In 2022, the Rural Alberta Advantage released their first new music in five years, an EP called The Rise, which was supposed to be the first in a three-part series of releases planned for the rest of that year. While that didn’t end up happening, the Canadian trio has kicked off 2023 with a new song, “Plague Dogs,” which they’re putting out ahead of some tour dates that start next month.

“Being a child of the 80’s the movie Watership Down was long ago seared into my brain, and it was in 2019 that I came across one of Richard Adams’ other novels Plague Dogs,” the band’s Nils Edenloff explained in a statement, continuing:

Having read ‘Watership Down’ and ‘Shardick’ when I first moved to Toronto, I found myself drawn to Plague Dogs, and found the title creeping into a song we were playing around with in early 2020.
 
The song doesn’t end up following the events of the novel in any way, but it underscores the specific time frame that we started to work on this song. The feelings of dread, uncertainty and isolation that I felt while reading the novel, along with the eerily similar feelings around early on in the pandemic are so tightly coupled with this song that it all feels like one for me.

Check it out below.

TOUR DATES:
02/23 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
02/24 Milwaukee, WI @ Shank Hall
02/25 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café
02/26 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
02/28 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
03/02 Kansas City, MO @ recordBar
03/03 St. Louis, MO @ Old Rock House
03/04 Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi
03/22 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
03/23 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
03/24 Woodstock, NY @ Levon Helm Studios
03/25 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
03/27 Washington DC @ Songbyrd
03/28 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
03/29 Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
03/31 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
04/01 Detroit, MI @ El Club
04/02 London, ON @ Rum Runners
06/16 Beaumont, AB @ Beaumont Blues & Roots
07/06 Calgary, AB @ Wildhorse Saloon Stampede Party

“Plague Dogs” is out now via Saddle Creek.