Adam's Organizer Pick of the Month!!!

AND IT'S FREE!!!!!

What: Red Red Meat with the Rural Alberta Advantage
Where: Jay Pritzker Pavilion (exact location to be determined, look for the meetup sign)
When: August 24 @ 6:00 PM
Cost: Absolutely nothing!
Event Website: http://www.millennium...

In what seems like another backwards billing, the Rural Alberta Advantage is back in Chicago, once again opening up for a band that has already had their time in the spotlight. Red Red Meat's 1994 album "Bunny Gets Paid" was monumental for the band (Sub Pop just reissued the album this year), and their now getting back together after their break up in the late 90's. Though their sound is different from today's electropop era of indie rock, it's sure to delight you. If you're in for some local music pride and a bit of nostalgia, then stick around for Red Red Meat.

However, my "Organizer's Pick of the Month" really applies to the Rural Alberta Advantage, a trio of Candadian 20-somethings from Toronto. I found their 2008 release "Hometowns" while browsing eMusic one day in late December. They were the featured "Indie" band, and at the time, a truer label could not have been applied. Their album was entirely self-produced, and I was captivated immediately, and quickly declared it to be my favorite album of 2008. Since then, they appeared at SXSW, signed with Saddle Creek Records (awesome), and re-released their album with proper promotion. Now that they're "proper," they're getting the attention of Pitchfork and just about every other indie outlet is gushing over them. I'm glad I knew them before they hit it big.

The lyrics are sweet, bringing about long forgotten memories, blended with the comforting sound of acoustic guitars, xylophones, with an energetic drum beat to pulls it all together. Obvious lines can be drawn between front man Nils Edenloff and the Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum. But that comparison has been worn out already. Surely, their abrasive, yet haunting, voices can be called similar, but it ends at that. The RAA's sound is their own, one that encompasses the best that today's indie rock has to offer. The Rural Alberta Advantage is chiseling it's name in the indie-rock pantheon, as well as in our hearts. I look forward to what they have to offer in their later releases, and hopefully they'll headline Chicago one day.

the RAA's website: http://www.theraa.com...
the RAA's myspace: http://www.myspace.co...

Red Red Meat's myspace: http://www.myspace.co...