Tag: Indie rock

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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 2003: #14 The New Pornographers “From blown speakers”

<< #15    |    #13 >>

I’ve said it before and it’ll likely come up again: I was an avid user of Ottawa’s public library services back in the early 2000s.

I didn’t have a lot of money after relocating to Canada’s capital so almost as soon as I updated my drivers license with my new address, I checked out the main branch to start borrowing books. When I discovered they also loaned DVDs and CDs, I started borrowing those as well, often spending hours perusing their virtual shelves on their website for material to request and consume. The three week loan period for CDs allowed for plenty of opportunity to explore and to discover music before making a decision to purchase for the long haul.

I’d previously heard friends talk about The New Pornographers so when I saw the library had one of their albums in their collection, I put in the request and didn’t even have to wait that long for it to arrive at my local branch for pickup. So in this way, “Electric version” was my introduction to Canada’s indie rock supergroup. Of course, I only really googled them for more info after they made a great first impression and I learned then of their background and the various members’ collective experience as part of the Vancouver area music scene. Of their membership, I’d only heard of Dan Bejar (of Destroyer) and Neko Case before, the latter from my friend Tim, who I think was in love with her at the time, and thinking back, he was probably one of the friends that had talked up The New Pornos as well.

“Electric version” was the group’s sophomore record and was seen by those familiar with “Mass romantic” as a tighter and more polished effort, the sound of a real group finding its footing, rather than a collective of individual artists collaborating on a one-off piece, which is what many expected the debut to be. On the followup, there were lots of catchy power pop gems to shake sticks at, but none as immediately captivating as track two.

“Just a contact high, one in every mood I’ve ever declined to fight
One in every single exchange you might find
From blown speakers, time came out magical”

“From blown speakers” is just shy of three minutes and features call and answer guitars and keys, as well as Carl Newman harmonizing with the lovely Neko Case and a plethora of exclamation marks on the snares. It’s an obvious high that we never wanted to come down from.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.