history
formed at a time when the world trade centres still existed and cost $15
u.s. to ascend, ("we'll go next time.") litterbug entered the
musical landscape playing a stripped down indie rock that channeled folks
like jonathan richman, the feelies, camper van beethoven, half japanese,
and the velvet underground. in 2002, litterbug released its debut album
pablo on its own label monkey-bar-records. receiving positive reviews
and campus airplay, the band expanded from its core of marc simao, janie
cranfield and lonnie ouellette, to include justin harder and aileen rankin.
this lineup recorded and released the full-length album kaiser and
the sort-of christmas ep hollis in 2004.
in early 2006, justin and aileen moved to saskatoon to pursue aileen's medical studies, while marc and janie relocated to vancouver. later that year, spencer rose and amelia mori joined litterbug and the band began to work on new material. this lineup first recorded in the summer of 2007, contributing the track rachel quinney to cjsr's get out of your basement compilation.
in the summer and fall of 2008, the band sequestered itself into vancouver's fairview baptist church, where it recorded over 20 songs for the zero hour sessions. paring down the album to 13 tracks, zero hour was released in late april, 2009. zero hour starts off in a dark place in mexico and winds up in a brighter place in death. in between are stories of murder, loss, imprisonment, the retreat from life, and RVs. this swirling album is litterbug's strongest and most artistic statement yet. featured guests include larissa loyva (kellarissa, former p:ano, choir practice), brady cranfield (womankind, former book of lists), and josh rose (robe & allied).
at around the same time as the completion of zero hour, amelia left the band to go to medical school in australia (med school again!), and david newberry and max boyle joined the band for some shows to promote the zero hour album. spencer rose left the band in september 2009 to focus on other projects and in october 2009, mouki k butt and stewart lampe joined the band as litterbug began to work on new material for a follow-up to zero hour.