The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departed
My love for The Rural Alberta Advantage is not really a secret. Their full-length, Hometowns, held a very special place in my record player, and it was easily one of my most-listened albums of 2009, when it was reissued. When Departed was announced, I became, well, a little giddy. I don’t think this should come as too much of a surprise — I get giddy at the merest mention of new things from bands I enjoy, and when it’s a band I have an unabashed affection toward, make no mistakes: I’m like a little school girl. Well, I mean, I’m like a little school girl in some respects, not all.
At any rate, I snagged an e-mail this morning from Paper Bag Records advertising a track from the upcoming Departed, which is due out March 1. I jumped from the couch I’d fallen asleep on, grabbed my laptop, and the listening took off.
The track is “Stamp,” and it takes The Rural Alberta Advantage forward on the same path they’d been forging with their excellent 2008-2009 outing. “Stamp” is brash effort in the vein you’d expect from the group, but there’s something fresh here. There’s an apparent cynicism that belies the innocence of Hometowns; the tone is brazenly sardonic. Instrumentally, this is essentially par for the course, though there are some new elements that really help the track succeed. We’ve still got the little bits of silence you’ve come to expect,
Snag the track on Paper Bag Records or via Saddle Creek Records above.
Tour dates
December 15 – Hamilton, ON – The Casbah
December 16 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
December 17 – Montreal, PQ – Il Motore
December 18 – Ottawa, ON – Ritual Nightclub
January 12 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge (sold out)
March 9 – Cambridge, MA – Middle East Cafe
March 10 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
March 11 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
March 12 – Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory
March 13 – Washington, DC – Rock ‘n Roll Hotel
March 14 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
March 15 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
March 17-19 – Austin, TX TBA SXSW
March 20 – Dallas, TX The Loft
March 22 – Ames, IA – Maintenance Shop at Iowa State University
March 23 – Milwaukee, WI – Mad Planet
March 24 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
March 25 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
March 26 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall