Apr 3 9:00 Montreal, QC
Bistro de Paris 4536 Rue St. Denis
w/MONSTRES ET MERVEILLES, MARIE-ANDRÉE ROY, STRAIGHT TO MEMPHIS

Apr 7 9:00 Ottawa
Cajun Attic 349 Dahousie
INDIE BUZZ WERKS presents Live @ the Indie Attic
w/ ZEN BEER(first) andTHE SONIC DEFENSE(third)
Cost: sliding scale ($5 suggested)

Apr 8 9:00 Montreal
Gert’s Pub Shatner Building, SS1, 3480 McTavish Street
w/MONSTRES ET MERVEILLES
Cost: $2-5 (sliding)

Apr 9 8:00 Carleton Place
Brush Strokes 129 Bridge Street
Vernissage/gallery opening
for artist Jean Gauvreau
Cost: free

Apr 13 9:00 Kingston
The Living Room 506 Princess St.
INDIE BUZZ WERKS presents the
INDIE LIVING ROOM series in the Living Room @ the Mansion
details and line-up TBA

ATTENTION EU Bands and Bookers!
The band is seeking bookings in /Europe for a tour this fall.
Please contact grrrabbit productions with availabilities and any help!

January/February
The Safe Amplification Society Benefit on Jan. 9 went really well; raised a goodly sum for the cause (a permanent, legal all ages venue in Vancouver). There's pix here

2009
October/November
Songs from the new release have been sent to college radio across Canada; please request us if you can!

Thanks to everyone for coming to the Purple Crab show last week! The place was full very early, and the show went very well!

WEAKNESS now playlisted on CFBX!

WEAKNESS is back on the CKXU Electronica Top 10 (#5 10/27)
and
on the CITR Top 30 (#30 10/27)

WEAKNESS is now #8 on CKXU Electronica Top 10 (09/29)
and #6 on the CITR Top 30 (09/15)

CiTR's site has podcasts of the band's Thunderbird Radio Hell-a-thon (Oct. 02) up now
http://playlist.citr.ca/podcasting/xml/thunderbirdradiohell.xml
or maybe
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Citr--ThunderbirdRadioHell

September
Thanks to everyone who came to our CD release show! The near-full Princeton (which became a grrrabbit production at the last minute) was treated to xclnt sets by Role Mach and Collapsing Opposites, before TRATS performed. The response was wonderful, and many disks were sold!

The double CD can now be bought through
mcleanrecords for $12 (USD).

March/April
Lots going on...
TRATS was fortuante enough to be interviewed by THE MORNING AFTER's Oswaldo Perrera on March 17th, with Mark from THE GET DOWN to shamelessly plug his 10th anniversary show April 10 at the Legion!

A podcast of the March 17th show is here:
http://playlist.citr.ca/podcasting/audio/20090317-113644-to-20090317-130009.mp3
We're very happy to have a chance to play. Oswaldo has been an enthusiastic supporter of the band for years now.

Shannon's back from Europe (for a couple of months, at least), and will be performing a few songs with TRATS on this show and, (hopefully) on the release show for WEAKNESS.

You can now buy TRATS MP3s online through Soundclick.
Look for songs that will not be released in the physical world and remixes in addition to songs from the CDs.
Click music, or go directly to the Soundclick page here.

WEAKNESS, the forthcoming 28-song double CD, has been mastered at THE HIVE, inching ever closer to being unleashed to the throngs... release date coming soon...

Free music
You can now download our Redundant EP for free
(minus the nifty cover) on the music page.

Of course if you're the sort who prefers a physical copy, fear not! We still have some of the (limited edition) cd version available for $5, and will have some available at the show...

The next CD by The Rain and the Sidewalk
In case anyone is curious our next CD (currently titled Weakness) is pretty close to completion (and, who knows, might even be available by some time early next year)

At this point it looks like Weakness will probably be a double CD including such songs as
Hollow, Smoke Signals, That Water Fountain Spoke To Me, Misguided Dream, Repulsive Pining, In A Moment Of Weakness, Inane Pining, Adjust The Dial On The Windowsill (I've seen this one before), You Look Like You've Been Through, Abrasive Candy, Regret, Failures, Identity Crisis (quartet for guitar, bass and tape loop), Playground For Your Thoughts, Did I Never Look Into Your Face?, Hit My Head, I Walk Around The Block Three Times Before Going In, Rejected, The Entire Fucking Universe, Idiot (the self-loathing song), Church Window (I threw a bottle), Drunken Ramblings, A Solitary Soul, In The Dark, Comedy Sketch, Monster, Attack Of The Ska Dogs, Outside Of Red.
(the track listing is subject to change without warning or reason of course :-)

that is all.

April
We’ve compiled those remixes of the songs from Inanimate on a new CD! It's called the Redundant EP.

A limited edition of 50 copies is now available for $6 at shows (like the upcoming May 9th show at Hoko's), and soon from McLean Records. We’re also going to put up a free version soon.

Features the following songs:
The Bus Song (edit)
Resurrection (dance mix)
Tonight We Are Standing On The Edge Of The World (unintentionally silly mix)
Slow-Motion Chattering
Hallucination (extended)
Malibu (burnt-out mix)
Lifeless (machine mix)
Wake Me When It’s Over (artistically irrelevant party mix)
Twisted Sunshine (broken mix)
Resurrection (emotional mix)
mastered by Stuart McKillop at the Hive
The physical version comes in a fold out cover designed by Trevor and executed by Mike McLean

(Now, if someone out there has been paying attention they might be wondering, "Harrumph! What happened to the Diversion EP that Trevor was talking about some time ago?" Well, the Diversion EP was going to contain the Inanimate remixes as well as a few other "unreleased singles" and odds and ends like Abrasive Candy, Outside of Red, Journey to the Ether Landscapes, etc., but Wayde pointed out that having remixes and non-remixes on the same CD is just plain evil.

Then Trevor also realized that 78 minutes was a bit too long for an EP...

So the remixes wound up on Redundant instead, and the other songs will likely wind up on the next CD (maybe a double CD), current working title "Weakness".)

In other news, it looks like Arsenal Pulp Press is going to re-print Wayde’s book Performance Bond, which comes with the CD that Wayde and Trevor put together, The Reinventing Wheel... More details as I get them!

January/February
oh, yes, right, we need a news update...

Hey, I keep forgetting to mention, the winter issue of
One Cool Word magazine's

CD includes a new recording of
I Came Across No One On My Journey...
This one's a bit more like the slightly more raw live arrangement,
with Shannon Hallett on vocals this time! (The CD also contains tracks by The Wintermitts, In Medias res, Greenbelt Collective and more)
One Cool Word is available at various record stores
and book stores around town, be sure to check out their site (http://www.onecoolword.com) for more info and to buy it...

More recently, many thanks to Oswaldo for having us perform at the second La Vanguardia anniversary party.
As usual we had a blast. Many thanks to everyone who came out (and cheers to everyone who helped us out)!