Tag: 2009

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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: Camera Obscura “My maudlin career”

(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: Camera Obscura
Album Title: My maudlin career
Year released: 2009
Details: Black vinyl, gatefold sleeve

The skinny: For part three of this mini Vinyl Love series on Scottish indie pop band Camera Obscura, we have their fourth record and the first on 4AD, “My maudlin career”. After the success of “Let’s get out of this country”, the group decided to once again work with that album’s producer, Jari Haapalainen, and though the aesthetic and quality is similar, it’s far from being a lazy reproduction. Yet as much as I love all the delicious heartbreak, the original pressing of this album actually only came to be a part of my collection almost two years ago. It came to me on one of my last ever visits to the brick and mortar record stores in Toronto. I haven’t gotten to the Big Smoke as often as I would have liked in the last year and a half (for obvious reasons) and none of the few times that I did have afforded the opportunity to visit the shops. Things are looking up, though, and I’m feeling that those happy times will return soon… but I digress. This is an excellent album that gets the nostalgia flowing so it’s worth another spin.

Standout track: “French navy”