Taking a cue from their new solo-sided double record, we let all four guys choose a record that influenced their songwriting.
In Essential Albums our favourite artists dig up five records that they consider “Essential” by any definition. This week, in honour of their new four-sided album Commonwealth, every member of Sloan gives us one album that has inspired their songwriting.
by Richard Trapunski
In the decades since they were touted as "the next Nirvana" in one of many "next Seattle"s, Sloan have established themselves as the opposite of a flavour of the month. Instead, they've been one of the most sturdy power pop bands in Canada, one of those groups that are so consistently good that you tend to take them for granted. In the last few years the band has thrown a few curveballs into their catalogue, releasing B-sides collections, double albums and hardcore 7-inches. Their latest, Commonwealth, gives each of the four members a full record side for their solo-written compositions.
Of course, even that seemingly experimental conceit isn't without its classic rock antecedents - that whole "let's see what each guy can do" thing has been tried by no less than KISS, The Who and, um, The Beatles - but Sloan certainly aren't the only once-iconoclastic "alternative" band to obscure their repressed music historical influences (as evidenced by Patrick Pentland's pick, below).
This is actually a natural step for Sloan. If you've ever been to one of their shows, you know their tendency to switch instruments between songs. If Commonwealth ever reaches Twice Removed full-album-runthrough status, it'll finally give the band a chance to stay in the same place on stage for more than a few songs at a time.
It also separates out each member's strengths and weaknesses and shows their hand in a way you don't often see from the harmony-laden group. Now you know who's the pub rocker, where the psych comes from, who writes the stickiest hooks, who gives the best pun. So, in the spirit of Commonwealth, we commissioned an Essential Album pick from each member of the group, plus a group pick from their manager.
Prince, Parade (1986)
Jay Ferguson: Parade by Prince boasts one of his last massive, crossover smash hits (“Kiss”), serves as the soundtrack to his first uneven film, Under The Cherry Moon (sadly, it would get worse with Graffiti Bridge), and was recorded during an era when he was writing and recording about four albums per year (his own, plus albums for Sheila E., The Family, Madhouse, etc.) as well as making films and touring. One would think that with this insane workload, the quality of his own work would slide. Not to my ears. Parade stands out as maybe my favourite of his awesome body of work.
Under the Cherry Moon
I think I was probably one of about nine people that saw Under The Cherry Moon when it played for a single week at the Penhorn Mall in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in 1986. One saving grace of the movie is that it provided a backdrop for Prince to perform songs from Parade. I was already a fan and I loved all the songs, but what made this record for me was the lack of stylistic uniformity from song to song, much like a Beatles LP. I think those types of albums end up being my favourite kind of records. I like to think that our Sloan LPs have that similar mode of gear changing over the course of a record. It’s just kind of incredible when it’s one person doing it all… and also playing most of the instruments.
My favourite story about the making of this LP is when Prince apparently walked into the studio, yelled “Fresh tape!” at his engineer Susan Rogers and proceeded to fasten a long sheet of lyrics to a mic stand. He sat down at the drums, and without a click track, played the drum tracks for the first four songs in a row without stopping, using only the lyric sheet as his guide. When he finished, he asked “Where’s my bass?” All these first takes were used and the LP was under way. I don’t even want to talk about how long it took me to record four songs for our new Sloan LP.
Sweet, Desolation Boulevard (US Version) (1974)
The Sweet - The Ballroom Blitz 1973
Chris Murphy: This version is quite different and much better than European version. The U.S. version essentially combines songs from the European version of Desolation Boulevard and songs from another Sweet album called Sweet Fanny Adams. Only two songs on the U.S. version of Desolation Boulevard are the same and a third song is the same but was re-recorded. The re-recorded song is “Fox On The Run” and really illustrates how a song can be made even better with amazing production [ed. note: here's the original & the re-recorded version]. “Ballroom Blitz” was a single that was on neither European album but is on the U.S. version. I actually don’t know why, when they made the track listing so different, that they bothered to still call the U.S. release Desolation Boulevard.
I love The Sweet and I feel like no one goes on about how awesome they sounded. Their lyrics were dumb but the music was fun with over the top production. If you don’t know them, they were a kind of cross between Mick Ronson-era Bowie and The Who with the harmonies of Queen. If you don’t know Bowie, The Who or Queen, I can’t have a conversation with you.
The Jesus And Mary Chain, Psychocandy (1985)
Patrick Pentland: Psychocandy was all the rage when I visited my family in Northern Ireland that Christmas. I became fascinated by The Jesus And Mary Chain and their sound, which seemed to combine everything I’d ever heard before, but chucked into a blender that they never bothered to switch off.
Jesus and Mary Chain-Taste the Floor
With an outer confidence that allowed them to insist they were the greatest band in history, and an obvious ear for a hook, they positioned themselves as the second coming of the Sex Pistols, a band they would go on to claim didn’t interest them at all. Equal parts sticky-syrup sweet and piercing metallic screech, the album captured everything that had been exciting about punk, and slammed it into a wall of classic pop. Having exhausted Bowie and AC/DC, and discovering punk and college rock, The Mary Chain stood out to me because they took everything that had come before, rejected it, and then secretly made it their own.
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Interview + Live London 1985
The first five seconds of “Taste the Floor” alone probably had the biggest impression on me in terms of the mayhem a guitar, a pedal, and an amp could cause. I’ve been ripping them off for 25 years.
Check out this interview with the band that Daniel Richler conducted in London when they were exploding. I videotaped it when it first aired, and watched it over and over again:
Guided by Voices, Bee Thousand (1994)
[Full Album] Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
Andrew Scott: Because it was so wrong yet so right and also so timely. Lo-fi upgraded, renovated and retrofitted by the masters of the genre. GBV weren't even thinking about any of that categorizational bullshit - they were just writing amazing music and recording it the way they always had done it.
Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)
Mike Nelson: As Sloan's manager, the task of nominating an essential album that Sloan would all agree upon has fallen to me. Perhaps surprisingly, this was not a difficult task.
Public Enemy-Don't Believe The Hype
Forensic evidence has determined that the first time that the four members of Sloan were in the same room was when Public Enemy performed a legendary show at the Dartmouth Sportsplex in 1989. Most likely bolstered by that fateful night, Public Enemy has always been a touchpoint of accord in the Sloan camp. Whether it was Public Enemy's performance, their righteous indignation, or the songs themselves, they entranced us all.
To this day, if Public Enemy is being played (loudly) through Sloan's stereo, you can be guaranteed that we are celebrating a great show, a shared accomplishment, or that wonderful moment when we have successfully finished a tour and the bus starts heading for home.
--taken from: CHARTattack
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