Sloan Gather Up Rarities on B-Sides Win

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Stephen Carlick

After becoming one of Canada's most beloved indie bands of the '90s, Sloan are set to fill in some gaps in the record collections of their completist fans. Today the Halifax musical icons announced the release of a partner disc to 2005's best of collection A-Sides Win.

Straightforwardly titled B-Sides Win: Extras, Bonus Tracks and B-Sides 1992-2008, the collection gathers B-Sides, rarities and bonus tracks from throughout the bands career, including a rare version of their breakthrough hit "Underwhelmed," a Russian Futurists version of "Are You Giving Me Back My Love?" and a pile of tracks that only graced comps, Japanese editions and other hard-to-find releases.

The album is available in three digital formats (MP3, Apple lossless and FLAC), and is available from Sloan's official store right here for $9.99 (Canadian, of course).

As Sloan-er Jay Ferguson mentions in the press release, there's more to come: "Now, some hardcore Sloan followers may notice a couple omissions...but fear not, you completists!... we're hopefully planning for those specific tracks to see the light of day on our digital store as part of more releases in the future."

--taken from: Exclaim!

Sloan in Hollywood 02.21.2010

--taken from: Snowsuit Sounds (see more pictures here)

by Maggie


Winter sucks, especially in Boston. Last year going on the BNL cruise drastically improved the whole messy business that calls itself 'February,' and Simon and I were both pretty desperate to get a taste of some sunshine again this year. The question of where to go quickly resolved itself when the latest set of Sloan tour dates hit the internet. Should I go see my 7th Sloan show in Hollywood, California the day after my 25th birthday? Yes, please!

The show was on a Sunday, so we flew out in the middle of the previous week to give ourselves ample time for fun, sightseeing, and Simon's quest to find the perfect taco. This is a music blog, not facebook, so I'll spare you the myriad vacation pictures. LA is fabulous, and I spent the whole time wishing I lived there (yes, traffic and all). Being surrounded by palm trees and greenery in the middle of winter was amazing. We saw 2 shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, both of which featured one of my absolute favorite comedians, Mr. Paul F Tompkins. The second UCB show featured a bit (a lot) of my trademark awkwardness when I unexpectedly ran into Chris Murphy in the waiting list line. I'm not going to go into the gory details, let's just say that I'm a spaz and leave it that.

I also visited the best record store I have ever been to in my life. Amoeba Music in LA trumps every record store I've been to in NYC, Montreal, Boston, and everywhere in between. I made two trips there in two days, spending a total of around 5 hours and a lot of dollars in that place. If the trip had been longer, I probably would have doubled that. I ran into Chris again on the way to my second visit, which was somewhat less awkward, but still surprising. Chris, if by random chance you read this: I'm not a crazy person, I swear. I just like comedy and records and happen to be extremely awkward. Thanks for being so good-natured about it. Anyway, we agreed that Amoeba is indeed awesome and I told him that I'd be dragging Simon with me to the show that night.




Amoeba passing a very important test: Do they have any Sloan vinyls?

The show itself was, as always, fantastic. The openers were The World Record and Taylor Locke & The Roughs. The World Record in particular was really good. Sloan took the stage somewhere between 10:00 and 10:30, opening their set with 'Take It Upon Yourself' from their Hit & Run EP. The set was largely the same as the three Hit & Run shows I saw on the east coast back in December, only this time I knew the words to the new songs much better. They also, seemingly randomly, threw in Ready For You near the end of the set, which was unexpected and wonderful. The absense of Action Pact songs was one of my only issues with the setlist back in December, and Ready For You is always fun.

The encore was crazy awesome - five songs, special guests, and a really great time. 'So Beyond Me' and 'Stand By Me, Yeah' in particular were awesome treats, as I had never seen them play either of those songs live before and both are songs I love. There's never a bad time to hear 'Coax Me' or 'Good In Everyone' either, so that was also fantasticular. I'll post the complete setlist a the bottom of this entry, after the pictures.

Even Simon, who is emphatically not a fan of concerts he has to stand for (or, in general, music that's not the Great Big Sea or Ben Folds if we're being honest), had to admit that it was a fantastic show. I think he was even a little bit starstruck when Chris introduced himself and told him that he'd thought about doing a bit regarding the fact that I'd dragged him to the show. He'll deny it up and down if you ask him though, so who knows. I also got to add to my growing collection of Sloan t-shirts when I stopped by the table of merch guy extraordinnaire Jay Coyle who hooked me up with all kinds of awesome swag like buttons and stickers.

I also finally managed to get a setlist signed by all 4 Sloans (I was going to get Gregory to sign it as well, but he was talking to people and Simon wanted to leave and also my legs were ready to collapse from exhaustion - one day!). For a completist like myself, that's a pretty sweet victory. Enough babble though. Less talk, more rock:


--taken from: Snowsuit Sounds (see more pictures here)

Greg and Bubbles

Gregory with Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys

--taken from: Pot Culture's Lockerz

OPBmusic Studio Sessions

--taken from: OPBmusic (see videos and hear recordings here)

For nearly twenty years now, the Halifax-born, Toronto-based quartet Sloan have been writing note-perfect power pop songs, the kind often called Beatles-esque though they probably owe more to bands like Cheap Trick and Big Star. Over the course of nine full-length releases, they've also managed to become staples of Canadian radio, while maintaining a cultish underground following in the U.S. Even as the band's gotten on in years, they've managed a steady and prolific output, due perhaps in part to having four bonafide songwriters in the band-- a fact explicitly toyed with on 2008's Parallel Play.

Their latest release is a retrospective of sorts: the 26-track collection B-Sides Win: extras, bonus tracks and b-sides 1992-2008 (following, as you might recall, 2005's  A-Sides Win singles collection). It's a digital-only release available at the band's new on-line store (including a full streaming preview), and we talk to them about that shift in creative immediacy and commerce. They also manage to touch upon the Olympics, Kiss, George Lucas and Robin Zander, among other topics, along the way, and play a stripped down trio of songs spanning their catalog.

--taken from: OPBmusic (see videos and hear recordings here)

QUICK SPINS: Sloan, Jason Falkner

--taken from: Chicagoist

by Tankboy

In which we take a quick look at a few recent musical releases.

Sloan
B Sides Win: extras, bonus tracks and b-sides 1992-2008

Proper Sloan albums then to have more "hits" than most bands release over an entire career. Of course these "hits" never hit the U.S. charts, but that's not because the band isn't putting together absolute nuggets of solid pop gold. So it stands to follow that a compilation of the band's b-sides and rarities would probably be a sure bet, right? Duh. It is. B Sides Win: extras, bonus tracks and b-sides provides a sort of backroom history of the band from 1992 through 2008. The early tracks re rough edged shoegaze and we get to watch the band slowly grow into its current pop rock and/or roll self. From the band's original recording of their breakthrough "Underwhelmed" through a remixed reprise version of "Believe In Me" there isn't really a weak track. Usually a collection like this would be recommended as "fan-only" material but Sloan proves the exception to the rule due to their seeming inability to really write a bad tune.

--taken from: Chicagoist

Crocodile Lounge

Seattle, Washington

--taken from: Irrylath76's yfrog

Good Time Blues in the 'Couve

Jody Glenham on the piano - uploaded February 16, 2010



--this SlnVdOfThDy was shared on Twitter via @Sloanmusic on the date above it

Sound Advice: B Sides Win by Sloan

--taken from: Torontoist

by Nicole Villeneuve

Every Tuesday, Torontoist scours record store shelves in search of the city’s most notable new releases and brings you the best—or sometimes just the biggest—of what we’ve heard in Sound Advice.

There might never be a eureka moment when a universally ideal digital-music model is agreed upon. Sloan doesn’t care. The release of their Hit & Run EP marked the opening of their self-run online archive and store, and only three months later, they continue to do what works for their audience and release a by-popular-demand album, B Sides Win, compiling their rare and collectable moments in one place.

Serving as an unofficial companion to their 2005 singles collection, B Sides Win boasts twenty-six tracks ranging from 1992–2008. A chronological look at some of the B-sides, compilation contributions (such as the spacey, acoustic-tinged original “Underwhelmed” from Hear and Now, one of many Halifax scene–compilation relics), and other rare goodies, B Sides Win shows why Sloan’s non-album material has always been a popular source of discussion and trade amongst diehards. Songs like Chris Murphy’s “Stood Up” and Patrick Pentland’s “Same Old Flame,” from the pre–One Chord To Another seven-inch single, seamlessly blend the classic-pop structures and lo-fi modern indie-rock textures that defined an era not only for the band but for Canadian independent music at large and aren’t just for completists. The bonus tracks from the Japanese version of 1999′s Between the Bridges—the ode to youth and KISS, “Summer’s My Season,” and the band-dissecting “At The Edge of the Scene,” streaming above—were glimpses of a musical shift that never fully took hold, and they remain a bright spot amongst this secondary catalogue. Some interesting extras include the sole track from Andrew Scott, “Helen,” a song he initially wrote as an instrumental during his time as drummer in the first incarnation of the Sadies, and Jay Ferguson’s “Are You Giving Me Back My Love” as remixed by local electro-pop outfit the Russian Futurists.

As the rarities party nears its end, a Big Star power pop sheen takes over sound-wise, a maturity and consistency that, for a bunch of B-sides, is surprising. It suits them well. The band-written song stories in the album’s digital booklet further document the well-known four-headed Sloan personality, and while the majority of these songs won’t appeal to fans only, it’s the details that make this a meaningful and exclusive gem (and a nice pre-cursor to the rumored upcoming hardcore seven-inch).

--taken from: Torontoist

Greg with Rich Hope

--taken from: Sloanmusic's Twitgoo

Greg and Glen Matlock

Gregory with Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols!

--taken from: gregory_goose's Pikchur

Channel 14 featuring Sloan

Publlic access employee goes crazy at Channel 14 with Sloan footage - uploaded on June 16, 2009:



--this SlnVdOfThDy was shared on Twitter via @Sloanmusic on the date above it