Okay, so here's the deal with a place called Alberta. It's basically like Minnesota, except that a lot of very talented people are born there and then move to Montreal. The Canadian Prairies—like the Midwest—were settled by Norwegians that would melt snow just by looking at it (true story), mostly because no one else would ever want to make a life there. One time, I asked Doldrums if he felt jealous of not being one of the Prairie expats in Montreal (they run the scene, btw). “Am I jealous of coming from a white-washed place with 10 months of winter per year?” was all he had to say to me.Having personally never lived in Alberta, it's hard to see what everyone is complaining about. That is, unless the talent drain is all encompassing and there is actually no-one with a functioning right side of the brain that doesn't get the fuck out of the province after high school.The reason why I'm writing about this is because this past weekend, I saw Rae Spoon play at the Plant, and they kept going on and on about how much the Prairies—and, especially, Alberta—suck quite a lot. What didn't suck at all, however, was their music. It had just the right amount of twee any Scandinavian-infused region could ask for, with all of the gender-bending, mind-exploding queer activism that Montreal is known for. Rae Spoon was raised by evangelical Christians and used to identify as a country musician. After a decade of being a trans-man, Spoon came out as a “they.” That's right, gender-mother-fucking-neutral pronouns are a thing in this city.Rae Spoon is probably the most badass and cute fan of The Smiths and Kraftwerk you will find. Also Leonard Cohen is from Montreal.@ggguillermo
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