The RAA took my baby away
I hate watching light filter through my curtains in the morning. Because that’s when I’m trying to sleep. I looked at blackout curtains, but they were kind of expensive. So I made my own. I bought a fabric shower curtain from Ikea and used a stapler to attach a big piece of black fabric I bought at Wal-Martingtons, then hung it in my bedroom window. Now, when I go to sleep at 5 a.m. and wake up at 12 noon, the sunshine don’t bother me. If only I could fashion tiny muzzles for the birds.
For the most part, the night shift agrees with me. I like staying up late. There’s mystery and a cool, quiet dignity in the night. Sure, it’s punctuated by drunken frat boys trying to hail cabs by throwing themselves on the hood, but for the most part, it’s a calm oasis compared to the oppressively muggy heat of the southern Ontario day. And it gives me an opportunity to get a lot of running around done in the late afternoon. Were I so inclined. I am usually so far inclined in the other direction that I’m bent.
But one thing the night shift doesn’t agree with is my social life. For the last 5+ years, I have missed more concerts and shows than I can count. I can’t take part in any groups that meet at night, playing recreational sports like baseball or soccer or ultimate frisbee or roller derby (I have such an awesome name planned that I need to join a league like, right now) is unheard of, and I never get to sit on a patio at 5 p.m. drinking cold ones. Mourn my loss, for as Strong Bad says, a one that is not cold is scarcely a one at all.
I know I should not sleep all day and let the afternoon pass me by. And yet, I do. And the Rural Alberta Advantage understands this. I know they do, because on their incredible indie CD Hometowns, they have a song called Sleep All Day that I find absolutely charming. It’s dreamy and easy, exactly like waking up at noon and watching the clouds crawl across a palate of blue sky that instantly lets you know you’ve wasted what many people think is the best part of the day. It’s a decadent slice of music that recalls mornings and afternoons spent lounging in bed with the crossword or a novel and black, black coffee.
My office is so close to the Rural Alberta Advantage show at the Albion Tuesday night that if I sat at the intern’s corner desk and opened the window, somebody sitting on the upstairs patio could pass me a beer and I could watch them play from the office. That would be heaven. Or hell, considering the Merc’s sweetest sin of a cranked AC unit.
The dreamy, ethereal aspect of their music continues in my other favourite song from Hometowns, Frank, AB. When I was a kid, my family would take epic road trips from my small Saskatchewan hometown to the west coast. I clearly remember two rural Alberta cities we’d pass through: Medicine Hat (where I’d later live and work) because they had a huge waterslide park we got to stop at, and Frank. When we’d pass through there, my dad would tell us the story of the Frank slide.
Frank is a mining town in the Crows Nest Pass. In April of 1903, 74 million tonnes of limestone crashed from the tippy top of Turtle Mountain, covering about three square kilometres of the valley and killing about 70 people who lived on the south side of the town. They only ever recovered a few of the bodies and after my dad told me about this tragedy, I would lay in the dark of our huge canvas tent when we pulled over to camp for the night, huddling in my sleeping bag and dreaming of what it would be like to be smothered by rock and rubble and be a ghost haunting a one-horse mining town. Sometimes, I dream about it still. It’s heartening then, that this band dreams of it, too, and in fact, wrote a love song about it. Yes, it’s a love song about a rock slide. Deal with it.
All props due to Emmet at A Bulldozer With a Wrecking Ball Attached, who recently mentioned Rural Alberta Advantage. I knew they had a show coming up at the Albion (because I’m there every weekend), but a reminder is a reminder and he’s a far better rock writer than I. Even if he does go on about the Batman a lot.
Speaking of bands Emmet has written about…
I was first introduced to The Summerlad while living in Regina and working on a video project for school with a local concert promoter I knew from my student newspaper days. Said promoter was from Flin Flon and my job was to follow him around for a day or two to capture his “invisible challenge” on tape. Why, yes, I DID think it was a stupid assignment. But hey, I thought, I can at least hang out with somebody cool while I do this. So I followed him around downtown Regina on a crisp fall day while he put up posters for an upcoming Summerlad show. Little did I know that years later, I would be living in Calgary and my best friend would be dating a fellow Flin Flonian. Said fellow was great friends with Dean Martin (Hey pally!), the drummer for the Summerlad. And the Ex-Boyfriends. And The Martin-Fulton Overkill. Dean and his beloved were also from Flin Flon and they all knew the same music promoter. Cue It’s a Small World.
The Lads have been churning out quality music for about as long as I have been of a mind to seek it out. They are easily one of Calgary’s best acts and I salute their stamina and drive. Once, on Dean’s birthday, I saw him drum with every one of his bands at Calgary’s Broken City. It was an evening of great, loud, loud, loud music. Did I mention it was loud? It was quite the feat and I haven’t seen so much unabashed love of music from anyone since. The group recently won a spot at Calgary’s Virgin Music Festival, and besides The Flaming Lips, their Sunday slot is one of the only things I wouldn’t miss from that fest. You heard it here first. You would be a fool to miss either of those sets. A fool.
I’m heartily endorsing their single, City of Noise as one of the best songs of the year. It’s different than what I’m used to hearing from them at shows in Cow Town (epic, sprawling, mystical adventures of songs almost too big for the venues they were playing) but it’s really driving and the chorus so shout-worthy (Hey! You Rockers! Hey! You Shockers!) that there is absolutely no reason for this song not to become THE summertime jam of ‘O8.
The Summerlad plays the Casbah in Hamilton, tomorrow, and if you’re up for a crushing blow of diehard music fans, head to Toronto’s NXNE and visit the Boat Thursday, June 12 where you can and should see BOTH The Summerlad AND the Rural Alberta Advantage rock the, um, boat.
NXNE is a huge juggernaut you can barely hope to contain. But there’s a shit-ton of good music to be had there if you can juggle your schedule appropriately to see everything you want to see. I’d probably go nuts doing that, so I’d settle for picking one or two of my faves. Like Toronto’s the Action Makes, a hot mess of rock n’ rollers who will storm the barn, burn it down and raise a few spirits for a ghoulish hoedown. They remind strongly of the Black Lips and the Deadly Snakes. Check out their song Charley and the CFF for good, rollickin’ times. It makes me want to throw down shots and drink beer and dance in a sweaty tangle of bodies. Soooo. . . maybe I’ll see you at the Silver Dollar Friday, June 13.
The RAA - Sleep All Day: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The RAA - Frank, AB: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The Summerlad - City of Noise: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
