Thirty years. It’s an eternity in rock ‘n’ roll, and a marathon for the bands who fly its tattered flag. Revisit the class of 1988, and the casualties are piled high: a thousand bands that blew up and burnt out. In this chew-and-spit industry, the Spin Doctors are the last men standing, still making music like their lives depend on it, still riding the bus, still shaking the room. They’ve never been a band for backslaps and self-congratulation. Even now, plans are afoot for a seventh studio album and another swashbuckling world tour, adding to their tally of almost two thousand shows.
Bridging the worlds of chart success and defying musical genre conventions is a rare superpower that only happens once in a blue moon. For example, when the core of Strange Advance was formed in Vancouver in 1979 by Drew Arnott, Darryl Kromm, and Paul Iverson. Emerging in a sea of radio rock and burgeoning music video-aimed pop, Strange Advance remained steadfastly a band with many influences resulting in their own singular style. Creating three strong as steel albums from their haunting 1982 album debut with Worlds Away, the brilliant 1985 follow-up with 2wo, and the infectious and whip smart third album, The Distance Between (1988), they managed to go gold and land on the Canadian charts with singles like “We Run” and “Love Becomes Electric.” Strange Advance 4 continues this musical journey.
