Tag: Alternative

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Rural Alberta Advantage “The rise and the fall”

(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: The rise and the fall
Year released: 2023
Details: Limited edition, gatefold sleeve, grey

The skinny: Tonight will mark only the second indoor concert I’ve attended since the beginning of the pandemic. I’ve had my eye on the show since it was announced in the fall, finally pulled the trigger on a ticket last month, and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since. Sure, I’ve seen the Toronto-based indie rock trio three times already, but the last time was almost nine years ago, and each of their performances have been incredible and memorable. Of course, I’ve been listening to them pretty much non-stop over the past week, including spinning their latest record on the trusty turntable. The Rural Alberta Advantage’s fifth album, “The rise and the fall”, didn’t quite make my top ten for 2023 but I definitely made sure to list it among my honourable mentions for the year. And when I saw it on the shelves at Rotate This during my marathon vinyl store shopping spree on Boxing Day, I didn’t hesitate to rescue it for my collection. As I said in that aforementioned post back in December, it is so much “more of the frenetically told tales of Canadian minutiae that we know and love”.

Standout track: “AB bride”

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2013: #22 The Veils “Another night on Earth”

<< #23    |    #21 >>

At the end of last year while counting down my favourite albums of the year, I noted that there wasn’t nearly enough references to and content devoted to The Veils, and that I really wanted to rectify that situation. Well, as luck would have it, the next song up on my list of favourite tunes from 2013 is by the very same band.

I had been following the London, England (by way of Auckland, New Zealand) -based band for almost a decade already by the time their fourth record came out. I’d loved every single song I’d heard by The Veils. There just weren’t enough superlatives in the English language to describe their style, the battle of darkness and light, the theatricality, the imagery made palpable by sound, and above all, the passion and emotion of their frontman, songwriter and principal vocalist, Finn Andrews. He was a storyteller in the vein of Lou Reed and Nick Cave, but for some reason, I connected with him much more than I did the other two.

“Time stays, we go” was in no way a letdown from the previous three. It’s front cover was an arresting image of a familial home consumed by fire. The title was an encapsulation of one of Andrew’s oft-explored existential themes. The songs were by turns intense and light in sound but told stories and expressed feelings to which all of us can relate, like it or not.

The penultimate track on the album is this super upbeat number that starts off with a piano line that seems to be dancing away from its player. The drums, when they appear, are snappy and full of confetti. The guitars serve up a breeze to get everything fluttery and then carry upwards the exhaling trumpet sounds. It’s all a shade, however, because “Another night on Earth” is really a sad song posing as something happy, espousing the many ways the world can drag you down into the depths and pondering the worth of it all.

“I hope I don’t go ’til I’ve seen everything
I hope I don’t go ’til I’ve felt everything”

After it all, though, our hero Finn Andrews isn’t quite ready throw in the towel… and neither should any of us.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2013 list, click here.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 1993: #5 Teenage Fanclub “Hang on”

<< #6    |    #4 >>

I’ve previously shared words on how I discovered Scottish alt-rock quartet Teenage Fanclub while watching music videos on CityLimits back in 1991. It wasn’t long after this that someone in my group of friends picked up a copy of the band’s third album, “Bandwagonesque”, and I was able to record a copy to cassette for constant consumption in my walkman. To say that I became a fan of the fannies was only putting it mildly*. And I wasn’t the only one, obviously, because the album actually did surprisingly well here in North America. And although their success continued afterwards in Europe, interest mostly waned after ears were mostly tuned to everything coming out of Seattle.

For my part, I was practically foaming at the mouth when word came of the impending release of “Thirteen” and I wasn’t disappointed in the least**. I purchased it on compact disc as soon as I was able and put it through its paces, not caring in the least that the raw and often shambolic messes from the previous record had been cleaned up some, the juvenile pranks replaced by well-crafted pop songs, each tip-toeing along the razor wire between rough and smooth sounds. I caught these differences right away, with track one, “Hang on”, a beautiful (almost) ballad penned by Gerard Love.

“Been bought and I’ve been sold
And I’ve forgot what I’ve been told
And now I need someone”

Those are the words that kick off Love’s crooning. But before that, we are awoken by a muscular guitar lick and punishing drums to match. It builds in power, threatening some metal antics, drumming becomes rapid fire and guitars speed up towards thrash zone. And then suddenly, it all melts away into Beatle-esque heaven, complete with angelic harmonies to Love’s own soft touch. The muscular guitars are still there but they just a backdrop and then, when the flutes kick in towards the last third of the song, it doesn’t seem out of place at all. You just close your eyes and get lost in the melody.

*Indeed, it’s still my second favourite album in a great year for music releases.

**I also jumped at the chance a ticket to see them live for the tour for this album, with Yo La Tengo opening, my second ever concert!!!

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1993 list, click here.