Strange Advance - World's Away 2WO The Distance Between

Many years ago I recall hearing a guy on the radio describe the song "Worlds Away" as Vancouver's unofficial anthem. A bit of a stretch, but my goodness it is an awesome song. Back in 1982 the trio of Drew Arnott, Darryl Kromm and Paul Iverson (an amazing guitar tech and luthier by the way) released their debut album Worlds Away. I remember hearing "She Controls Me" and thinking that was a really cool song. At the time I didn't get the album, but with a name like Strange Advance they were pretty memorable, and I would buy everything they ever released in real time, except that first album, unlike Pokemon, you really can't catch 'em all - but I did catch 'em all, including a long play for "Love Games" that I since lost to the ravages of time and poor drainage in the crawlspace.

In 1985 when Strange Advance released 2WO where once there were three, it was now just Drew and Darryl (they did add a whole band, including a real live drummer for their touring iteration). I was all over it, and songs like "We Run" and "The Second That I Saw You" and my personal favourite "Home of the Brave" were part of my soundtrack for a couple of years. 

Tangent Back in 1983 I met Ric deGroot who was just about to release Quickflight's Decent Beat (amazingly awesome record, which I'll be digging out now). I had a taped copy of a test pressing and his song "Water of Life" didn't yet have Paul Iverson's fretless bass intro. Ric would land a gig as a touring member of Strange Advance. When they were shooting the video for "We Run" he was pretty stoked. I remember him telling me, "I'll be the guy playing the mellotron." He's in there, dancing and playing. I got to be a fly on the wall when Ric brought me along to a rehearsal for Strange Advance's upcoming tour. It was an awesome experience, but I also felt like an uninvited guest. No one was unpleasant or even really acknowledge me, I tried to be out of the way. I think I left early. Still, it remains a pretty cool memory.

When the band dropped their "final" album in 1988 I got it on CD, as I'd gotten their Over 60 Minutes With ... back in 87, as their first two albums weren't available on CD which I always thought sucked, but Capitol records was doing a lot of Over 60 Minutes collections rather then releasing older albums from their vaults. They released The Distance Between in 1988 and while it was a little different than 2WO it was another really solid album, and although "Love Becomes Electric" was the song that got some radio play, there were some really great songs. The logical successor to "We Run" was "Who Lives Next Door" which was also sung by Drew, but I don't remember hearing it on the radio, although it was on a lot of my mix tapes as was their seven and a half minute opus "Alien Time"that closed out the album.

So here I am decades later, and I find not one, but two copies of Worlds Away in a the dollar bin. They were both in really great shape, and included inserts. I cleaned them up and one copy had a pop on "Worlds Away" that made me sad. I have a buddy who likes Strange Advance - he'd played a couple of songs in the car on the way to a rehearsal, so I figured he'd like a copy of the record. He did. Then a little while back I'm checking a discount bin, and there's The Distance Between, which I didn't even know came out on vinyl when it was released in 1988. How could I resist? I couldn't. So I didn't.

Their albums are still as cool as ever blending synth and progressive rock and elements along with acoustic instruments. The band also managed to snag wicked cameo performances on their albums. From Bryan Adams playing piano on "Worlds Away" to guitar players like Allan Holdsworth, Paul Dean, Steve Scott, Kenny Greer and Randy Bachman lending their chops. Peter Fredette and David Roberts ("Boy of Autumn") provided backing vocals. There are so many more, the guys were able to get top talent. It was really cool back in the day reading the credits to see who was guesting on various tracks.

They had a lot of very good songs, and while it would seem they peaked with their second album commercially; creatively they were still on an upward trajectory with their third album but there were changes on the horizon, and while a lot of bands in their wheelhouse kept going, Strange Advance would call it a day and blend into the fabric of Canadian rock.

Then after decades of radio silence Strange Advance quietly dropped their fourth album simply titled 4 (I guess it was good enough for Foreigner and even Huey Lewis, although he called his Fore!) and it was like they picked up where they left off. Darryl was on some songs, but many of the songs are Drew and a new band. Some of whom go back to their touring iteration.

Youth is indeed wasted on the young - or so said George Bernard Shaw, but I think it was put more succinctly by the two Johns: Flansburgh and Linnell from They Might Be Giants: You're older than you've ever been and now you're even older, and now you're older still. 

They guys are older, wiser, and actually better than they've ever been.