Sloan hit up the Great Hall for the holidays

--taken from: blogTO

Sloan played the Great Hall on Wednesday night as the second of a two-night run of shows benefiting the COUNTERfit Harm Reduction Program and the Barriere Lake Legal Defense Fund. Local heroes Fucked Up, who also curated the Toronto-centric lineups for each show, headlined the first night. Having already played Toronto a handful of times this year, this show was notable as it found them airing out their third LP, 1996's "One Chord to Another", in its entirety. Despite the relative similarity of the performances to those found on the album, far be it from a band as energetic as Sloan to phone it in and stage a mere recital.

It was "One Chord to Another" that solidified Sloan's reputation as both critical and commercial darlings (at least in Canada), mixing the four members' unabashedly hooky but sometimes disparate songwriting styles and congealing them with a wash of 1960s AM pop production. For this show alone they rehearsed and unearthed a number of songs that either hadn't be played in years or never at all, and it was during these tracks, as well as the guest-heavy encore, where the show got its boost from injecting some unpredictability into Sloan's signature dependability.

From the first notes of "The Good in Everyone", with its distinctive stop-start intro, the band had forged the night's theme: it was 1996 all over again. And everyone, band and audience alike, loved it.

Indeed, while I had seen a couple Sloan shows over the years that seemed to run on autopilot, this was thankfully not the case on Wednesday. The mega-hits kept coming with "The Lines You Amend" and "Everything You've Done Wrong", the latter featuring a three-piece horn section. Some of the best songs of the night were the record's deep cuts, including the Chris Murphy-led double whammy of "Nothing Left to Make Me Want to Stay" and "Autobiography."

While the lyrics of both suggest dissatisfaction with the music industry following the band's less than amicable break with Geffen Records following the release of "Twice Removed", the performances tonight were spirited and joyful. Indeed, a charitable air permeated the evening, with each of the night's bands repeatedly thanking Fucked Up for the chance to support these great causes.

That Sloan were going to pull out all the stops to faithfully recreate the magic of "One Chord to Another" was no surprise; the encore, though, featured more than a few curveballs. The band pulled one track from each of their first two records, with "500 Up" showcasing Sloan's early nod to shoegaze and sounding crystal clear in the acoustically magnificent Great Hall.

The final two songs would bring two high-profile guests to the stage, first with Fucked Up's Damian Abraham for a faithful rendition of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" (sadly devoid of any stagediving antics), and then with Feist joining to play her signature hollowbody Guild on "She Says What She Means." Keeping with the gaff of it being 1996, Patrick Pentland joked before the last song that "this is a work in progress from our next album."

Despite "She Says" being taken from 1998's "Navy Blues", the joke had resonance. Sloan have proved over the years their ability to forge on relentlessly with new material; this one-night victory lap of revisiting and revitalizing the good in a classic record showed that Sloan can rise to the challenge of past, present and future.

The Rural Alberta Advantage, Ohbijou, and Bonjay opened the show. All three Toronto-based acts turned in solid performances, with Paul Banwatt of the RAA's absolute domination of his drumkit inspiring crowd participation en masse. By the time Ohbijou took the stage, the Great Hall was filling up nicely, but the majority of the crowd sadly missed out on the short but sweet Bonjay set. Melding dancehall grooves with emotive inflection, the three-piece band led by the magnetic Alanna Stuart started the show by packing as much energy into the empty space of the venue as possible. Expect big things from them in the future.


--taken from: blogTO

Sloan Turns Back The Clock With Charity Show

--taken from: Toronto.com

by Garnet Fraser

If you stayed home last night in a bid to sleep through the longest night of the year, you missed a heck of a party. In a benefit show at the Great Hall, the Canadian '90s survivors Sloan played, in its entirety, their 1996 album One Chord to Another for the assembled throng at the Great Hall. (Bonjay, Ohbijou, and the Rural Alberta Advantage rounded out the impressive bill.)

One Chord is close to a sacred text among some young Canadian rockers; it gets name checked but not often played, as it involves some supplemental instruments Sloan doesn't often travel with. (What's "Everything You've Done Wrong" without those horns?) But on this night the band had backup - not just longtime sideman Gregory "Goose" Macdonald on keyboards but and honest-to-God brass section - and, just as important, a bit of practice. (Sloan records are always catchy, but the ensemble hasn't always been tight onstage.)

So it was that Patrick Pentland, Chris Murphy, Jay Ferugson and Andrew Scott came roaring out of the gate, poised and propulsive, with "The Good in Everyone," delighting the kids, too, and not just the many greybeards in attendance. (I only mean aging hipsters; there weren't many literal greybeards except for Pentland, who's singing and playing better than ever but who know looks like the leader of some obscure radical movement.)

As a live experience the album works great; it's a lean 39 minutes and 12 tracks on disc, with nary an indulgence, and Pentland's songs still rock, Murphy's still funny, Ferguson's songs are still the prettiest things the band's ever done, and Scott delivers welcome change-of-pace arty pieces that let the crowd catch its breath and made the concert feel like more than just ear candy. (Scott is absolutely still one of the best drummers in the land, too, though the Rural Alberta Advantage set made an excellent case for that band's exceptional skin-pounder Paul Banwatt.)

Then came the encore: A couple of non-One Chord songs, a brief battle for the control of the crowd between the event's emcee and organizer Damian Abraham and the equally amusing Murphy, and Abraham joined the band for a cover of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" (at one point twirling Murphy around his neck onstage). Finally, Feist showed up, reminding us that before her music was a coffee-house institution,
she was a bona fide rocker. She grabbed a guitar and lent even more power to "She Means What She Says," a chugging nugget from One Chord to Another's follow-up album, Navy Blues. Maybe we can hear that one next year ... right, guys?

(Patrick Pentland on creating and now re-creating the album at The Grid.)

--taken from: Toronto.com

Sloan Unearth 1993 Bootleg for Limited Vinyl Release

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Alex Hudson

Having recently celebrated their 20th anniversary with The Double Cross, Canadian power pop heroes Sloan are delving into the archives for a release of a nearly two-decades-old live bootleg. Entitled Is That All I Get?, it was recorded live in concert on September 20, 1993, in Winnipeg, MB.

Limited to 300 copies, these hand-numbered records are pressed on luminous green marbled vinyl. In the product description at Sloan's official webstore, the band's Jay Ferguson wrote that this is a tribute to the '70s and '80s tradition of bootlegged LPs.

"The original recording was captured via cassette by a fan in the audience," he explained. "The results are a bit rough at the edges for sure, but kind of exciting and also finds our band at a point in our career where we were finishing a year or more of touring behind our first LP, Smeared, yet beginning to road test some songs that would wind up on Twice Removed. Early versions of 'Shame Shame' and 'Worried Now' appear with different musical bridges that would not be ironed out until a few months later. We even began the show with an Eric's Trip cover!"

The records will come with a bonus video download of "Rag Doll," a song that doesn't appear on the vinyl. To make the deal even sweeter, 25 randomly selected buyers will receive an original copy of the fall 1993 tour poster.

Coincidentally, this show was recorded on Sloan member Patrick Pentland's 24th birthday. The video embedded below shows the band and fans singing "Happy Birthday" for him.

--taken from: Exclaim!

'Have Not Been the Same' Book Spawns Covers Comp Featuring Kevin Drew, the Hidden Cameras, Great Lake Swimmers, Bry Webb

--taken from: exclaim!

by Alex Hudson

Back in the June, authors Michael Barclay, Jason Schneider and Ian A.D. Jack released a tenth anniversary edition of their book Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995. Now, that tome has spawned a star-studded covers album that features some of Canada's finest talent covering songs from decades past.

Barclay curated the compilation, and he recruited a cast of contributors that includes (deep breath): Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene, Snailhouse, the Hidden Cameras, Neil Haverty of Bruce Peninsula, Great Lake Swimmers, Bry Webb of Constantines, Light Fires (Gentleman Reg and Ohbijou's James Bunton), Cuff the Duke, Jim Bryson, Little Scream, the Burning Hell, Owl Mountain Radar (Jim Bryson and Chris Page), Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire, and Jill and Matthew Barber.

They covered tunes by classic acts like the Tragically Hip, Al Tuck, Rheostatics, Men Without Hats, the Grapes of Wrath, Sloan, Eric's Trip and many others.

Much like the recent reissue of the book, this covers collection is intended to help 21st century listeners rediscover the music of 1985 to 1995.

"In order to breathe new life into this music, I decided to put the material in a contemporary context," Barclay tells Exclaim!, "because the last ten years of Canadian music have been so amazing on every level."

So how did Barclay chose which artists should be involved in the project?

"These people made some of my favourite records of the last ten years," he explains. "I could have asked older artists who are still active, but it was important to me to have this current generation paying their respects to those who came before them."

Barclay gave all of the artists involved a list of the bands featured in the book. The performers then used this list as a reference point to help them chose their cover song.

"There would be no point in covering Bryan Adams or Alannah Myles, because they're not part of the thesis," Barclay notes. "I didn't really direct anyone in terms of what was covered geographically or in terms of specific genres, gender or time periods, and I'm really happy that all the cards fell where they did -- I think it's a broad representation of the music discussed in the book."

The Have Not Been the Same compilation comes out on Tuesday (November 15) exclusively through Zunior.com. All proceeds go to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

Have Not Been the Same:

1. The Burning Hell - "Pop Goes the World" (Men Without Hats)
2. Corb Lund - "In Contempt of Me" (Jr. Gone Wild)
3. Great Lake Swimmers - "What Was Going Through My Head" (The Grapes of Wrath)
4. Owl Mountain Radar - "Daylight" (The Nils)
5. Bry Webb - "I Will Give You Everything" (Skydiggers)
6. Forest City Lovers - "The Lines You Amend" (Sloan)
7. Light Fires - "Happens All the Time" (Eric's Trip)
8. Selina Martin with the Faceless Forces of Bigness - "Grace, Too" (The Tragically Hip)
9. Mark Davis and Lorrie Matheson - "Too Cool to Live, Too Smart to Die" (Deja Voodoo)
10. Jill and Matthew Barber - "Your Sunshine" (Hardship Post)
11. Cuff the Duke - "North Window" (The Inbreds)
12. The Hidden Cameras - "Throw Silver" (Mecca Normal)
13. Snailhouse - "Buddah" (Al Tuck)
14. Veda Hille - "Odette" (Circle C)
15. Andrew Vincent - "Teenland" (Northern Pikes)
16. Geoff Berner - "Bound for Vegas" (Art Bergmann)
17. Neil Haverty - "Shaved Head" (Rheostatics)
18. Little Scream and Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre) - "When You Know Why You're Happy" (Mary Margaret O'Hara)
19. Kevin Drew - "We Got Time" (Bob Wiseman)

--taken from: exclaim!

How To Make A Band Last 20 Years

--taken from: National Public Radio music

by Jacob Ganz

Four guys. Ten albums. 20 years.

The unlikely story of the band Sloan starts in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a college city in eastern Canada's Maritime provinces. It was there where four young musicians — Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott — met and started playing together.

"We played our very first show at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia, February 1991," Ferguson, one of the guitarists, remembers. "We played in the cafeteria."

It didn't take long for Sloan to bust out of the lunchroom. About a year after they played that first show, they attracted the attention of an A&R rep from the David Geffen Co., the label that just months earlier had put out Nirvana's game-changing Nevermind. Todd Sullivan says he first heard of the band while visiting a colleague in Toronto.

"He played me some things, and he said, 'There's kind of this little mini-buzz on this band from Halifax called Sloan,' " he says. "He played me one song, and it was the song 'Underwhelmed.' And immediately, I just said, 'I gotta have more. Send me more. Can you get me more?' "

A couple of months later, Sullivan met the band and signed it to Geffen. "It was very exciting and very shocking that a band from Halifax, Nova Scotia, which bands never came there and bands never ever got out of that city, to get signed to such a large label," says Ferguson.

The Code Of Sloan

• Each album has all four members on the cover.
• In concert, nobody plays more than one consecutive song, except drummer Andrew Scott, who comes out from behind the kit to play a mini-set on guitar.
• All of the money is split equally, no matter who writes what.
• Everybody gets the same amount of real estate on each record.

Sloan already had its first album in the can, and the band was ready to go, with a unique calling card: The four musicians are all songwriters who each sing their own songs. Sullivan says all four have their own styles.

"There's Chris, who writes these amazing pop hooks but he's a very wordy kind of writer; you've got Andrew, who's very conceptual in his presentation of his songs; Jay, he's like the super music fan and a lot of where he's coming from is about his relationship with music; and then you've got Patrick, who grew up on punk and heavy metal but writes these great universal pop hooks."

That calling card was also, in the view of its members, Sloan's biggest liability.

"Basically, if you've got four singers, you're screwed," says Pentland, who also plays guitar. "What they want is Robert Plant or the dude from Matchbox 20 or whatever. They want a guy to promote and then they want people backing him up. And maybe they want a Keith figure or maybe they don't, but it doesn't work with four people singing. It's really hard for a label to promote that."

Sloan didn't make it easier on Geffen by taking a hard turn away from guitar feedback toward cleanly recorded acoustic pop on its second record, Twice Removed.

The record flopped when it was released in 1994 but would later become a serious fan favorite. Nevertheless, the process soured Sloan's relationship with its label and broke the band up for a time.

"This is a creative, collaborative affair which is pretty thin ice at time. Four monsters that all have equal time" says Scott, the drummer.

"That means that there could be songs on the records that any one of us or three of us don't like," says bassist Murphy. "There are songs on the records that I don't even like sometimes. But that's a testament to our democracy."

And, as in any democracy, there are lots of different ways of getting things done. Sloan has released albums of straight-ahead power pop and 1970s influenced hard rock. They've put out a White Album-style 30-song double record. Their 10th and latest studio release, The Double Cross, came out this year, with 12 songs, three per singer.


A decade and a half after the band was dumped by its label (and after it split up) Sloan hums along just under the radar — with all four of its original members — collecting a small number of devoted fans who know all of the songs by heart. Not despite the band's rocky start, but because of it.

"I've often said that if we made it huge for our first or second record we'd be over by now," Pentland says. All four members agree: not making it big saved Sloan.

"It's what we signed up to do 20 years ago and we've been fortunate enough to hold it together for this long and to continue to make a living off it," Scott says. "It's not a grand living by any stretch of the imagination, but it's ... it's good."

"We made a lot of money off Sloan if you spread it out all over time," jokes Murphy. "If we made all the money we made in 20 years over one year, I guess we could have done it like that and then lived forever on our riches and not played together. But I'm glad we spread our millions over 20 years because it's been fun the whole time."

--taken from: National Public Radio music

‘Four-headed beast’ prowls club

--taken from: London Free Press

by QMI Agency

Halifax-cum-Toronto band Sloan continues to celebrate 20 years of rock as it rolls across Canada.

With 10 studio albums over those two decades, Sloan is touring to supporting its latest, The Double Cross or XX as in 20 in Roman numerals, eh? Sloan plays the London Music Hall on Friday.

Over those decades, Sloan has proved four heads are better than one.

What once was perceived to be the band's main weakness -- its lack of a definitive leader -- has turned out to be its greatest strength, believes guitarist Jay Ferguson.

"We definitely got criticized for that early on," Ferguson says. "Some people thought that was a minus. But that has become our calling card. People recognize that as Sloan. We're this four-headed beast."

As is Sloan's way, Ferguson and bassist Chris Murphy, left, guitarist Patrick Pentland and drummer Andrew Scott continue to share songwriting and lead vocal duties.

--taken from: London Free Press

Kenora setlist

--shared on Sloan's Instagram: http://instagr.am/p/JFxFv/

Andrew Scott - Interview

--taken from: I Wanna Know What I Wanna Know

by Ryan Kohls

"When you’re young and impressionable, you pick your models…It’s like a candy store. There’s no such thing as originality. If you’re striving for it, you’re a bloody idiot!"

- Andrew Scott

Save for a number of African dictators, hardly anything seems to last more than 20 years these days. However, there is one other exception to the rule: Canada’s very own, Sloan.

This year – 2011 – marks Sloan’s 20th anniversary as a touring, recording, and rocking band. Within that 20 years Sloan has produced 10 great records, toured extensively, and managed to keep the exact same lineup the entire time. For anyone unfamiliar with what it’s like to be in a band, and hang out with the same people 24/7 for months on end, this is a virtually unprecedented accomplishment.

So, what has been Sloan’s key to success, and holding it together? If you ask them, they might tell you that it has been splitting the profits of their business four ways. Though this is certainly true and important, I also believe that the creative freedom for each individual member has also played a big role. Many critics and fans compare Sloan to the Beatles, and although the music does have its similarities, it’s perhaps better grasped while looking at the makeup of the band. Sloan consists of four distinct voices and personalities: Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson, Patrick Pentland, and Andrew Scott. Each one of these individuals contributes their own songs to Sloan records, and plays an integral part in the sound and image of the band. Through this set up each member plays an equal role, and is able to continue making exactly the records they wish to make. This has led to a very committed, content, and compatible band.

As a kid, there was no band as influential on my musical taste than Sloan. More specifically, Andrew Scott was one of, if not, the biggest influence on my decision to pick up the drums. Watching Andrew Scott playing drums with Sloan made drumming look like the most fun in the world; that assumption turned out to be completely true. With his free spirited playing, awesome drum fills, and confident demanour, he inspired me and a lot of other young drummer’s.

There is much I WANNA KNOW about Andrew Scott and Sloan, and I had the great privilege of visiting Andrew at his home in Toronto, where we conducted a video interview. Thanks to Peter Rowan for helping set this up, and to Andrew for his gracious hospitality.
From 20 years in Sloan, to Geffen Records, to drumming, to the Vancouver Riots, to Nardwuar the Human Serviette, we cover it all.

PART 1 – Sloan, Geffen Records, Nirvana.




PART 2 – Drumming, Vancouver riots, Nardwuar, Albini



thanks to @rerorerocandy for sharing this interview!

--taken from: I Wanna Know What I Wanna Know

Medford In The Meantime

--video directed by Kevin Hilliard set in Medford, Oregon

Cars cover

Sloan covers "Cars" by Gary Numan

youtube link: http://youtu.be/scahu8eUado

Sloan performs live in The Current studio

--taken from: The Current (listen to the performance here)

by Barb Abney

Unusual for most artists, each member of the band Sloan, which has maintained the same lineup for decades, contributes equally to songwriting. And at their live shows, each member switches instruments accordingly. They got their name from a friend, who was nicknamed "the Slow One" by his boss, but in the man's French accent, it sounded more like "Sloan."

Hugely popular in Canada, Sloan arguably achieved success in the United States after their eighth album. The band's 2011 release, their tenth album The Double Cross, coincides with the 20th anniversary of their first show.

Songs performed: "She's Slowin' Down," "Beverly Terrace," and "Laying So Low."

--taken from: The Current (listen to the performance here)

Canadian Rock Renaissance Celebrated with 10th Anniversary Edition of 'Have Not Been the Same'

--taken from: exclaim!

by Alex Hudson

In 2001, authors Michael Barclay, Jason Schneider and Ian A.D. Jack published the book Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995. In the ten years since then, Canadian music has experienced another renaissance, so the time is ripe for a book relaunch.

If you're not familiar with Have Not Been the Same, a press release explains that "it remains the only book examining Canadian music between 1985 and 1995." This was a period that saw the rise of Tragically Hip, Sloan, Eric's Trip, MuchMusic and more.

The original run of books sold out, and Have Not Been the Same has been unavailable for at least six years. This new edition means that the tome will be available to a whole new generation of Canadian music fans. It has been "revised to include new interviews, new edits, new context and new information about artists who passed away (the Nils), broke up (Rheostatics), reunited (Eric's Trip), or went on to greater career heights (Joel Plaskett)." Have Not Been the Same is a hefty 780 pages and includes a forward by the Tragically Hip's Gord Downie.

The tenth anniversary edition of the book will be marked by a show at Lee's Palace in Toronto on June 10. The evening will feature performances from classic Canuck artists Weeping Tile (including Sarah Harmer), King Cobb Steelie and Kevin Kane of the Grapes of Wrath. Tickets cost $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Proceeds will go to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

It's worth noting that two of the authors -- Michael Barclay and Jason Schneider -- have written extensively for Exclaim! over the years. Pre-order a copy of Have Not Been the Same from ECW Press over here.

--taken from: exclaim!

Unkind @ Sonic Boom

--recorded in the old Sonic Boom records store

Canadian Music in the 90s with Greig Nori from Treble Charger, Lu from the Dream Warriors, and Chris Murphy from Sloan

--taken from: NOW Toronto

JUNO Award winning artist Greig Nori (former lead singer Treble Charger), Lu (from the Dream Warriors), and Chris Murphy (from Sloan) join NOW editor/publisher Michael Hollett and another special guest to discuss the Canadian music scene in the 1990s as part of our JUNOs Decades series, a celebration of each of the JUNOs four decades.


NOW TALKS 90's : On Soundscan and College Radio from NOW Magazine on Vimeo.



NOW TALKS 90'S: Chris Murphy of Sloan on the Halifax Scene from NOW Magazine on Vimeo.

--taken from: NOW Toronto