Yule

Hello all. Sorry we've been neglecting the blog, and never made the last tour update. The holidays have been crazy busy for me personally, and I'm sure for M & A as well.

For now, let me just say that the show last night in Grand Rapids was one of the best MI shows I have ever been to. Positive Noise, Deathrats, Sin Orden, Pizza Hi-Five, State Violence, Deep Shit all killed. So good. Tons of people showed up. Perfect!

We have some dates lining up well for the March tour. We only need help with Richmond VA and Pittsburgh now! If you know anyone in those cities, please let them know that we need haaalp.

Tour was incredible. I'm really glad to be home as well, hanging with my daughter everyday while she is on holiday from school. I'm torn between the road and home.


-R

Three more days and then home...

This tour has been incredible. Thank you sooooo much to everyone who has been there to support us and to all of the bands who have played the shows, and to everyone who came out to see us. Every show has been excellent.

We will do a much more detailed tour post when we get home. For now, listen to False and Thou all day every day.
Tour is going really well still, and we are having good times still. However, I am ready to be home and be with my daughter, partner, home friends, and family. Much love to all.

Thou in Miami


False in Miami

Baby baby

This video is so awesome. Thanks to Mitch from Thou for putting it together. Make sure you watch it past the Amy Grant song, because I think the end is the best. We all miss everyone in Thou and False very much.


Florida Tour from Mitch Whales on Vimeo.

13

Day 13/14

don't worry youl be hearing all about our sad departure from our lovers False and Thou.
Here's some wonderful pictures from our friend Rosie in the mean time.

CRAWD RAT

Ft. Worth and Dallas were both amazing. 1919 Hemphill and The Phoenix Project Collective are both really great spaces run by really great people. We had SO MUCH GOOD FOOD in both towns as well, it was ridiculous. Thanks a ton to all of our new friends: Jenny Ray, Landon, Alden, Kelly, Dan, Rick, Matt, Tyler, Ramon, Alden's Parents (sorry we set off the fire alarms at like 2AM!!!). The bands that played were all fucking KILLER as well. Cleric was amazing old-school death metal, Guiso was really good frantic crusty d-beaty punk stuff, Raging Boner was really good tight straight up hardcore ala Ringworm, and then the greatest of all was Primitive Orgasm, a one-man drum solo playing the most insane fucking jazz-grind with vocal effects. It was one of the most powerful things that I have ever seen. More punk than punk.
Then we had a 20 hour drive from Dallas to Cocoa Beach FL, which we just got done with about an hour ago. We couldn't get a show to materialize in Alabama or Mississippi, so that was that. Lots of weird things happening in the van, lots of really great accents and stupid shenanigans. You know.
We have a ton of pictures and junk, we will get them posted later on!!!
Tonight we start our little 5-day jaunt with Thou and False. Should be a crazy time!

I miss my daughter.

-R

Springfield / Houma / New Orleans / Houston

There's us in Houston this morning, at an awesome community center / library / vegan cafe called S.H.A.P.E.

We all just had some amazing veggie burgers and sweet potato fries. I hope you dig the flower effects that my amazing webcam does... Oh and the person in the top left is our good friend Sock from Xtra Vomit, who is on tour with us.

Tour has been great. Springfield was SO GOOD. All because of Chris / YEUNG / DOG FOOD. We love you so much Chris!!! Check all of his projects out at http://deathsquadmarch.blogspot.com/

Then we had a really long drive. Shit got loopy in the van.

Houma ruled. HEAT DUST is a new punk/shoegazey type band that blew us away. We listened to their cd like 15 times already, literally. Before the show, we got lost in Houma trying to find the venue. At a stop sign, a woman walked up to our van, bleeding heavily from her head. She asked if we could take her to her house because she had just gotten beaten up really bad by her boyfriend. So we took her to her house, and the venue just happened to be right next to her house! Thanks be to the Goddess. Our thoughts go out to the woman from Houma.

New Orleans is such an amazing town. Just letting you know. Go there when you get a chance. The show at the Hey Cafe was an awesome time, thanks a ton to Greg from there and Bryan / THOU. IMPRESSIONABLE YOUTH were incredible. I found a fellow Berserk lover and my life is getting that much closer to complete. Thank you, Bilal, for being fucking awesome. We stayed with Bryan and Emily in their beautiful home, I loved it there. 

Houston was interesting. Madison met up with her best friend of all time, who lives here now. The record store Vinyl Junkie is fucking stacked, such a good place. The show had a heavy "jaded" vibe, lots of not give a fuck attitude. However, there were some great people there, and our new friend Ford who booked the show is so sweet. Thanks! Check out Turbokrieg, they were insanely good. IPV was really cool as well. 

All in all, everything is good so far. The van has been acting a little weird, but we figured that problem out I think. In Houma, I thought my Peavey Windsor head blew up. The next day we took it to a music store (Webb's Bywater Music in New Orleans, SUCH A GOOD PLACE!) and it was a quick solder job and a re-tube at an AMAZING price. Couldn't believe it. Sweet!

Okay, Up next is Fort Worth, Dallas, MAYBE Birmingham, and then 5 Florida dates with THOU and FALSE. So pumped! We'll try and keep the blog updated along the way.

Loves!

-RAT

ooOOoo

The Edge Of Madness

Tour starts in 4 days! We are leaving at 7am on Thursday. I'm so excited for this tour! I will have copies of the very first issue of my very first zine available, and we get to see so many wonderful friends and bands and places. YES!
Thanks so much to everyone who have helped us so much with this tour: Chris Yeung, Bryan Funck, Landon/Dallas, Matt Preston, Nevin IFB, Pizza Hi Five, Rat Storm, Jim and Andy in Knoxville, Seth and Blake in Atlanta, Gripe and Dan Vinyl Rites in Athens, Tony and Greg in Tallahassee, Rick and Alden in Ft Worth, Jenny Ray @ Phoenix Project, Ford and Vinyl Junkie in Houston, and the Austin folks who helped us out, even though we didn't end up making it there. Next time for sure! Thanks again to you all!
And to everyone who may be reading this, hope to see you on the road!!!

Also, we have been confirmed for the 5th annual DIY vs. DOMESTIC ABUSE show, a benefit for the Milwaukee Women's Center. We are really excited to be a part of it this year! We will also be doing a show in Madison the day before, and maybe Fort Wayne the day after, not sure yet.

ANNNNNNDDDDD we are going to be doing a short tour around SMASH IT DEAD FEST. March 22nd - April 1st. We will post the details for that ASAP!


All right. Much love from the Rats. Take care!

-R

DEC 9

fuck yes

NÖ PÖWER @ Sewercide Mansion from Prison of Mirrors on Vimeo.



M/cloud rat

Operation grindcore & Music for vultures

Some nice folks asked to interview us.
check it yo
Operation Grindcore interview
Music for vultures

i've been drawing.

M/cloud rat

tricks

The Lurking Fear

Hey all! We added a little links section. Check them out! Will add more as we remember them.

Tour is almost all set, just need Birmingham AL or Jackson MS area still! If you know anyone who can help us in those towns or surrounding areas (Basically any city that will split up our trip from Dallas TX to Melbourne, FL. WHEW), please let us know or let them know. Thanks! We are getting pretty stoked for tour, and got some new shirties and patchies. We will have some of the last remaining copies of our LP, as well as copies of the Oily Menace / Wolbachia split LP and (fingers crossed) the new Autarkeia split 7"!

LAIR / Brian Uhl and Robert Inhuman just made this for us. So fucking cool.

Modern Life Is...

...definitely not War, according to an ex-marine Vietnam war veteran whom I thoroughly pissed off yesterday on my lunch break at work. More on that in a bit.

First, just thought I would throw it out there that we are writing for a full-length LP to be out next spring/summer. We have the music for 9 songs written, 2 more being worked on currently, and a neat little cover tune. Madison has I think 5 or 6 songs worth of lyrics done. We already have a name and concept (no, its not a concept album though), but we will wait to unveil that until a later time, probably when we record it, most likely February-ish.

So now for the story (sorry, I know this is the Cloud Rat blog and not Rorik's personal bullshit blog):

My good friend and bandmate Jimmy and I were having lunch at this tiny chinese joint in Lakeview, MI. I'm wearing my work clothes, which, this day, included my cherished Modern Life Is War hoodie. This bigger, older guy sitting at an adjacent table asks me about my shirt, I tell him its a band. He then unbuttons his shirt, opens it like a bat opens its wings, and his shirt underneath says MARINES. He stairs at me real hard for about 10 seconds, then tells me that my shirt is a "fucking crock of shit" and that war is hell and american life bears no resemblance to it. I, with infinite wisdom, maturity and tact, tell him to "fuck off" politely. God I am an idiot sometimes. I could have just remained silent, or nodded and smiled, or said I'm sorry, or that suffering is relevant, or that the band name is not implying that modern american life is literally war, or that he doesn't know about me and what I've been through, or countless other things. But, in the heat of the moment and caught off guard, I of course said the worst, most immature thing possible. Fuck off. Real nice. So he got up from his table, walked to mine, put his finger in my face, and gave me a lecture of how shitty, disrespectful, ignorant, and spoiled that I am, and then said "any time, any place if you want to tell me to fuck off again. In Vietnam, they taught us how to kill and maim, and that's it." Very uncomfortable. I told him "I'm glad that you are proud of that." I have learned that I'm not good with confrontation. There are any number of things that I could have said to make the situation end quickly and generally comfortably for both parties, but when I'm caught off guard and in the moment, all my logic and knowledge gets thrown out the window and my adrenaline pumps and nothing good comes of it. Need to work on that.

So I'm gonna leave you off with some good shit that I just heard yesterday. Check it out, super good. 

GRIPE - PIG SERVANT

-R

,

Dezuje

Grand Rapids, MI @ The DAAC 10/5/11

credit: mindintrusion
edit:CR

Cloud Rat featured on G&P's "You Grind, But Why?"

Check it out!

http://grindandpunishment.blogspot.com/2011/10/you-grindbut-why-cloud-rat.html

Thanks Andrew!

Also, I finally put up the link to the Grindcore Karaoke download/stream of the Inerds/Cloud Rat battle set in the downloads section. Don't know why I kept forgetting to do that.

Tour is almost all booked! The only dates we don't have booked are December 4th-7th in Houston or Austin TX, Ft Worth TX, Dallas TX, and Birmingham AL. If you know anyone who could help us out in any way, please let us know! I've been emailing away, so hopefully we can get it all worked out soon. If those dates don't come together within a week or two, we will probably reroute a little bit and hit some other places. But we really would like to do some Texas dates!

A couple of the other shows (Athens GA and Knoxville TN) are still up in the air but are being worked on by a couple people, so I'm confident that they should be all set soon.

Cheers!

-R

Fever Dreams on Grindcore Karaoke

Hello again friends! Our newest release on Grindcore Karaoke is now up for free download and streaming. Fever Dreams collects all of our material from the splits with Xtra Vomit, Wolbachia, Oily Menace, and Autarkeia. Click the link that says FEVER DREAMS in the Downloads sidebar of our blog to get there. While you are at it, check out all of the other amazing bands on GK!
Currently, the lyrics aren't on the streaming part of the site, but I will get them sent to J soon. So look out for those too! I will probably post them on here as well.

G'day, mates!

DECEMBER TOUR!

Hello friends. We changed our routing a bit, and pushed the tour back a week. So here is what we are looking at:

DECEMBER
1st: Springfield, IL *

2nd: New Orleans, LA

3rd: Baton Rouge, LA

4th: Houston, TX *

5th: Dallas, TX *

6th: Little Rock, AK *

7th: Birmingham, AL *

8th: Melbourne, FL

9th: Orlando, FL

10th: Miami, FL

11th: Ft Meyers, FL @ Cool Hand Luc's w/ THOU, FALSE, PANZRAM

12th: Tampa, FL

13th: Montgomery, AL or Tallahassee, FL *

14th: Atlanta/Athens, GA *

15th: Asheville, NC *

16th: Lexington, KY *

17th: Lima, OH @ The Leathershop

18th: Indianapolis/Bloomfield, IN


We still need help with the dates with a * next to them. If you know anyone in any of those cities or nearby cities who could help us with a show, or a place to sleep, or to just hang out with and be friends, please let us know. Thanks and hope to see you on the road!

Also, the Cloud Rat / Autarkeia split 7" is off to the pressing plant! Now we just need artwork and that hot slab of wax will be ready to go. Woo! The folks at IFB Records sure work hard. Thanks so much to Nevin, Joe, Aysa, and everyone else involved.

-A/M/R/CR

oh boys :)

Elephantmen

I had a show listed wrong! To all Grand Rapids MI area friends, the show with our buds in Water Torture is October 5th, not the 3rd!

In other news, we are starting to book a tour for November 25th - December 11th. It will be throughout the midwest and south/southeastern parts of the US. Will post all the info when we have it rounded up, keep an eye out!

Our split LP with The Oily Menace and Wolbachia is now available, through IFB Records and Blackhouse Records (sorry, don't have a link for that yet). I caught Oily Menace the other day in Mount Pleasant (last show ever for my record store, bumsies), and they were fucking INCREDIBLE. Oh my, so good. I have yet to see Wolbachia but I can't wait for the day, as their part of the record seriously rips.

Also, look out for our next Grindcore Karaoke release to be up soon! It is entitled Fever Dreams, and it compiles all of our material from the Oily Menace/Wolbachia split LP, the Xtra Vomit split cassette and (upcoming) LP, and a forthcoming split 7" with Autarkeia. 18 tracks in total!

Keep it real.
-R

VOID HAUS

here are some shots from the void haus!
thanks Jennifer ^_^
edited by //CR

Nightmare Casters

Wheeeeeewwwwww. Finally have a bit to sit down and update this. I have never really written about tours, but I want to make a habit of it. I have been on way too many now, and I can't remember a lot of things that I wish I could. So here it is.

For a week before tour, Madison came and stayed with me. She was freaked out that my cat (Smudgie) would give her dreads fleas. Didn't happen. We had some really good heart-to-hearts, and we made Nightmare Casters out of scrap steel in my parents' barn. I will post pictures when I get a chance. Think a dream catcher in the shape of a pentagram, made out of steel, with ugly steel shapes hanging by chains off from it. Sweet. I did the steel fabrication, Maddy did the layout and put the chains together and all that. METAL.

On the day before tour, I had work all day and then a big picnic/potluck at my daughter's school where all of the parents attend and meet the teachers. I was delightfully surprised to find a few vegan dishes along with yummy fruits and veggies, then felt bad as I didn't have time to bring one of my own for the potluck! It's crazy that my child is in 2nd grade already. After that, Lydia and I went home, other Lydia (side note: my child and my partner both share the same name, Lydia) came over for a sleepover party, we all played video games. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, in fact.

Day One - VOID HAUS in Hammond, Indiana w/ HAKA, VOICE OF REASON, DERAILER:
Got up. Made breakfast and got little-Lydia ready to go. Dropped her off with her daycare provider, picked up Adrian, we rolled four-deep on this outing (partner-Lydia being the fourth). We stopped at Kevin Kitchels house in Lansing to grab the booklets for the new 3-Way Split LPs (which are now available), grabbed some good organic vegan sammies from the local health food deli, then stopped in Jackson to grab our new shirts and patches from our friend DJ Radke (Thanks!). We arrived at the VOID HAUS in Hammond a little early, and walked in to find our gracious hosts cooking seitan burritos and offering us beers. Thanks Randy and... fuck, I forgot your name. Sorry! Folks from DECAY AFTER DEATH anyways. The house ruled, a bunch of kids came out, shit was packed. It was two of the bands first shows, HAKA (who ruled, sort of Los Crudos-ish, only a bit more chaotic with some blasts thrown in) from Chicago, and VOICE OF REASON from Chicago (dudes from COLD SHOULDER doing similar stuff, it was cool). DERAILER also played, and were good, but it just wasn't really my thing. Kind of pop-punky, (but not polished bullshit), Hot Water Music-y only more upbeat. I broke a string for the first time in Cloud Rat history, but everyone seemed to enjoy our set a lot, which is always nice. Thank you very much to Tyler Bonam (POISON PLANET/RAZORXFADE/BOILING OVER) for doing this show, it was a blast and went very well. That night we stayed at Tyler and Nick's (POISON PLANET) and had a really awesome chickpea chili that Tyler made. Nick's pitbulls (Harlow and Ian) were adorable and so friendly. Also, Nick's Warhammer collection is insane.

Day Two - The Irish Knot in Milwaukee, WI w/ PROTESTANT, SLOB DONOVAN:
We got up early at Tyler and Nick's, said our goodbyes and set out to hang in Chicago for a while before we left for Milwaukee. Every time I'm in Chi-town, I can't resist getting food at the good joints. Usually I hit up Soul Veg and Veggie Bite, but sadly Veggie Bite closed down and Soul Veg was too far out of our way at the moment. So we ended up going to Chicago Diner, as Madison and Lydia had both never been there. After that we walked to Whole Foods to get some medicine for Madison who was feeling ill, then to a thrift store where they had 3-for-$1-VHS Tapes! Then to this head shop that had multiple bongs that cost over $10,000. INSANE. I don't smoke the weed so I wasn't as geeked as a couple other members of our crew, though the pieces were all very cool as far as art is concerned. Then we went to Chicago Comics and Adrian and I went crazy getting some geek shit. I got some good ones, as well as one for daughter-Lydia called Korgi that's pretty neat. We were supposed to meet our friend James Walton for lunch at this new vegan joint called Quesadilla, but we took too long doing everything else that we had to bail. Sorry James, miss you :(. Drove to Milwaukee through construction, and got to our dear friend Jason Ellis' (HALF GORILLA) house. God I love Jason. And his beautiful wiggly dog Jasmine. Jason made us really great gnocchi with faux sausage, peppers, and a tomato sauce. After that, I changed my strings and we went to the venue. We don't typically play bars, but apparently all of the house venues and other punk venues have all but closed in Milwaukee, so this would do. The Irish Knot is a small little hole-in-the-wall place, really cool though. And we got free beer. Yes! SLOB DONOVAN played first, groovy sludge/down-tempo ALA Harvey Milk meets EyeHateGod/etc. It was heavy. Then we played a rockin' set I thought, super fun. Sometimes I feel weird when we are talking about serious stuff (vegan, punk, feminist topics, etc) at a bar when everyone is drinking and trying to have a good time, but we try to keep it quick and not preachy. Works out well I think. Then up next was the mighty PROTESTANT. Fuck they were awesome. Sounded huge and heavy and tight. Really good. That night I stayed up and talked with Jason and Chris (PROTESTANT) about a lot of things, one of them being the nazi and other racist problems in Milwaukee. Very sad, and so complicated. On a better note, this is the night that I slept the best on tour for some reason. I usually hardly ever sleep on tour (and DRIVE 100% OF THE TIME! ARRRGH!), but Jason had very comfortable accommodations. Thanks for the show and food and everything Jason!

Day 3 - THE MOCKBEE in Cincinnati, OH w/ WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, THOU, BENEATH OBLIVION
Woke up, talked about loving Queensryche with Jason, a fellow Queensryche lover. I love Fear Factory too, though, and got banned from his house forever. Anyways, we went to the local co-op and got some yummy stuff. After that, we said goodbye to Jason and left for our long drive to Cincinnati. Madison was still feeling sick, so that sucked. we drove through a lot of fields, and a large windmill generator area. Got to Cincy, got lost in Cincy, Madison needed to use the bathroom really bad and we were lost in a rougher part of town. We stopped at a gas station and she was harassed of course. I don't quite understand why there are so many fucking assholes everywhere. We finally got to the Mockbee (coolest venue EVER) during Wolves' soundcheck, loaded our gear up the treacherous stairs. My back was already fucked, now its worse. Robert Realicide put this show on, and it was easily one of the best shows I've ever been to in my life. 200+ kids, tons of vegan food, tons of anarchist/feminist/art/literature and distros. All ages but they also serve alcohol to 21+, really great show for everyone. All of the people in WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM and their crew are so great, it was awesome getting to know them. BENEATH OBLIVION played first, in the downstairs tunnel. They are loud, heavy doom, and sounded good. Then came time for our set upstairs, in front of the stage. We were just informed that THOU had popped three tires on their way from Baton Rouge, and were running very late, so we needed to stall a bit and then play a longer set. Parker from the WOLVES crew ran sound for us and it sounded huge. Thanks! We ended up playing for FORTY FIVE MINUTES!!! Holy shit! Robert and all of the people there wanted us to keep going, it was insane. Everyone was going nuts, and the pit got rowdy (it has been established that Lydia is our pit mascot. Just watch the Inerds/Cloud Rat split set video and you will see her destroying everyone). One member of the crowd (Robert's roomate, actually) personally gave us $40 just for playing that long. I felt bad but he was super cool and said that we deserved it. At the end of the set, all three of us were dead. After us, WOLVES went on and were really really good. They sounded incredible, and thunder and lightning and rain was flashing outside. So cool. By that time it was after 1 AM, and I didn't think THOU was gonna make it. But at the last second before everyone left, they showed up, borrowed Wolves' gear, and played one of the best sets I have ever seen in my life. So ridiculously heavy and intense. Bryan looked evil as hell, eyes burning bright. I'm sure that they were glad to be there and out of their broken van, and it showed. By the time THOU was done, I had acquired a pretty good buzz, and was having a hard time not making an ass of myself. All of us, Thou, and Wolves all went back to Robert's place, a warehouse space with a lot of room for everyone. I got in Wolves' RV and said a bunch of silly drunken stuff, it was fun. Then Lydia and I went and slept in the van. A very long, exhausting, awesome day.

Day 4 - Mickey Finn's in Toledo, OH w/ SHOPPERS, BREAK:
Woke up with a stiff neck in the van, felt gross and slightly hungover. Went inside to find out that Madison woke up feeling very sick, and that she had spoken with a doctor friend. Lydia, Adrian, and I drove to a nearby drugstore to get Maddy some meds again. We got back, she took her meds while Adrian and I went back over to the Mockbee to load out our gear and help Wolves load out their ENORMOUS amount of gear and PA. Hung with Robert and everyone for a bit, then parted ways and went to MELT restaurant. Lydia, Madison and Adrian got vegan huevos rancheros, I got vegan carolina grits. I should've gotten the huevos rancheros. Lydia brought to my attention pictures of my record store, post tough-guy show the night before, totally destroyed, but that is another story and I don't want to talk about it right now. Drove from Cincy to Toledo, met up with our good friends Will, Jas, JC, Chris and Sarah, watched Disconnected practice then proceeded to do a little jamming with them ourselves. Grabbed some burritos then went to the venue. At first no one was there, but then people started trickling in and pretty soon it was another good turnout. I always love going to Toledo, as there are a lot of amazing people there. William (AsxGoodxAsxDead, Disconnected, Next 2 Nothing) did this show, and it was cool. Another bar allowing all ages shows is alright in my book, and my other band has actually played there a couple of times now. Toledo is another city where the DIY venues have all but closed up, other than the Revolution house and everyone there was out of town this weekend. So, BREAK played 1st. They sounded pretty good, not my cup of tea though. Nice dudes! Then SHOPPERS played and killed it. This was my second time seeing them, and they make a serious wall of noise that is sometimes punctuated by really cool shoegaze-punk riffing, holding unapologetic feminist/social stances. Cool shirts too, with a bunch of skinheads in a gay orgy. Love it. Last was our set, and I thought that we played really well. I was glad to finally have Cloud Rat in Toledo, as most of my friends there had only seen Under Anchor. Afterwards we went to Jas' place of occupation (Ottowa Tavern, I once saw the largest barfight of my life there), then to Jas and Chris' house for a nap.

Day 5 - Olde Jamestowne Hall in Saginaw, MI w/ WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, THOU, BEAST IN THE FIELD, ISENBLAST:
Wow. This day started early as fuck and never ended for me until the next night. We had to get up early to go (I was the promoter for the show this night, and had much to do beforehand), after having only slept for about 2 hours. I asked Madison to drive and she freaked out, because she is an admittedly terrible driver and is dyslexic. But Adrian has no license, Lydia has no obligation to drive, I had literally driven 100% everywhere up until this point, and needed sleep terribly if I was going to pull this day off successfully. So she ended up driving, not without getting lost a bit and generally freaking me out so I couldn't sleep a whole lot. But then she did good and I slept a couple more hours. We got home, Maddy and Lyd left to go make vegan cupcakes and other stuff, Adrian and I went and loaded up a stage onto a trailer, then showered, then went to Mt Pleasant to get everything for the show and a little snack (hummus and bagels). Then to the show, about an hour later than anticipated. Wolves were already at the venue, but had only just gotten there. We all loaded everything in, then set up the stage, PA, and other stuff. A ton of people showed up, and my initial worry of a small turnout turned into a fear of the police coming and shutting down our show with over 250 punks and metal heads causing a ruckus at night in a tiny hall. ISENBLAST played first, really gnarly good black metal from Detroit, and they played well. Then BEAST IN THE FIELD played, the loudest band on the planet. They crushed too hard and blew a breaker. We had to unplug some lights before they could play again. Then we played. I broke 2 strings in one set! Fuck! Time for me to file my saddles down again. So because of that we had to cut a couple songs, but what we did play I thought went over really well. At one point during our set however, there was an altercation between two friends of mine, and it really put a bit of a damper on my mood that evening. I think it's all straightened out now though. THOU and WOLVES then played successively, each playing extremely well and sounding amazing. (Side note: THOU have cool binary gender patches with them right now too, which I was stoked on.) I was very stressed trying to handle everything during this show, but we pulled it off and everyone was mostly happy I believe. After the show, I tried to pick up as good as possible, but people left their fucking garbage EVERYWHERE! I had to get a friend to clean up a couple days later so that the people who owned it wouldn't be pissed (Thanks Dan Ratti!) Wolves and Thou helped me load up the stage and sent Adrian and I on our way. I got another 2 hours of sleep that night, and was absolutely the most tired in my life the next day, setting 400 pound glass panels on the roof of a waterpark with the crane. Fuckin A.

So, all in all, a really amazing little tour. Shows were awesome, food was tasty, people were friendly, and to top it all off, money was even super good. Weird! Thanks so much to Tyler Bonam, Jason Ellis, Robert Realicide, Will Armstrong, Brandt/Parker/Nathan/Janelle/Aaron/Matt/Wolves Crew, Bryan/Mitch/Thou, Josh/Meredith/Kari/Shoppers, Cory/Chris/Protestant, all the bands we played with, all the people who came to the shows, participated, hung out, picked up some merch or records, etc.
Yeah... If you read all this, I hope it wasn't too boring. Thanks!

-R

Upcoming show flyers.

In other news, my record store, Justice Records, is going out of business. A lot a stress and frustration lately, but what better way to channel all of that than into angry, dark, fast, heavy music. I can't wait for our little weekend tour and for the next ones that we book.
Much love.

-R

Dawn breaks but it isn't a new day
Men like sheep, women like mice
All caught in the rat race
Take a closer look at what's going on today
Are you really justified in having nothing to say?
Are you really justified in having nothing to say?
Are you not aware of a feeling of humiliation?
Don't you have to sell yourself and keep on saying "Sir"
Are you really satisfied that everything's O.K.?
Conditioned from the start and controlled from all directions
Swamped by a normality that musn't be questioned
Ignorance is only a form of self-deception
Are you really justified in having nothing to say?
Are you really justified in having nothing to say?
Take a closer look at what's going on today
Are you really satisfied that everything's O.K.?
Cos perhaps after all too much thinking doesn't pay!
Perhaps after all too much thinking doesn't pay!
Perhaps after all too much thinking doesn't pay!
Perhaps after all too much thinking doesn't pay!
Perhaps after all too much thinking doesn't pay!

3-Way Split LP and upcoming shows!

Hey all! Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been in the middle of moving, and it was a stressful one. Madison has been traversing the countryside, and Adrian has been, well, Adrian... skating and being a general mysterious-type Pokemon.

The Cloud Rat/Oily Menace/Wolbachia records are at the pressing plant and should be here in August! Woop! That last post that Madison did is a preview, with one track from each band. Check it out.

Upcoming shows:
8/14 - Rat Storm, Failed @ Justice Records. Mount Pleasant, MI
9/1 - Hate, more @ Albion House. Chicago, IL
9/2 - TBA. Milwaukee, WI
9/3 - Wolves In The Throne Room, Thou, Beneath Oblivion @ Mockbee. Cincinnati, OH
9/4 - Shoppers, more. Toledo, OH
9/5 - Wolves In The Throne Room, Thou, Beast In The Field, Isenblast @ Olde Jamestowne Hall. Saginaw, MI

We are possibly doing an East Coast tour with our friends Pizza Hi-Five sometime in October. We will keep you posted on that if it works out!

Shout outs to all of our new friends in Buffalo for being the best!

-R

Michigan is calling me.

GTG

http://www.grindtodeath.com/zine/girls-that-grind-part-4.html


Note: Edited because Madison won't post clickable links. BOOYAH.

Video, records, abscesses, hangover.

Here is the video of our split set with Inerds at Buffalo Vaggie Fest #2 last sunday. This was such an awesome time. Thank you to Brit, Corey, Moezes, everyone involved with the food and what not. All the bands seriously killed. Inerds, Shoppers, Human Touch, Coworkers, Hoglust, Total Babes, Amber Alert, Mayday, and more all so fucking good.



And here is the link to the video: http://youtu.be/5NoYr4oTaRM
There are pictures floating around from the fest as well. I will see if I can get some up on here.

Apologies to everyone in Toledo for not being able to play last night. Adrian and I's other band, Under Anchor, filled Cloud Rat's spot. The show was off the hook. Our dear Madison is still stuck in Buffalo and it's totally her fault, so everyone give her shit for it Hahaha. Though, apparently she had to go to the hospital last night because she has an abscess the size of a marble in her throat. Bum deal. I am so confused about this, because Adrian had the same thing only three or four months ago when we were on tour with Disconnected. I hope I'm not next!!! Feel better Maddy, love you.

The Oily Menace / Wolbachia split is almost here. The lacquer has been cut and it is getting sent to the pressing plant. I can't wait! Xtra Vomit finished recording their (e)xtra songs for the split, so that will be coming along very soon. The split 7" with Autarkeia is official, and will be out end of summer/fall? All the recordings are done, just gotta get art and what not around. Cool.

We are going to start booking tours within the next couple weeks. Hope to see some of you on the road!!!

-R

Upcoming shows, records, and stuffs.

BUNCH O' STUFF! FUCK YES SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!

I almost died this winter. I got so depressed. Time to be up and motivated!!

Shows:

May 15th - Panzram (FL), Escalator (CT), Cloud Rat @ Thunderdome in Grand Rapids MI

May 25th - Clitfest Benefit show w/ Crow's Foot(FL), Nothing But Weeds (MI), Dandelion Snatch (MI), Cloud Rat @ Thunderdome in Grand Rapids MI

May 26th - Crow's Foot(FL), Frandy (MI), Cloud Rat @ Justice Records in Mt Pleasant, MI

June 10th - Fruit Punch (PA), Inerds (NY), Flies (OH), Not My Problem (OH), Cloud Rat @ Tower 2o12 in Cleveland OH

June 11th - Bixa (IL), Cloud Rat, More TBA @ Funeral Home in Buffalo NY

June 12th - Buffalo Vaggie Fest #2 w/ Mallwalkers, Mayday!, Inerds, Coworkers, Amber Alert, Utah Jazz, Hoglust, Total Babes, Shoppers, Human Touch, Cloud Rat @ Ellicot Creek Park in Buffalo NY

June 17 - As Good As Dead (OH) [Reunion], Wind Of Death (OH), Break (OH), Disconnected (OH), Cloud Rat @ Mickey Finn's in Toledo OH

June 29th - Code Orange Kids (PA), Kingdom (PA), Cloud Rat, More TBA @ 336 Henry in Grand Rapids MI
July 2nd - Gowl, Stone Titan, Total Hipster Crusher, Faction Disaster, Cloud Rat, more @ TBA, Howell MI

And that's it for now. Some tours will be booked for the late summer and fall. We will probably have some new shirts and stuff for all of these too.

Both split LPs are nearing completion! The artwork is being worked on as we speak. I know it has taken quite a while for these to come together, but I am really excited about all of this material. There has been talk of doing a split 7" with some friends of ours from Florida, we will keep everyone updated when we know more!

We have been busy writing again as well! We will be sitting on this material for a while, but it is all turning out really fucking sick!

Thank you to everyone who has had such nice things to say about us. We are really excited about all of the upcoming releases and shows, and it just makes it that much better to hear people have positive things to say.

GO TO GRINDCORE KARAOKE AND DOWNLOAD ALL OF THE AWESOME FUCKING BANDS!

-R

“My emotions are inappropriate for my size. My emotions are my demons.” – Louise Bourgeois

Cloud Rat on Grindcore Karaoke

We will be digitally releasing (for free) all of our material through Grindcore Karaoke alongside the physical releases as they come out. Here is the link to our self titled LP!

http://www.grindcorekaraoke.com/album/s-t-lp

Make sure to check out all of the other bands on there as well, every one of them are fucking killer!

fuck you Rorik

american aftermath review

http://americanaftermath.net/2011/04/17/cloud-rat-grindcore-karaokes-newest-grinders/

:D