Too Much Joy

Smallens departed on amicable terms in 1994, after which producer William Wittman joined on bass guitar and vocals.

Blumenfield was also in Fields Laughing (which released an EP in 1985 on Stonegarden Records) and Smallens was also in Beauty Constant (whose Like the Enemy LP was issued in 1987).

The later incarnation of the band briefly reunited in the early 2000s to record the one-off holiday single "Ruby Left a Present Underneath the Christmas Tree."

In response, the band planned a protest concert in which several acts would cover a 2 Live Crew song in Miami.

[5][6] Failing to drum up much commitment among other bands, Too Much Joy played a number of selections from 2 Live Crew's As Nasty As They Wanna Be album and were arrested, spending a night in jail.

[14] Lead singer Quirk was detained by the Secret Service after a performance in which he made a joke about strangling President Clinton.

Although the band believed that Clinton's daughter Chelsea was in the audience at the time, the Secret Service contingent was actually there to protect an obscure foreign ambassador.

[4][15] TMJ has been compared to musical contemporaries They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies[16] because of the band's unconventional style, grassroots fan appeal and quirky yet honest and insightful lyrics.

AllMusic describes the album's songs as "often extremely clever and catchy," although "clearly the work of over-educated, under-employed, upper-middle class kids with far too much time on their hands."

"[17] However, college radio's attraction to quirky songs such as "Drum Machine" paved the way for a wider reception of the band's subsequent recordings.

Too Much Joy's 1991 LP Cereal Killers, released by Warner Bros. Records, met with some popularity on American college and alternative radio stations.

"[18] A review in the St. Petersburg Times said, "Humor and youthful energy enliven the good ol' rock 'n' roll dispensed by Too Much Joy.

Tim Quirk (2008)