Local Rabbits were a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band, active in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Background

Based in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, the band consisted of vocalists and guitarists Peter Elkas

Peter Elkas

Peter Elkas is a Canadian singer-songwriter, signed to MapleMusic Recordings. He spent twelve years as part of the Montreal band Local Rabbits, with whom he started playing as a teenager...

 and Ben Gunning, bassist Ryan Myshrall and drummer Jay Tustin. They released two albums on Murderecords

Murderecords

Murderecords is an independent record label that releases the music of the Canadian rock band Sloan. Originally formed in 1992 to produce just the records of that band, it later released work of other bands including Eric's Trip, The Hardship Post, Al Tuck, Stinkin' Rich, Hip Club Groove, The...

 before signing to Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

 indie label Brobdingnagian for their third and final album.

Their second album, Basic Concept, reached #1 on the Canadian campus radio

Campus radio

Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...

 charts in 1998.

The band toured with The Super Friendz

The Super Friendz

The Super Friendz are a band from Halifax, Nova Scotia, active between 1994 and 1997, reforming in 2003. Contemporaries of Sloan, their early work was on Sloan's Murderecords label.-Origins:...

, The Inbreds

The Inbreds

The Inbreds were a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1992. Originally from Kingston, Ontario, Canada the band relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1996. Three of the four albums released during the band's existence reached number one on the Canadian national university charts, and the band...

, Thrush Hermit

Thrush Hermit

-History:Thrush Hermit was formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1992 by Joel Plaskett , Rob Benvie , Ian McGettigan , and Michael Catano...

, Kelley Deal 6000 and Sloan

Sloan (band)

Sloan is a Toronto-based alternative rock quartet from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Throughout their 20-year tenure Sloan has released 10 LPs , two EPs, a live album, a "best of" collection and no less than thirty singles...

, and performed as Neko Case

Neko Case

Neko Case is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her solo career and her contributions as a member of the Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers....

's backing band on several Lilith Fair

Lilith Fair

Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. It...

 dates.

The band broke up following 2001's This Is It Here We Go, although they reunited in 2007 to record a track for the Rheostatics

Rheostatics

Rheostatics was a Genie Award-winning Canadian indie rock band, active from 1980 to 2007.Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been...

 tribute album The Secret Sessions

The Secret Sessions

The Secret Sessions is a tribute album to Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics, released March 16, 2007 through the web label Zunior. The album was released to coincide with the band's farewell show scheduled for March 30, and features Canadian indie rock artists performing Rheostatics songs...

. Elkas and Gunning have each pursued solo careers, Myshrall has been a member of Clark

Clark (band)

CLARK the band was an indie rock band operating out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.The band was formed in Ottawa in 1999 by John Tielli who sang, played guitar and composed....

, Tricky Woo and is currently in the band Sister with Carla and Lynette Gillis of Plumtree, and Tustin was in Soft Canyon and worked as a carpenter on Debbie Travis' Facelift

Debbie Travis' Facelift

Debbie Travis' Facelift was a home improvement reality television show that ran from January 28, 2003 to December 30, 2005. It was produced in Canada for Home & Garden Television and also aired in the United States on the American version of the network, Home & Garden Television...

.

Reunification

Gunning, Elkas & Myshrall reunite on an occasional basis as "Oldies 990" in Toronto.

"In a strange turn of events stemming (I think) from a sentence I uttered many moons ago to Ryan while I was feeling submerged in my own project and having recently enjoyed the song "Charlie Brown" by the Coasters - "Everything I do is so artistically calculated - I want to play songs that I can perform drunk and just have fun" - we find ourselves paying together once again in a cover band called Oldies 990 with Gavin Maguire on the drums. Due to Ryan's idea to follow through and form the band on that premise with Peter, we have actually begun performing in Toronto, armed with a repertoire of tunes from 1955-65 (roughly), none of which contain any minor chords. It is not only a cathartic experience as my quote foreshadowed but it has been a real treat playing with these great friends again." - Ben Gunning

Discography

• The Super Duper EP (1993)
• Put on Your Snowsuit, You Are Going to Hell! (1994), 7"
• You Can't Touch This (1995)
• Basic Concept (1998)
• This Is It Here We Go (2001)