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9 in '09: THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE

Source: By Tabassum Siddiqui, AOL.ca

Posted: 12/29/08 2:51PM

Filed Under: Music

Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ottawa Ontario, Feb 17th, 2008

If you’re bored of the same-old indie-rock, well, join the club. Luckily for cynical hipsters everywhere, while The Rural Alberta Advantage may boast much of the necessary criteria to join the Pitchfork-approved club (Twee name? Check. Jangly tunes? Yep. Slow-burn online following? You got it.), there’s nothing at all ironic or contrived about their indie-pop ballads about hometowns and heartbreak—universal themes if there ever were any.

But singer/guitarist Nils Edenloff’s story-songs stand out because of their careful attention to detail, in the way he sketches out memories from his own Prairies-raised background. Woodhands drummer Paul Banwatt and singer/keyboardist Amy Cole round out the group, which has gained increased attention over the past year, but has yet to break out beyond its hometown borders.

That’s about to change, thanks to their recent selection as a featured artist on the popular eMusic site, which has resulted in increased sales of their debut album, Hometowns, and opened up touring possibilities as well—in addition to some select Canadian dates (Kingston, Ottawa, and Montreal), the band are scheduled to hit NYC in January, with more U.S. dates to come in February and March. Cole says the band also hopes to record new material with Hometowns producer Roger Leavens with an eye towards releasing an EP sometime in ’09. Often dubbed “the best unsigned band in Canada,” the RAA are currently considering their record-label options, but haven’t decided whether or not they even want to go that route.

Though they’ve managed to create plenty of buzz entirely on their own thus far, the band may very well find themselves fielding plenty of industry suits’ business cards when they play their first big showcase at the Canadian Music Week festival in March.

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