Sloan’s Jay Ferguson, second from left, says a collection of covers is receiving a positive response from fans. Expect to hear some of those songs when Sloan plays Canada Day festivities in Surrey.
by Stuart Derdeyn
Jay Ferguson wants to set the record straight around Sloan’s latest album of covers of hardcore punk bands.
The collection of seminal ragers by the Angry Samoans, Black Flag and Bad Religion was not his idea. Nor did his much-reported “straight-edge” lifestyle have anything to do with being a Minor Threat or Seven Seconds fan back in the ’80s.
“Although I don’t drink or take drugs, I’ve never defined myself as straight-edge in the way that Minor Threat members did,” said Ferguson. “My Wikipedia entry says that this is the case and it’s often reported, but the truth is I was listening to The Smiths. It was Chris Murphy’s idea to record the covers as these were the bands he was really taken with back in high school.”
Fans going to sloanmusic.com already know that the classic covers are a bonus to a new 7-inch vinyl featuring another hooky new Murphy tune titled Jenny. That is likely to be the only tune from the session to make the set at the band’s Surrey Canada Day performance. But who knows?
“Response to the project has been so positive and so much more than we expected that I guess a lot more people knew all those bands growing up as I did and have pretty positive experiences around listening to them.”
The guitarist played plenty of the music on his radio show on CKDU radio at Dalhousie from 1985-1989. Beginning in high school and carrying through university, it was one of the foundations of the influences that would form Sloan. One of Canada’s most cherished bands of the nineties, the Halifax-formed, Toronto-based quartet has released 30-odd singles over its two-decade-plus existence. Its second album Twice Removed (1994) was voted the Best Canadian Album of All Time in Chart Magazine in 1996 and again in 2005.
“Usually, for a big family-oriented show like Canada Day, we look over albums like that and our singles and design a set that includes tunes we are sure people are going to know. Thankfully, we have had enough songs played on the radio over the last 20 years that there are certain to be some that a really broad spectrum of people know, like Money City Maniacs, The Other Man and If It Feels Good Do It or something like that.”
Hitting Top-40 setlist status was never a goal for the group. But it pays the bills for the continuing career of the quartet, which not only had another hit with 2011’s The Double Cross but has embarked on a full reissue campaign for albums such as Twice Removed and One Chord to Another.
The group plays plenty of special events alongside touring to new markets across Canada and has even played “Canada Day away in L.A. before.”
“We went on the road last fall playing all of Twice Removed and then a set of other album tracks and I really thought it was OK because we still put out new music to play alongside the old stuff.”
The group worked hard to get where it is and one of the things behind its enduring reputation is the live show.
Sloan has long delivered good gigs and due to its East Coast origins knows how to bring it, rain or shine. This is a good thing given our frequently soggy Canada Day celebrations.
--taken from: The Province
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