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) and Electro de Perfecto (2012). ~ Jason Ankeny & William Ruhlmann, Rovi