Feist Sits in With Sloan at Brooklyn Gig

--taken from: The Hollywood Reporter

by Tracey Davenport


It was a night of fan favorites in Williamsburg as the band played classic album "Twice Removed" in its entirety then invited friend and fellow Canadian Feist to join in for the encore.

Indie rock stalwarts Sloan are taking their critically acclaimed 1994 album Twice Removed on the road, playing the fan favorite in its entirety for audiences up and down the east coast. Among the diehard devotees? Fellow Canadian Feist, who joined the foursome on stage during the band's Brooklyn show on Oct. 15.

Playing the Music Hall of Williamsburg on a Monday night, Sloan delivered a contemplative Twice Removed set, which found the band to be in fine form with well-practiced classics like “Penpals,” “Snowsuit Sound” and “I Can Feel It." Then the guys kicked up the energy a notch for another 20-song set that encapsulated their two-decades-plus career. It included a handful of tunes from their most recent release, 2011’s terrific The Double Cross.

Surprise guest Feist came out for the encore, naturally. A longtime friend of the band's from Toronto and beyond, the singer  was coming off a recent gig singing Kate Bush's part with Peter Gabriel on “Don’t Give Up” (the occasion: the Focus For Change benefit at New York's Roseland Ballroom). In Brooklyn, Feist joined Sloan's Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson and Andrew Scott for a spirited rendition of “She Says What She Means” (from 1998’s Navy Blues) and, in embracing her rock goddess-ness, swiftly put a bright exclamation point on what was an already memorable evening of music.

--taken from: The Hollywood Reporter

Sloan coming to Glasgow Square

--taken from: New Glasgow News

NEW GLASGOW – Glasgow Square has announced that Sloan will come to its stage this winter as part of the band’s Twice Removed Tour.

The album, “Twice Removed,” was the band’s second album released in 1994. It was reissued in a deluxe triple-vinyl edition in September of this year. The reissue features two discs of previously unreleased recording from the era including demo tracks and unreleased songs. The concert will include songs from the Twice Removed album and the band’s hit songs from other albums as well.

Carlton Munroe, Program & Events Manager for the Town of New Glasgow said in a press release that Sloan has always remained loyal to their Nova Scotia roots and it will be a thrill to host them at the Square. “These four unique songwriting voices, guitarists Patrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson as well as bassist Chris Murphy and drummer Andrew Scott form an incredibly strong collective that is a world class talent,” he said.

--taken from: New Glasgow News

Live: Yep Roc's 15th anniversary goes power pop for Night 2

--taken from: Indy Week

by David Klein


Sloan, the 21-year-old Canadian quartet, provided the evening’s best set. What they brought was the volume, the energy, and the snarl that truly seizes a room of hundreds on a Friday night. Fronted by Chris Murphy, who resembled a cross between Paul Kantner and army-jacket-era John Lennon, the band blasted through a set that found each of its members, all of whom write their own songs, taking at least one lead vocal. The band played with precision and passion, hooks and harmonies, along with well deployed blasts of feedback and un-ironic demonstrations of hands-in-the-air clapping. Set closer “Money City Maniacs” was especially incendiary.

After Sloan left the stage, the crowd thinned out noticeably. Still, penultimate performer Liam Finn, son of Crowded House’s Neil Finn, took the lead, accompanied by singer and occasional percussionist Eliza Jane. A frenetic, athletic performer with a Shakespearean beard, Finn opened with a crazed number that found him howling, bashing away at the drums (which he would do throughout his set) and playing over knotty guitar loops. An indefatigable performer, Finn ended by breaking out what looked like a portable theremin for a feedback-filled climax, providing the evening’s loudest moments.

--taken from: Indy Week

'Have Not Been the Same' Gathers Rare and Unreleased Material from Sloan, Skydiggers, the Pursuit of Happiness for Charity Comp

--taken from: exclaim!

by Alex Hudson

The Canadian music tome Have Not Been the Same was released in a new edition last year, and it later spawned a star-studded collection of Canadian covers. Now, the book has inspired another compilation album, this time for a proper hard-copy release.

On November 13, Pheromone Recordings will put out the album, also titled Have Not Been the Same, as a CD, double-LP and digital download. It features rare and unreleased music from a host of Canadian acts.

Among the artists included here are Sloan, Skydiggers, Weeping Tile, Doughboys, the Pursuit of Happiness, Change of Heart, the Grapes of Wrap, Nomeansno and more. According to a press release, "The collection offers a treasure trove of long out-of-print and previously unreleased material, touching on every chapter in the book."

Co-author Jason Schneider (and Exclaim! assistant editor) said in a statement, "This has been part of the plan since the book was first published in 2001. I'm grateful to all of the artists for donating their work, and in many cases going the extra mile in giving me something really special that very few people have ever heard before. I'm confident that this compilation will shed new light on an era of Canadian music that is still in process of being rediscovered."

The album was mastered by Joao Carvalho in Toronto. All proceeds go to Kids Help Phone.

Have Not Been the Same:

1. Slow - "Have Not Been the Same"

2. Poisoned (Art Bergmann) - "Final Cliché"

3. NoMeansNo - "Dad"

4. The Nils - "In Betweens"

5. Doughboys - "Long Hall" (previously unreleased)

6. Rational Youth - "To The Goddess Electricity" (2011 mix)

7. Jane Siberry - "Symmetry (previously unreleased version)

8. Hunger Project (pre-Cowboy Junkies) - "The Same Inside"

9. The Pursuit of Happiness - "Wake Up and Smell Cathy" (previously unreleased)"

10. A Neon Rome - "Shatter the Illusions" (previously unreleased)

11. Change of Heart - "Smile"

12. Jr. Gone Wild - "God Is Not My Father"

13. Skydiggers - "When You're Down" (previously unreleased)

14. Crash Vegas - "Moving Too Fast" (previously unreleased version)

15. 13 Engines - "Beached"
16. Weeping Tile - "Pushover"
17. The Grapes Of Wrath - "Misunderstanding" (2000 acoustic version)

18. Sloan - "Lucky For Me" (previously unreleased version)

19. Jale - "Jesus Loves Me"

20. Bob Wiseman - "Gabriel Dumont Blues"

--taken from: exclaim!

Sloan revisits ‘Twice Removed’ tonight

--taken from: The Telegram

by Sarah Smellie

It’s known as the album that almost got them booted from their record label.

With songs about love, longing, braces full of sand, and other teenage woes, Sloan’s 1994 sophomore album, “Twice Removed,” is arguably their best-known and most easily recognizable record.

To celebrate its enduring presence in the Canadian pop cannon, Sloan launched a “Twice Removed” tour this fall, and they’ll be playing the album from start to finish tonight at Club One.

The success of “Twice Removed” would have been unbelievable to Chris Murphy back in 1994, when the Halifax-based band first started recording it.

Sloan had been signed to Geffen Records, a major label in the grunge scene of the 1990s, after the success of their loud, droning 1992 debut, “Smeared.”

“Geffen signed us a certain type of band,” says Murphy. “We were supposed to be a grunge band, basically. So when we did this musical about-face with our second album, ‘Twice Removed,’ they were like, ‘Come on, guys, just make the record you were signed on for, now we’ve got to start marketing from scratch.’”

A huge departure from the distorted guitars on “Smeared,” “Twice Removed” focused on crisp, sweet riffs and warm vocal harmonies.

“When we started ‘Twice Removed,’ I felt that the expiry date for grunge was over,” says Murphy. “Even when ‘Underwhelmed’ came out, grunge was over for me. In Halifax, we were kind of copying things that these American bands like Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine were doing, and when it was put on a world stage, it just seemed really behind the times.

So we just wanted to set ourselves apart and make a pop record.”

Commercially, “Twice Removed” was a flop: “Smeared” sold 40,000 copies in its first year, and “Twice Removed” only sold 9,000, says Murphy. Geffen decided not to promote the album in the U.S., and it was originally met with negative reviews.

But a few years later, the record had been embraced by fans and critics alike. Chart magazine even voted it the No. 1 Canadian pop record of all time.

“I think that it was a kind of beacon for sensitive kids,” says Murphy. “They had Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind,’ sure, but we kind of created an alternative to the alternative with this pop record.”

It’s clear from the crowds showing up to hear them play the record now that the album still resonates, he says.

“We’ve been really enjoying playing it,” he says. “In the States, because Geffen didn’t do any marketing, the people who are coming out to the shows are these die-hard fans, so those crowds have been interesting. The response has been great in Canada, too — people know the record really well.”

The shows on this tour usually consist of two sets. In the first, the band plays the entire album, beginning to end. In the second, they play songs from their more recent albums.

“The people coming out to these shows are people who dropped off with our band around 2000,” says Murphy. “So we play that second set, with more recent material, to hopefully bring them back to the band.”

“But, of course,” he says, “it’s awfully hard to compete with nostalgia.”

--taken from: The Telegram

Sloan at Black Cat Backstage

--taken from: Washington City Paper

by Alex Baca

Sloooooooooooan! The Toronto-via-Halifax indie rockers have been kicking it for more than 20 years now, steadily releasing albums and touring as if they put out 1992’s Peppermint EP yesterday. Tonight, the band plans to play the entirety of its second album, Twice Removed, which it’s recently reissued as a three-LP deluxe edition.

When Twice Removed came out in 1994, Sloan’s label, Geffen, didn’t aggressively promote it like it did with the better-selling, feedback-swirled grunge that was the order of the day; after the record’s release, Geffen dropped the band. But Twice Removed has confidently taken up residence in the Canadian pop canon: In polls in 1996 and 2005, readers of Chart magazine voted it the best Canadian album of all time. (It slipped to No. 2 in 2000, behind Joni Mitchell’s Blue.)

Sloan’s sweet harmonies, well-placed handclaps, slick and singable choruses, and super-simple lyrics (Robert Christgau once wrote that Sloan’s “popward shift doesn’t change their specific gravity because they’re all surface either way”) come across better today than they did in the mid-’90s, and should fill up Black Cat’s Backstage in short order.

--taken from: Washington City Paper

Danko Jones 'Too Much Trouble' Book Excerpt

--taken from: Spinner

JAY FERGUSON (Sloan): It's hard for some indie kids to take [hard-rock] music seriously, because maybe it's not as poignant, as something like, say, Pavement. With my band, I noticed a turn with [Sloan's 1998, AC/DC-styled single] "Money City Maniacs," which was definitely an homage to '70s rock 'n' roll, and I think a lot of people were like, "What the hell are they doing? Is this a joke? How could these guys possibly like this music?" And maybe people think the same way about Danko Jones -- people just can't take it seriously.

--taken from: Spinner