Sloan rocks Marigold

--taken from: Truro Daily News

by Matthew Veno

Sloan performed to a sold out crowd Wednesday at the Marigold Cultural Centre in Truro. The rock band, which was formed in Halifax, has won a Juno Award and five East Coast Music Awards in their 22 years together. The band played their Twice Removed album from 1994, which was twice voted the best Canadian album ever recorded in 1996 and 2005 in a reader poll by Chart! Magazine, while mixing in other fan favourites.

--taken from: Truro Daily News

From beginning to end, Sloan to perform entire ‘Twice Removed’ album

--taken from: Truro Daily News

TRURO - A rock band that started its success in Nova Scotia in the early 1990s is returning to the East Coast with a series of shows, including Wednesday night in Truro.

Sloan’s performance at the Marigold Cultural Centre is sold out.

The Toronto-based band with Halifax roots reissued its 1994 album ‘Twice Removed’ in September in a triple vinyl, box set edition that includes additional songs and information for fans. The band has been playing the album from beginning to end at the shows in this tour.

Sloan’s Chris Murphy said the band decided to reissue ‘Twice Removed’ because it is one of the band’s most acclaimed albums.

“There’s been a trend that I feel like we haven’t been the vanguard of, simply these career bands do one of their albums in its entirety, albums that people cared about,” he said. “‘Twice Removed’ is the record that people continue to comment on.”

Murphy said he isn’t sure why the album consistently proves to be the most well received with fans and critics. He said the recording was an about-face to their first release, Smeared, which he described as guitar heavy.

“The record was kind of a subdued pop record in the time of grunge and we benefited from the timing of Nirvana changing the music industry, and we got a big break because of it and we were signed to Geffen which was big, exciting news,” he said.

“But we thought that grunge had a limited shelf-life and we were thankful to have it help us get signed to that label. We turned our backs on that and in doing so, kind of created a huge commercial flop, but also I think that we reached the sensitive kids who maybe didn’t dislike Nirvana, because we definitely loved them too, but wanted to hear pop music or something a little more delicate.”

Murphy said of all of the albums they’ve recorded in more than 20 years together, ‘Twice Removed’ is the most subdued. At the concert Wednesday, the band will play the album from beginning to end, an experience he says fans who love the album will appreciate hearing in a live environment.

“For the people who really love it, it’s moving to someone who is like, ‘I heard them play
‘Coax Me’ before but it’s fun to hear it between ‘People of the Sky’ and ‘Bells On,’ where it belongs in someone’s mind who knows the record well,” he said. “I know what that’s like as a fan. It’s fun to see things in a context like that, see the record played out in its entirety.”

Following the first set, the band will finish the concert with a second set of songs selected from the rest of the band’s catalogue.

--taken from: Truro Daily News

Returning to his roots

--taken from: The Guardian

Sloan’s Chris Murphy is excited about coming back to P.E.I. for a concert at the Confederation Centre of the Arts on Saturday

by Sally Cole


Sloan’s Chris Murphy feels nostalgic about his early years on P.E.I.
The front man for the Halifax-based alternative rock band was born in Charlottetown and grew up on Water Street.

His introduction to music was listening to his mother, Patricia, singing in church and secular choirs in Charlottetown.

“I remember being in church and hearing my mother sing harmony and singing along with my mother’s part. I started learning music that way,” says the musician who comes back to P.E.I. each summer to visit his family’s cottage in Georgetown.

Murphy will rekindle these and other memories when he and his fellow band members make their debut at the Homburg Theatre of the Confederation Centre of the Arts during a concert on Saturday.

“I always look forward to coming back (home). I often receive emails from my aunts and cousins who are still there who contact my mum or me to say that they’re going to the concert. They never want to score free tickets. They always want to pay,” laughs Murphy, bass player for Sloan, a group that also includes Patrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson, guitar and Andrew Scott, drums.

Currently on the last leg of a tour that started in September, he’s also sentimental about the material that Sloan will be playing. It’s in support of their re-release,Twice Removed. Also known as the band’s “most wanted record,” the CD first came out in 1994.

“People continue to say kind things about the album. It’s not just the music, people feel nostalgic about it. And, even though we’ve come up with many CDs since, it’s hard to compete with the way that people felt about themselves when they were young.

“It’s also a great collector’s item,” says Murphy, adding the re-release comes as a deluxe vinyl box set that includes Twice Removed on LP, a mirror record made up entirely of demo recordings of the songs from Twice Removed and a third LP of demo recordings of songs that didn’t make the cut.

During Saturday’s concert, the Halifax rockers will perform Twice Removed in its entirety. Then, after taking a short break they’ll head back to the stage to bang out more recent hits like Money City Maniacs, The Other Man, Underwhelmed and If it Feels Good Do It.

“We’ll try to play as many songs that we can that people know. It’s going to be a fun night,” says Murphy.
After 20 years and 10 LPs, two EPs and 30 singles, he says the reason the band has remained successful is that the members share the spotlight.

“Our band is known for their sharing of songwriting from each member of the group. There’s no one leader here.”

--taken from: The Guardian

The Cadre Chats With: Sloan

--taken from: The Cadre

by Justin Shaw

You may have heard them in a Future Shop ad. You may have heard them on CBC’s George Strombolopolous Tonight. You may have also heard them in the intro to MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives (CBC’s most baffling attempt to feminize the NHL).

On February 16th, you have the chance to hear them perform on the Homburg Stage at the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

Sloan, one the East Coast’s most popular bands, is returning to the Maritimes and set to perform in Charlottetown. In honour of the occasion, The Cadre chatted with the band’s guitarist, Jay Ferguson.

-

Cadre: You have been together for over twenty years, and have maintained consistent quality work. What do you feel has kept the band together this long?

Jay: It’s hard to say exactly what. I think being able to control our own career and not being under the shadow of a potentially fickle large record label, for most of our career, has helped us steer our own ship. I also think that our band is an outlet for everyone creatively, everyone sings and writes and contributes….there isn’t the frustrated bass player itching to do his songs (although I think Chris has a large stash dying to see the light of day!). We’ve also democratically kept things evenly divided on a financial basis so we are all in the same boat, even though it may not be a yacht.

Cadre: In ’94, Spin Magazine referred to Twice Removed as one of the “Best Albums You Didn’t Hear”, a title partially due to the lack of promotion from Geffen Records. How do you feel the band overcame this challenge?

Jay: We didn’t really. The LP received attention and promotion in Canada, but definitely was swept under the rug in the USA. We were aware this was going to be the case before the LP was released. The way we sort of overcame it was to take a long break, essentially kind of ‘breaking up’ after a long tour of the USA. Then, when we decided to reconvene for a 3rd LP, we were on our own murderecords label and more in the driver’s seat regarding controlling our own job and potential career.

Cadre: Do you feel there is much a difference in audience response between your shows in the Canada and the US? How about between Canada and the Maritimes?

Jay: I’m not sure about the Maritimes vs. the rest of Canada, but there is a bit of a difference between the US and Canada. Our Canadian audience has always been a mix of the casual fan who may know a few songs from the radio and the uber-fan that knows every last album track and b-side. In the US, since we never really enjoyed major above ground TV or Top 40 exposure, there are not as many casual fans…the people who seem to come to our shows are fans of everything and know our entire catalogue. It’s a fun issue to have, it’s nice to play the hits and have big sing-a-longs at shows in Canada, but also our US audience allows us to often play more album songs from our catalogue that fans in the US seem to know just as well as the singles.

Cadre: What tend to be your most frequently requested songs?

Jay: Underwhelmed, Money City Maniacs…Chester The Molester is often yelled out too.

Cadre: What is your opinion on the current state of Canadian East Coast music? Are there any artists in particular that have impressed you in recent years?

Jay: I haven’t lived on the East Coast for years, so I’m a bit out of touch. It’s nice to see Rich Aucoin be getting lots of international recognition. I thought Laura Peek’s last record was really fine…as was Mike O’Neill’s latest. It was encouraging to hear him make a new LP after so long. There were bands that kinda split that I really liked…The Stance made one LP that had lots of good songs. Brent Randall & The Pinecones were excellent in their Halifax configuration, but have since transplanted to Toronto in a different form. I’ve not kept up on my latest Two Hours Traffic, but they definitely have some good songs too.

Cadre: When the band first formed, what were among the biggest influences in forming your sound/style? Have these influences changed over the years?

Jay: I guess influences change or one may be listening to different music while making a particular record. For our first record, Smeared, there was definitely an influence represented by the music that was happening in England at the time…pop bands that used layers of distorted guitar but were still writing melodic pop songs…My Bloody Valentine and Ride and other similar bands that were on the Creation Records label. The parallel underground US scene was also rubbing off….influence of bands like Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth made it’s way into some of our early recordings as well.

Cadre: What song (or songs) is the most fun to perform live?

Jay: I think my personal favourite is Fading Into Obscurity from our Never Hear The End Of It album…a long song, treated like a suite with many little parts and interesting changes.

Cadre: Thank you for time! Have an excellent show!

--taken from: The Cadre

Sloan bringing ‘Twice Removed’ show to Glasgow Square stage Friday

--taken from: New Glasgow News

by Amy MacKenzie

NEW GLASGOW – A rock band that started its success in Nova Scotia in the early 1990s is returning to the East Coast with a series of shows that kick off at Glasgow Square Friday.
Sloan, the Toronto-based band with Halifax roots, reissued its 1994 album “Twice Removed” in September in a triple vinyl, box set edition that includes additional songs and information for fans. The band has been playing the album from beginning to end at the shows in this tour.
Sloan’s Chris Murphy said the band decided to reissue “Twice Removed” because it is one of the band’s most acclaimed albums.
“There’s been a trend that I feel like we haven’t been the vanguard of, simply these career bands do one of their albums in its entirety, albums that people cared about,” he said. “’Twice Removed’ is the record that people continue to comment on.”
Murphy said he isn’t sure why ‘Twice Removed’ consistently proves to be their most well received album with fans and critics. He said the recording was an about-face to their first release, Smeared, which he described as guitar heavy.
“The record was kind of a subdued pop record in the time of grunge and we benefited from the timing of Nirvana changing the music industry, and we got a big break because of it and we were signed to Geffen which was big, exciting news,” he said.

“But we thought that grunge had a limited shelf-life and we were thankful to have it help us get signed to that label, but we turned our backs on that and in doing so, kind of created a huge commercial flop, but also I think that we reached the sensitive kids who maybe didn’t dislike Nirvana, because we definitely loved them too, but wanted to hear pop music or something a little more delicate.”

Murphy said of all of the albums they’ve recorded in their more than 20 years together, ‘Twice Removed’ is the most subdued. At the concert Friday, the band will play the album from beginning to end, an experience he says fans who love the album will appreciate hearing in a live environment.

“For the people who really love it, it’s moving to someone who is like, ‘I heard them play “Coax Me” before but it’s fun to hear it between “People of the Sky” and “Bells On,” where it belongs in someone’s mind who knows the record well,” he said. “I know what that’s like as a fan. It’s fun to see things in a context like that, see the record played out in its entirety.”

Murphy said following the first set of “Twice Removed” played in the order the songs appear on the album, the band will finish the concert with a second set of songs selected from the rest of the band’s catalogue.
Sloan has been together for more than 20 years now, and Murphy said the band has stuck together for this long because it was “founded in fairness.”

“We all get a chance to contribute creatively and we all share the money equally and in that way we’re all the same. That’s basically the reason that we’re still together at all, is because we value everyone’s contribution,” he said.

“In a superficial way, we’re kind of like a boy band in that I always want all of our faces to be on the cover of records to show off the fact that we’re the same four people, because it’s a rarity to have four people stay on the same page for so long,” he said.

Murphy said the band will likely reissue more of their albums in the future.

--taken from: New Glasgow News