This column is starting to feel like an obituaries page. After The Ostrich’s premature departure from the Calgary scene last week — the only upside of which was a raucous, mosh-heavy finale at The Palomino — I’d hoped to avoid being the bearer of bad news again. Unfortunately, this week holds another imminent exit by a local act. Despite the unfortunate spelling of their name, electro-pop duo A [Soh-shuhl] Art have been putting out some darned fine mixes of acoustic guitar and electronic elements — think The Postal Service, only totally different. If you’ve missed them up until now, you owe it to yourself to say goodbye this Saturday, August 30 at The House Coffee Sanctuary in Kensington. Here’s looking forward to the day when Calgary doesn’t keep driving its talent away.

As the local musicians flee, big name talent keeps coming in droves. Alt-country fans should be psyched that Ryan Adams is heading to the Saddledome on Saturday. The obscenely prolific songwriter seemed to be lacking a quality control filter for awhile there, but he’s found his stride along with the Cardinals, a backing band that can intuit his every move. He’ll be opening for Oasis, Britain’s most consistently boastful band, who’ll be releasing their new disc this fall. For all their Beatles-aping tendencies, Oasis seem to be following a Stones-ier career progression — front-loading their catalogue with classics, then letting their ambition get the better of them — but they definitely know their way around an arena.

Those who prefer their Britpop on the cutting edge (all right, it’s a stretch to call either of these bands Britpop, but I needed a segue) can duck out of the ’dome and head to The Marquee Room instead. Birmingham’s Beat Union mix Costello-style hooks with modern pop polish; their MySpace samples actually push the polish a bit far, but they seem like the type that’d take to a tiny club like naturals. Calgary’s Heat Ray will be there, in any case, so you really can’t go wrong.