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The Rural Alberta Advantage, MIddle East, Wednesday 8/5
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In the last year, The Rural Alberta Advantage has quickly moved from self-releasing their debut album, "Hometowns," in relative obscurity, to being picked for an Emusic.com showcase, to being signed to famed indie label Saddle Creek, to playing a much-hyped set at SXSW, to seeing their re-released disc get a rave review from Pitchfork.
So is this group just another overhyped flavor of the month that quickly came out of nowhere and will just as quickly be forgotten? Or do they have the songs and skills to last? Judging from the strength of "Hometowns," I'd say they are quite likely to be around for a long time.
As has been mentioned in virtually everything ever written about the band, guitarist/vocalist Nils Edenloff's howling singing sure does sound like that of indie rock legend Jeff Mangum. But the trio's music is percussive folk, with a quiet yet soaring melodicism that is more like Frightened Rabbit than Neutral Milk Hotel, evoking the wide-open skies of Western Canada.
Lyrically, don't expect Magnum-style wild-eyed poetic leapings, but rather simpler romantic laments and tales of longing. On their website, they describe themselves thusly: "The Rural Alberta Advantage play indie-rock songs about hometowns and heartbreak, born out of images from growing up in Central and Northern Alberta. They sing about summers in the Rockies and winters on the farm, ice breakups in the spring time and the oil boom’s charm, the mine workers on compressed, the equally depressed, the city’s slow growth and the country’s wild rose, but mostly the songs just try to embrace the advantage of growing up in Alberta."
Live? This is a good sample.
Also on the bill tonight is Joshua English, accompanied by violist Lisa Molinaro (of talkdemonic, and who recently toured with the Decemberists) as well as Baby Teeth, and Jennifer Greer.
At the Middle East upstairs. 18+, $9.
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