by the studio albums Lurch (2007), Electro De Perfecto (2011) and Acousto De Perfecto (2012) with Eric Summers and Kate Reddish filling out the trio by accompanying his acoustic guitar with violas.
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