Category: Vinyl

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Rural Alberta Advantage “Departing”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Rural Alberta Advantage
Album Title: Departing
Year released: 2011
Details: Black vinyl, 180 gram

The skinny: The sophomore record by Toronto-based indie folk-rock trio, The Rural Alberta Advantage, was released the year after I discovered them at Ottawa’s Bluesfest and then, fell in love with their debut. “Departing” is the logical next step in the band’s progression so it wasn’t a big leap for me to fall for it as well. The production is crisper and cleaner but it doesn’t take away from the raw energy and crazed percussion that made their first effort so hard to pull away from. Nils Edenloff’s rough hewn sneer is set against Amy Cole’s gentle backing echo, lyrics that paint love stories and memories of home. I only got this 180 gram, original pressing of the record recently, completing my collection of the band’s work (for now). The packaging is very similar aesthetically to the debut (which I featured in last weekend’s post), but the album cover is one of my favourites, a very Canadian image indeed.

Standout track: “Tornado 87”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Rural Alberta Advantage “Hometowns”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Rural Alberta Advantage
Album Title: Hometowns
Year released: 2009
Details: Black vinyl

The skinny: I saw The Rural Alberta Advantage live for the first time at Ottawa Bluesfest in 2010, before I had ever listened to any of their recordings. I was so impressed by their crazy blend of folk/country, punk, and simply wicked percussion, that I immediately afterwards sought out their debut album, “Hometowns”, and then, proceeded to see them live twice more in the span of the following year. The Toronto-based trio of Nils Edenloff, Amy Cole, and Paul Banwatt fast became a favourite of mine so when I found a copy of this debut album at the now-defunct Record Shaap, I quickly made it part of my collection. And this, in 2012, in my collections’s early days, back when it was in the single digits and before I had even purchased my turntable. I still spin this original, plain black pressing with regularity because it is simply an excellent collection of raw rockers.

Standout track: “Don’t haunt this place”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Rolling Stones “Hot rocks 1964-1971”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Rolling Stones
Album Title: Early tracks
Year released: 1971
Year reissued: 2021
Details: RSD2021 drop 2 exclusive, 2 x translucent yellow vinyl, OBI strip, 2 8.5 x 11″ lithographs, limited to 7200 copies

The skinny: Yesterday, I posted about a Rolling Stones Record Store Day exclusive I was handed for free back in 2019 and today’s feature is a (definitely not free) exclusive that I purchased on this year’s second drop a couple of weeks ago. “Hot rocks 1964-1971” was a compilation that was released 50 years ago and was my own introduction to some of the band’s great early work. I bought a copy of it on cassette with my own money as a teenager because I recognized a few of the song titles from listening to oldies radio while riding in the family car with my parents. Well, after years of listening to this cassette, almost to the point of wearing it out, I knew all of these tracks intimately. I’m pretty sure I still have the cassette in the basement somewhere but with nothing to play it on, adding the record to my vinyl collection became something of a mission for me. I had seen it in shops before but had passed it over and then, regretted doing so. When I saw it announced as an RSD exclusive this year, it became my only target. I won’t lie, it wasn’t cheap. But the colour is lovely, the pressing is sweet, and the lithograph reproductions are a nice touch. And oh yeah, an OBI strip!

Standout track: “Sympathy for the devil”