20 Questions: Sloan

--taken from: PopMatters

by Evan Sawdey

After over 20 years in the game, Sloan's Andrew Scott contributes a hell of an epic to the band's new "multiple-solo project" album Commonwealth and tells us of why he ended up stealing so many USA license plates in his time.

One would be hard-pressed to find much correlation between the Toronto power-pop institution that is Sloan and famed makeup-metalers KISS, but as of late, that task has become increasingly easy.

Back in 1978, riding a crest of popularity following the fact that KISS’ live albums were making them bigger stars than their studio albums ever were, the band’s manager thought it would be great idea to have each band member release their very own solo album on the same day, each disc counting as half-an-album in their five-album contract with their label. Although such a unique marketing idea had never been tried prior, the stunt itself turned out to have more of a lasting legacy than any of the material that appeared on those discs, but, if KISS gained a reputation for anything, it was being great at marketing.

For Sloan, however, the band has quietly been turning out brilliant pop albums every few years like clockwork, which makes them sound like they exist purely as craftsmen, but their consistently-stunning, quietly-developing style has been the very thing that has endeared them to their fans, which explains why, how after two decades in the business, they are still going strong, with each member (Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson, and Andrew Scott) proving to be a dynamic, distinct songwriter in their own right.

So, for Commonwealth, their 11th full-length, the band basically pulled their own KISS-style solo album stunt, releasing a double-disc set wherein each band member gets a “side”, or, a mean average of 14 minutes to fill with whatever they want. Being Sloan, the entire set is brimming with bright melodies and immediately-hummable hooks, but for a band that started releasing material all the way back in 1992, it is astonishing how fresh, dynamic, and downright fun Commonwealth sounds, the disc feeling like the end result of a bunch of ambitious twentysomethings trying to make every song they write the new Greatest Pop Song Ever.

Unlike his bandmates, drummer Andrew Scott decided to fill his entire side with a single song: the shapeshifting rock epic that is “Forty-Eight Portraits”, a semi-biographical shimmy through a litany of six-string styles. To help celebrate Commonwealth‘s release, Scott answers PopMatters’ 20 Questions and reveals a bit about where his love of portraiture came from, how artistic pursuits lead him to to steal a whole bunch of USA license plates, and how it’s best to take one’s moderation in moderation ...

* * *
1. The latest book or movie that made you cry?

The World According to Garp.

2. The fictional character most like you?

The Great White from the movie Jaws. Why? because everybody thought it was so evil and cold and calculating but in reality it was simply eating.

3. The greatest album, ever?

The Velvet Underground (a.k.a. their self-titled third album).

4. Star Trek or Star Wars?

Wars

5. Your ideal brain food?

Therapy, flow, and art.

6. You’re proud of this accomplishment, but why?

What accomplishment? I suppose one should be proud of any accomplishment as long is it’s part of the solution and not part of the problem, particularly if that accomplishment is a complete and utter failure. That is something we should be proud of—failure—because then you have the opportunity to learn and bounce back. Hindsight is 20/20 ...

7. You want to be remembered for ...?

Art and music, not that they necessarily occupy different planes of existence. Agnes Martin once said that “music was the highest art form”—I can’t say from where I stand, but I go to battle with both painting and music on a daily basis and I can experience terrible vertigo from either vantage point.

8. Of those who’ve come before, the most inspirational are?

I don’t go too much for “inspiration”. I prefer to just show up and “get to work”. As far as influences go there are simply too many to name ... where would I begin: the ancient Greeks?

9. The creative masterpiece you wish bore your signature?

“Dear Prudence”, a song from a band called the Beatles—or almost anything by American sculptor Donald Judd, especially the wall mounted work.

10. Your hidden talents ...?

I am right handed, however I can write upside down and backwards with my right hand and forwards with my left ... simultaneously!

11. The best piece of advice you actually followed?

“Come and do my intro painting class”. Words spoken to me from Gerald Ferguson (studio painting instructor and future mentor to me) when I interned as a printmaking technician at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in the late ‘80s. Making prints was something that felt good to me but in the fog of perfect facilities and perpetual access. I never had the foresight of what came after I graduated. He had me re-etch a few zinc plates from a series of intaglio prints he’d had done years prior and when my job for him was complete he very bluntly said something like “What the fuck are you doing this stuff for?! Do you think after you leave here you’ll have access to a 10,000lb press and huge limestone slabs (for lithography) that have to be moved around with a small forklift? Come and do my intro painting course!”

As he stated, it was something that was light and portable and you could do it almost anywhere literally until the day you dropped dead. I had no desire to be a painter—I thought I wanted to be a graphic designer but quickly learned that that was not for me. Long story short, I did enter his class and fell immediately in love with the process of painting and still wrestle with it to this hour. Jerry took his own life for reasons that very few of us will ever understand a while back, and I still struggle with how to process that “lesson”. I am dealing with it on my own terms in between carrying out the answers to these questions ...

12. The best thing you ever bought, stole, or borrowed?

Back to my printmaking days! Years before, my good friend Tony and I lived close to a giant mall where every summer, huge swaths of Silver Stream trailers would park up and I guess “camp out” for days on end to do this or that. Well we would dress in head to toe “Peter Sellers” black and at sundown we’d creep and skulk and get on our backs, wrenches in hand, and remove the license plates as the inhabitants slept (they were from all over the USA). The really choice ones for me were Arizona, Nevada, California, Texas—all the hot states. I later made some pretty nice prints from them.

13. You feel best in Armani or Levis or ...?

Well, that depends wholly upon where I am and with whom? But definitely never Armani. I’d much rather sport a suit made by some young cat from my neighborhood.

14. Your dinner guest at the Ritz would be?

I’ve fielded this question before and my answer remains the same: Gwynne Dyer. He is a Canadian-born (and based in London) journalist, columnist, and military historian. Super smart and dry and if you want to know what’s really going on in this world—he knows and he doesn’t mince words. A born Newfoundlander so he probably drinks too.

15. Time travel: where, when, and why?

This very precise moment in time (oh shit it’s gone?) because there is no before or future. The only time that exists is exactly when and where we are and I don’t live for yesterday or tomorrow ...

16. Stress management: hit man, spa vacation, or Prozac?

Ice hockey three to four times weekly, year round (so Canadian).

17. Essential to life: coffee, vodka, cigarettes, chocolate, or ...?

Although none of the aforementioned are essential to my life, I must admit that some participate with me, some more than others, and some more often than they should. Al Tuck says it best: “Moderation. Everything in moderation, including moderation ...”

18. Environ of choice: city or country, and where on the map?

Either right downtown or way out in the country—nowhere in-between. Nova Scotia for the rural and for the urban, right where I am in my backyard in downtown Toronto. I never really saw myself living in this city but I have for a long time and since having two kids, I really can’t think of a better place to be? Sure there are “better” places everywhere but I have what I have and this is our community. Nowhere is perfect but I’ve heard that it is better to want what you have than it is to have what you want ...

19. What do you want to say to the leader of your country?

“Resign now!” and then, “You’re under arrest for crimes against humanity.”

20. Last but certainly not least, what are you working on, now?

I’m working on a series of paintings that for the first time in a while seem like they are going my way ... I am also busy learning how to play our newest LP with my co-workers. This too is going well. Now I have to make dinner for my family and then go see my therapist. When I get home I intend to work very hard on a bottle of good Spanish red wine. Then I will work on bed and the cycle of life begins again tomorrow.

--taken from: PopMatters

Cooking for a Cause

--taken from: NOW Toronto (read more here)

Toronto-based digital indie music label Zunior turns 10 this year, and it’s celebrating by branching out into book publishing. The cookbook Zunior Eats features recipes from Canadian musicians, including Peter Elkas, Tamara Lindeman (aka the Weather Station), Sloan’s Jay Ferguson and the Burning Hell’s Mathias Kom (full disclosure: NOW writer/editor Carla Gillis has one in there, too), each contributing a dish that means something to them along with recommended listening while making it.

--taken from: NOW Toronto (read more here)

Music Review: Sloan – ‘Commonwealth’

--taken from: Blogcritics

by The Power Popaholic (Aaron Kupferberg)

Toronto-based quartet Sloan has been playing the most consistent quality power pop for over 20 years, and longer than any other band (still active) in the genre. After the career nadir which was 2011’s Double Cross, the band does something off the beaten path once again. This 15-song collection sees Sloan creating one of the most ambitious recordings of their career. Like the touchstone LP Never Hear The End of It, you’ve got a pile of great tracks and like The Beatles’ White Album, each band member creates a unique album section with its own layered personality. I’ll highlight each side here.

Sloan - CommonwealthJay Ferguson side: On first listen, it’s no different than any other Sloan LP – a good balance of sweet vocal melody and guitar riffs with enough hooks to keep you in headphone heaven. “You’ve Got A Lot On Your Mind,” “Three Sisters” and “Cleopatra” are standouts. The ’70s-style harmonies are most present here, with clear influences from The Beatles (especially Paul McCartney), Beach Boys and Todd Rundgren.

Chris Murphy side: Not as sweet, but just as strong, “Carried Away” resembles a Fleetwood Mac classic with heavier lyrical tone. The piano ballad “So Far So Good” is part of Sloan’s perfect melancholy theme that states, “When it comes down to it everybody meant well/Before their lives went to hell.” Another standout is “Misty’s Beside Herself,” which is a great story/song about a shy girl who finds herself in a relationship.


Patrick Pentland side: Here is where the bombastic guitarist gets to break out the riffs on “13 (Under A Bad Sign)” and the fuzz feedback anthem “Take It Easy.” In a major stylistic change from the previous two band member segments, Pentland opts for the heavy riffs and guitar effects. While the best track in his set is “Keep Swinging (Downtown),” it didn’t really lend itself to repeat listens.

Andrew Scott side: Probably the most ambitious of the sections, it’s one long 17-minute suite called “Forty-Eight Portraits.” Opening with about three minutes of discord and barking dogs, it really catches your attention with a Led Zeppelin-like piano bridge and guitar. It’s equal parts of stunning brilliance, rambling rock cliches and layered codas worthy of Who’s Next. It takes a few listens, but it’s worth it.

The band has matured to the point where these experiments keep things fresh. It’s the hooks here that will keep you listening to this album over and over again. What Commonwealth proves is that we have four skilled songwriters and instrumentalists with distinct tastes that keep Sloan atop the list of power pop bands.

--taken from: Blogcritics

Music Review: Sloan - Commonwealth

--taken from: CBC East Coast Music

by Bob Mersereau

I always thought the four members of Sloan should do what Kiss did in 1978, each release a solo album. The timing couldn't be better. They could have done them on oh-so-hot vinyl, and even dolled themselves up in make-up just to continue the joke. But the real benefit would be allowing each of the four members to write a full album's worth of material. After all, they've all been contributing to the band albums since the start. I've always wondered what each could come up with if 40 minutes was needed.

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Anyway, the group kind of went with this concept, just not on such a grand scale as my perfect (and humble) idea. Each member of the four-headed monster (Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Andrew Scott, Jay Ferguson) takes roughly one-fourth of the album, and instead of mixing the songs up, they are presented all together. Jay starts with five short tracks, Chris chimes in with his five, Patrick offers four, and Andrew just has one, but it's a whopping 17-plus minutes long, giving him the most time on the album.

The group proceeds to do what they do, with Ferguson contributing the purest pop, Murphy the cleverest and catchiest, Pentland the hardest-rocking, and Scott the wild-card. Pentland's Keep Swinging (Downtown) matches CanRock 70's (BTO, April Wine) with Bowie out-there. Murphy comes out with the line of the album, as he usually does: "Did you learn nothing from five seasons of The Wire? When it comes down to it, everybody meant well before their lives went to hell." Scott's epic starts part-Pet Sounds (the barking dog part), part-rejected ideas for a Pink Floyd album (when they tried to make the follow-up to Dark Side using household items instead of instruments), but then becomes a huge, multi-song collection about life and not getting messed up by the ego-play going on in your head and around you, sticking to all the love that's available: "If happiness lies deep within us, how come most deny it for themselves?" It features a children's choir at one point, orchestra parts, and is the Who-rock opera bit on the album, a grand accomplishment. As for the short and sweet, that's Ferguson's domain, and You've Got A Lot On Your Mind is the power-pop hit that never was, while Three Sisters is the production-rich dreamy ballad. Enjoying the concept of a suite of songs, Ferguson brings back the hook line from You've Got A Lot On Your Mind for the ending of Cleopatra.

So, there is lots of playfulness going on, all the members getting into the "one-side each" idea. My complaint is that they sold themselves short, that less in this case was not more. Actually, I've thought that for the group's whole career, there's just too much talent being squeezed in to each project. Four albums boys, I'm serious here.

--taken from: CBC East Coast Music

Sloan – Commonwealth (Yep Roc)

--taken from: Elmore Magazine

by Layne Montgomery

If this was a righteous world, Sloan would be as big in America as they are in their native Canada. Why are they so good? All four of them are songwriters and none of them is a Ringo.

On their new double album, Commonwealth (their 11th), each band member’s songwriting takes up a full side/suite. Sloan had talked about doing Kiss-esque solo records from each member for years, but wondered if fans would put in the time to listen to each one. However, putting all the solo-written material on one double album instead of four separate ones made it easier for the band to finish and will make it easier for listeners to digest. At least that’s what the band hopes. “Maybe people won’t like it this way, say it sucks,” said bassist and de facto leader Chris Murphy. “And the next one will be back to how we usually do it.”

It is slightly jarring, as a huge Sloan geek, to listen to Commonwealth for the first time. I’m used to hearing the four songwriters’ voices one right after the other (as opposed to segregated into separate sides): a Jay Ferguson song (guitar; lots of ballads; the sensitive one), then a Murphy song (bass; drums; the funny one), then a Patrick Pentland song (guitar; riffs; usually writes the singles), then an Andrew Scott song (drums; guitar; the complex one). And that’s the order of the sides here, chosen “alphabetically because we couldn’t decide,” said Murphy.

“We’ve Come This Far,” the solo Lennon-esque stomper that opens the album, acts as a mission statement for the band, now in its 23rd year. The song is a somber look at a mid-level lifer band’s career, as Ferguson sings, “Are we charmed or are we vexed? Does history or vanity decide?” This leads into “You’ve Got A Lot On Your Mind,” probably the best song here (how was it not the lead single?) and one of the few Sloan tunes you can actually dance to. Then Ferguson’s acoustic song (because he always has an acoustic song) “Neither Here Nor There” is also quite lovely and closes out his side.

Murphy’s songs tend to be the bridge between everyone else’s sounds: he can do light FM pop like Ferguson, pysch-rock like Scott, or head-bangers like Pentland, but here he settles into songs that are undeniably his own: witty lyricism, many structural twists and turns, and a chugging, mid-tempo feel. His side is probably the album’s most solid, punch for punch, although none of his songs stand out quite like past numbers including “Take It Upon Yourself” or “She Says What She Means.”

Over the past few years, Pentland has become Sloan’s weak link, and here he turns in the album’s dud—the slow, plodding, electronic “What’s Inside”—but then follows it with a total jammer in the single, “Keep Swinging (Downtown).” “Patrick always gets the singles,” Murphy said. “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Next, Scott’s side is one very long suite, entitled “Forty-Eight Portraits.” He tends to have the least amount of songs per album, so it is somewhat of a bummer that he only has one here, especially since it opens with two and a half minutes of “Revolution 9”-esque ambience and later quotes an older Sloan song (the classic “Delivering Maybes”). However the suite as a whole is still pretty awesome, so maybe I’m just being greedy for more Scott.

This is not Sloan’s best album. While there are some great songs, it is, ultimately, a little bit of a letdown. That said, what other bands are still doing crazy ambitious things like this on their 11th record? Plus, I’m probably holding them to impossibly high standards because I love them way too much. It wouldn’t be the first time. Just listen to Sloan already.

--taken from: Elmore Magazine

Listening Post: Music by Leo Wadada Smith, The Cookers, Helen Merrill and The Winans Brothers

--taken from: The Buffalo News

by Jeff Miers

Sloan, “Commonwealth” (Yep Roc). So Sloan finally got around to making its own version of the Beatles’ “White Album.” When the Fabs were beginning to fragment in the late ’60s, that double album allowed them a broad canvas on which to paint individual portraits. Many of the songs were essentially solo efforts from each Beatle, with the others pitching in an idea or two, or not, on a case by case basis. Canada’s greatest-ever power-pop band Sloan takes that idea one further with “Commonwealth,” a double album with each of the four band members grabbing a side for themselves. Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott handle all of the instrumentation, the vocals, the production and the arrangements for their respective album sides, and each of the four’s full musical personality is thus allowed to unfold beneath the Sloan banner. Sloan is that rarest of bands – one where all four members are essentially equally skilled songwriters and multi-instrumentalists. That said, Ferguson, Murphy, Pentland and Scott are markedly different writers, and it has always been this fact that contributed to the depth of Sloan’s catalog. “Commonwealth” opens with “The Jay Side,” and this was a wise move – Ferguson is a power pop classicist whose work echoes aspects of Paul McCartney, early Beach Boys and Todd Rundgren’s “Something/Anything” period. Ferguson drops five ornate slices of orchestral pop and Beatle-esque, harmony-laden rock. Murphy is next at bat, and he, too, bangs one out of the park, again concentrating on power-pop, echoing his finest work on Sloan’s classic “One Chord To Another” and “Navy Blues” albums. Pentland arrives with side 3, with a collection of punk-pop (“13”) Weezer-like pop-metal (“Take It Easy”) and indie-pop (“What’s Inside”). The guy seems to be incapable of writing a tune that doesn’t boast an insanely catchy hook. Side 4 goes to Scott, who completely unsurprisingly goes for a more avant-garde approach. “48 Portraits” is a multitiered composition that begins with the sound of a dog barking atop a percussion pulse and atonal piano playing, and then proceeds for 18 minutes through various aspects of Scott’s iconoclastic personality. It’s a stunning, albeit very strange, piece of work. Taken together, these four individual sides add up to one of the finest albums of Sloan’s storied career.

--taken from: The Buffalo News

Reasons to Live: Sloan, Esben, Zeus

--taken from: Toronto Star

Sloan’s “double-sided solo album” allows plenty of time to marvel at how far all four principles have come as pop craftsmen.

Sloan's Chris Murphy, left, Jay Ferguson, Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott divvied up the songwriting chores more explicitly than ever on their fine new album, Commonwealth.

by Ben Rayner

The idea of Sloan divvying up its songwriting duties is nothing new, of course; this is simply what Sloan does. Heading into the 11th album of its stubbornly engaging 23-year career, however, the Halifax-born quartet issued itself a four-way challenge to come up with a single vinyl side’s worth of songs per member. Smart tactic. Commonwealth, the resulting “solo-sided double-album,” boasts some of the stickiest Sloan tunes in recent memory and, even during its rare forgettable moments, allows you plenty of time to marvel at just how far all four principles have come as pop craftsmen since the days of Peppermint and Smeared.

There’s more overlap than you might think between everyone’s personal “sounds” here. There are two sides of sumptuous, lost-’70s soft-pop from Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson — whose smashing “You’ve Got a Lot on Your Mind” is such an impossible act for anyone, including himself, to follow that he loops the melody back in on “Cleopatra.”

After that, the jolt of low-slung fuzz-rock found on Patrick Pentland’s Side 3 offers the only truly jarring change-up. Even then, though, the proceedings are still identifiably Sloan-like, as they remain through drummer/resident weirdo Andrew Scott’s 18-minute, album-closing odyssey “Forty-Eight Portraits.” At least when the dogs stop barking and the first melody comes in. Be patient. It’ll come.

--taken from: Toronto Star

ESSENTIAL ALBUMS: Sloan: a pick from each member

--taken from: CHARTattack

Taking a cue from their new solo-sided double record, we let all four guys choose a record that influenced their songwriting.

In Essential Albums our favourite artists dig up five records that they consider “Essential” by any definition. This week,  in honour of their new four-sided album Commonwealth, every member of Sloan gives us one album that  has inspired their songwriting.

by Richard Trapunski

In the decades since they were touted as "the next Nirvana" in one of many "next Seattle"s, Sloan have established themselves as the opposite of a flavour of the month. Instead, they've been one of the most sturdy power pop bands in Canada, one of those groups that are so consistently good that you tend to take them for granted. In the last few years the band has thrown a few curveballs into their catalogue, releasing B-sides collections, double albums and hardcore 7-inches. Their latest, Commonwealth, gives each of the four members a full record side for their solo-written compositions.

Of course, even that seemingly experimental conceit isn't without its classic rock antecedents - that whole "let's see what each guy can do" thing has been tried by no less than KISS, The Who and, um, The Beatles - but Sloan certainly aren't the only once-iconoclastic "alternative" band to obscure their repressed music historical influences (as evidenced by Patrick Pentland's pick, below).

This is actually a natural step for Sloan. If you've ever been to one of their shows, you know their tendency to switch instruments between songs. If Commonwealth ever reaches Twice Removed full-album-runthrough status, it'll finally give the band a chance to stay in the same place on stage for more than a few songs at a time.
It also separates out each member's strengths and weaknesses and shows their hand in a way you don't often see from the harmony-laden group. Now you know who's the pub rocker, where the psych comes from, who writes the stickiest hooks, who gives the best pun. So, in the spirit of Commonwealth, we commissioned an Essential Album pick from each member of the group, plus a group pick from their manager.

Prince, Parade (1986)

Jay Ferguson: Parade by Prince boasts one of his last massive, crossover smash hits (“Kiss”), serves as the soundtrack to his first uneven film, Under The Cherry Moon (sadly, it would get worse with Graffiti Bridge), and was recorded during an era when he was writing and recording about four albums per year (his own, plus albums for Sheila E., The Family, Madhouse, etc.) as well as making films and touring. One would think that with this insane workload, the quality of his own work would slide. Not to my ears. Parade stands out as maybe my favourite of his awesome body of work.

Under the Cherry Moon
I think I was probably one of about nine people that saw Under The Cherry Moon when it played for a single week at the Penhorn Mall in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in 1986. One saving grace of the movie is that it provided a backdrop for Prince to perform songs from Parade. I was already a fan and I loved all the songs, but what made this record for me was the lack of stylistic uniformity from song to song, much like a Beatles LP. I think those types of albums end up being my favourite kind of records. I like to think that our Sloan LPs have that similar mode of gear changing over the course of a record. It’s just kind of incredible when it’s one person doing it all… and also playing most of the instruments.

My favourite story about the making of this LP is when Prince apparently walked into the studio, yelled “Fresh tape!” at his engineer Susan Rogers and proceeded to fasten a long sheet of lyrics to a mic stand. He sat down at the drums, and without a click track, played the drum tracks for the first four songs in a row without stopping, using only the lyric sheet as his guide. When he finished, he asked “Where’s my bass?” All these first takes were used and the LP was under way. I don’t even want to talk about how long it took me to record four songs for our new Sloan LP.

Sweet, Desolation Boulevard (US Version) (1974)

The Sweet - The Ballroom Blitz 1973
Chris Murphy: This version is quite different and much better than European version. The U.S. version essentially combines songs from the European version of Desolation Boulevard and songs from another Sweet album called Sweet Fanny Adams. Only two songs on the U.S. version of Desolation Boulevard are the same and a third song is the same but was re-recorded. The re-recorded song is “Fox On The Run” and really illustrates how a song can be made even better with amazing production [ed. note: here's the original & the re-recorded version]. “Ballroom Blitz” was a single that was on neither European album but is on the U.S. version. I actually don’t know why, when they made the track listing so different, that they bothered to still call the U.S. release Desolation Boulevard.

I love The Sweet and I feel like no one goes on about how awesome they sounded. Their lyrics were dumb but the music was fun with over the top production. If you don’t know them, they were a kind of cross between Mick Ronson-era Bowie and The Who with the harmonies of Queen. If you don’t know Bowie, The Who or Queen, I can’t have a conversation with you.

The Jesus And Mary Chain, Psychocandy (1985)

Patrick Pentland: Psychocandy was all the rage when I visited my family in Northern Ireland that Christmas. I became fascinated by The Jesus And Mary Chain and their sound, which seemed to combine everything I’d ever heard before, but chucked into a blender that they never bothered to switch off.

Jesus and Mary Chain-Taste the Floor
With an outer confidence that allowed them to insist they were the greatest band in history, and an obvious ear for a hook, they positioned themselves as the second coming of the Sex Pistols, a band they would go on to claim didn’t interest them at all. Equal parts sticky-syrup sweet and piercing metallic screech, the album captured everything that had been exciting about punk, and slammed it into a wall of classic pop. Having exhausted Bowie and AC/DC, and discovering punk and college rock, The Mary Chain stood out to me because they took everything that had come before, rejected it, and then secretly made it their own.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Interview + Live London 1985
The first five seconds of “Taste the Floor” alone probably had the biggest impression on me in terms of the mayhem a guitar, a pedal, and an amp could cause. I’ve been ripping them off for 25 years.

Check out this interview with the band that Daniel Richler conducted in London when they were exploding. I videotaped it when it first aired, and watched it over and over again:

Guided by Voices, Bee Thousand (1994)
[Full Album] Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
Andrew Scott: Because it was so wrong yet so right and also so timely. Lo-fi upgraded, renovated and retrofitted by the masters of the genre. GBV weren't even thinking about any of that categorizational bullshit - they were just writing amazing music and recording it the way they always had done it.

Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)

Mike Nelson: As Sloan's manager, the task of nominating an essential album that Sloan would all agree upon has fallen to me. Perhaps surprisingly, this was not a difficult task.

Public Enemy-Don't Believe The Hype
Forensic evidence has determined that the first time that the four members of Sloan were in the same room was when Public Enemy performed a legendary show at the Dartmouth Sportsplex in 1989. Most likely bolstered by that fateful night, Public Enemy has always been a touchpoint of accord in the Sloan camp. Whether it was Public Enemy's performance, their righteous indignation, or the songs themselves, they entranced us all.

To this day, if Public Enemy is being played (loudly) through Sloan's stereo, you can be guaranteed that we are celebrating a great show, a shared accomplishment, or that wonderful moment when we have successfully finished a tour and the bus starts heading for home.

--taken from: CHARTattack

Commonwealth (Yep Roc)

--taken from: The Waterloo Region Record

by Michael Barclay

Sloan titled their 2008 album "Parallel Play", a term for toddlers who have yet to learn how to interact, who play side by side. It was a self-deprecating dig at the fact that Sloan's four members were increasingly working in isolation, developing their own individual visions independent of each other while still in the same band. On 2011's "The Double Cross", however, Sloan had never sounded so collaborative and coherent; it was a hands-down highlight in their 20-year discography.

Here, they're back to their old ways. "Parallel Play" was not a great Sloan album; neither is this one, where each member is given one side of a vinyl record to do whatever they please. Jay Ferguson and Chris Murphy opt for five songs each. Master of concision Patrick Pentland offers four. Oddball drummer Andrew Scott delivers an 18-minute Syd Barrett-ish suite that's easily the strangest thing in the Sloan catalogue (it involves barking dogs and a children's choir).

Ferguson is first up to bat, followed by Murphy, Pentland and Scott — was this an alphabetical decision? Or maybe some mediator outside the band decided the order the album by quality: Ferguson's songs are all lovely, rich with classic Sloan harmonies, and likely to be the most enduring. Murphy opens his set with one of his best, "Carried Away"; the rest don't rise to that standard, though in "So Far So Good" he does score the album's best lyric: "Don't be surprised when we elect another liar / did you learn nothing from five seasons of 'The Wire?'" Pentland can usually be counted on for surefire rockers; this time, only the amusing "13 (Under a Bad Sign)" is likely to raise any fists. Meanwhile, his clunky rock ballad has the unfortunately accurate chorus: "What's inside is dead." Scott's suite, for all its obtuseness, is not a solo act: it at least sounds like the band is capable of working together and pushing their creative boundaries, even if it doesn't always work.

--taken from: The Waterloo Region Record

Rich Aucoin: Ephemeral

--taken from: PopMatters (read more here)

by Zachary Houle

Aucoin’s concerts are also youth-like: he custom orders a giant parachute for fans to clamour underneath, and his live show is such a spectacle that a commentator for CBC Radio 3 has said that”“he’s already holding stadium-calibre, interactive live spectacles in the confines of clubs.” Even his albums take on a commemorative aspect: 2011’s We’re All Dying to Live, which was longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in 2012, featured more than 500 guest musicians, including Jay Ferguson of Sloan and Becky Ninkovic of You Say Party. The release party for that record featured more than 80 musicians on stage. Clearly, Rich Aucoin likes a good shindig.

--taken from: PopMatters (read more here)

Sloan – Commonwealth

--taken from: Consequence of Sound

by Marc with a C

Sloan, as an entity, is the ultimate example of delivering on the premise and promise of The Beatles: four members that take turns leading the group with their own compositions, trading off lead vocals, and, occasionally, when more than one member is at the helm of a song, they reach a magical place that is greater than the sum of the individual parts. As an added bonus, Sloan happens to be a consistently great rock group, often harkening back to the “classic rock” days of yore, while remaining undeniably Sloan-esque.

Of course, there are huge differences between Sloan and The Beatles. The Fab Four took the world by storm, whereas Sloan is adored by their homeland of Canada and small pockets of hardcore fans throughout the rest of the world. At the peak of their popularity, The Beatles toured for only three years, while Sloan have toured hard and heavy for years. And, of course, while the lads from Liverpool worked collaboratively for roughly eight years, Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, and Andrew Scott have produced records together for well over 20 years now, only getting better and more refined with each release.

Despite their apparent harmony, many fans have pondered when the members of Sloan would eventually get around to releasing solo albums. The members haven’t really seen a need for that, though. As Sloan seems to work as a democracy, each member seems to get to follow his muse anyways. Truth be told, there isn’t really a successful precedent for such a move in rock and roll. Those solo albums by Kiss certainly spring to mind, and while Yes’ run of solo albums in the ‘70s produced some real gems, they could have been more succinctly distilled into one highlight-laden album.

That brings us to Commonwealth, Sloan’s 11th original full-length, a double-LP in which each side of wax contains a song suite led and directed by one member. Is it successful? That’s a complicated question to answer, as giving each member roughly 16 minutes to act as bandleader is anathema to what has made Sloan albums so compelling in the past.

Think back to the run on side B of 1999’s Between the Bridges for reference: Ferguson’s sunshine pop nugget “Waiting for Slow Songs” would be countered by the riff rock by way of Joy Division found in Pentland’s “Losing California”. Those themes would intersect in Murphy’s piano-led wordplay anthem “The Marquee & the Moon”. Giving each band member an entire album side to play with cuts the cord on what a Sloan album is, and, in effect, changes the chemical makeup of the band entirely.

It’s fitting that the first side of the album — led by Ferguson — is the most undeniably “Sloan” portion of the package. Picking up right where his contributions to 2011’s The Double Cross left off; he not only lends some continuity to the Sloan saga with more of his too-late-for-AM-radio power pop, but also introduces the “card suit” motif utilized throughout the album, each member’s side signified by a diamond, a shamrock, a heart, or a spade.

The heart side represents a turn for Murphy to reassume the leadership role that was evident in Sloan’s earliest records, but it’s also a testament to how far he’s come as a songwriter in those 20 years. Oh sure, the puns, wordplay, and pop culture commentary is still there, but there’s a mellow sophistication evident in his effortless melodies that’s a far cry from his distortion-drenched early days. Plus, in tracks like “So Far So Good”, you get lyrical gems like “Don’t be surprised when we elect another liar/ Did you learn nothing from five seasons of The Wire?”

Pentland’s side (shamrock) begins with a few nearly interchangeable stabs at ‘80s Camaro rock, his specialty in the last decade. But it’s the third of his songs, “What’s Inside”, that really shines. It’s an epic piece, resplendent with lots of out-of-phase instrumentation and a simple, pounding drumbeat, the track possibly the sleeper hit of the album. It’s a problematic side in total — those experiments don’t flow well next to the obvious pub rock of lead single “Keep Swinging (Downtown)” — but it’s also telling. If Pentland is the most consistently predictable songwriter in Sloan, where exactly is the album heading as a whole?

By the time Scott’s spade side rolls around — and I’m hoping that “spade” is a reference to a line in his 1998 composition “Seems So Heavy” — all bets are off. It’s a single track titled “Forty-Eight Portraits”, and it opens with nearly three minutes of barking dogs, seemingly disconnected percussion, and free-form piano. These disparate sounds eventually come together in an track that borrows an entire verse from 1999’s “Delivering Maybes” and recycles the piano outro from 1996’s “A Side Wins”. These nods are made more perplexing by the repeated hook of “What it does is unexplainable/ What it is is unsustainable.” Factor in Murphy occasionally chiming in on lead vocals and harmony, and Scott’s intentions remain unclear. The track is the closer, but there’s nowhere else it could have been placed on the album that made any sense at all. The song plays as if it’s Sloan’s swan song, and it’s certainly effective enough to make longtime fans wonder if lines like “Let’s leave well enough alone” are a wave goodbye.

If Commonwealth were the end of Sloan and the beginning of four solo careers, they’ve built a fitting and emotionally stirring Dear John letter to their audience. On the other hand, if Commonwealth is merely just another Sloan album with a different approach, it runs the risk of later seeming highly out of place in their discography. What will ultimately decide how history and fans remember Commonwealth is what Sloan does next. It’s either the most self-referential album they’ve ever made, coated in an air of finality, or it’s the first step into an incredibly awkward transitional phase. Commonwealth could be Sloan’s own take on The White Album, but it feels more like their answer to Abbey Road.

Essential Tracks: “So Far, So Good”, “What’s Inside”, and “Forty-Eight Portraits”

--taken from: Consequence of Sound

Sloan: Commonwealth

--taken from: PopMatters

by Chris Conaton

Let’s not bury the lede here. Commonwealth is Sloan’s 11th studio album, and for the first time since the abstract sketch-style cover of their 1993 debut, Smeared, the band has created an album cover that isn’t simply a variation on a photograph of the four members. Sure, their faces still appear prominently on the cover, as the four kings on playing cards, but there’s a lot more to the album artwork than just the guys in the band. It’s a welcome departure for Sloan, and while the music contained on the album isn’t nearly as much of a departure, it does find them attempting something different this time around.

Not that Sloan really needed to change it up. They’ve been playing top-notch ‘60s and ‘70s-inspired power-pop and rock for over 20 years now, and their last album, 2011’s The Double Cross, was possibly their best record since the ‘90s. Commonwealth finds them doing more of the same, but the conceit of this 60-minute-long, double-vinyl album is that each of the four band members gets an entire side to themselves. Since each member of Sloan has always contributed as a songwriter and singer, this isn’t such a radical move as, say, each of the members of KISS putting out a solo album on the same day in 1978. But it is the first time one of their records has been strictly divided by songwriter.

This tactic was likely inspired by the ambition of drummer Andrew Scott, who has always leaned more towards psychedelia and Led Zeppelin-esque grand rock gestures than the rest of the band. Scott’s side closes out Commonwealth, and it’s a single track that clocks in at just a touch under 18 minutes. Predictably for a guy who’s never tried this sort of thing before, “Forty-Eight Portraits” is a big mess. That doesn’t mean it’s unlistenable, just that it sounds more like six or seven song ideas all shoved together into one sprawling, loosely arranged piece.

The track opens with three minutes of abstract music, featuring a dog barking, a background percussion loop, and a lot of slow piano, guitar, and bass that don’t line up rhythmically with the percussion or each other. There are hints here and there of music to come later on, but mostly it’s just a chore to get through. Once the song proper kicks it at the three-minute mark, things improve markedly. Scott’s first pair of song ideas are catchy, going from muscular rock to wistful power ballad and back, with the power ballad leaning heavily on the wispy, high-pitched vocals of Jay Ferguson. The third section resembles some of Scott’s weaker songs by featuring his aggravating speak-singing style. It’s torpedoed entirely when Scott directly quotes a handful of lines from the Sloan classic “Delivering Maybes”, right down to the backing vocal harmonies, and those 15 seconds are better than the entire rest of that section of the song. From here, the track rambles through a few more ideas, including a string-backed piano ballad, a middling mid-tempo rock section, and a bouncy, horn-backed Beatles-style pop song that Scott cuts off way too early to slide into the down-tempo, four-minute conclusion. This conclusion features a lot of slow guitar soloing and a children’s choir, and the lyrics finish with Scott saying, “WWLRD?” After some pondering of this question, I’ve decided that Lou Reed would absolutely put together a messy 18-minute track and wouldn’t care what anybody thought about it. So good on you, Mr. Scott, for following your muse, and well done, Sloan, for deciding to put it at the very end of the album.

The other three sides of the album don’t feature any major departures for the band. What they do include, though, are at least couple of strong songs from each of the three songwriters. Ferguson kicks things off with the uncharacteristically dark and brooding “We’ve Come This Far”, which he only manages to keep going for 85 seconds before transitioning smoothly into the bright and poppy “You’ve Got a Lot on Your Mind”. The latter features ‘70s-style harmonies in the chorus and a similarly catchy bridge the instruments mostly drop out and the harmonies take center stage. The slow and melancholy “Three Sisters” is a nice change of pace before the uptempo “Cleopatra” kicks in afterwards. The acoustic “Neither Here Nor There” finishes out Ferguson’s side on a pleasant, quiet note.

Ferguson, it turns out, set the example for his fellow bandmates Chris Murphy and Patrick Pentland, who also each try to fit an album’s worth of sequencing into only a handful of songs. In the card suit theme of the record, Murphy is assigned Hearts, which is entirely appropriate, as his songs always seem to have the most emotional resonance and sympathetic characters amongst the band. “Carried Away” is a typically sympathetic portrait of a woman who cheated from the point of view of the husband, and could almost be the flipped perspective of the character from the Murph classic, “The Other Man”. This slides into the languid piano ballad, “So Far So Good”, which features the excellent couplet, “Don’t be surprised when we elect another liar / Did you learn nothing from five seasons of The Wire?” (A Mayor Rob Ford reference from the Toronto-based band? Possibly.) Another highlight from the Murphy side is “Misty’s Beside Herself”, a typically sensitive story song about a shy, lonely girl who finds herself in a relationship.

With Scott off working on his epic mess and Ferguson and Murphy both favoring piano-based songwriting this time out, Pentland finds himself carrying the torch for the time when Sloan was mostly a two guitar band. His first two tracks leave the piano on the sidelines and find Ferguson strapping on his guitar for a change. “13 (Under a Bad Sign)” and “Take It Easy” are technically different songs, but both share the same hard-edged guitar tones and driving drums and are only separated by about eight seconds of feedback. Unfortunately, his other two songs, “What’s Inside” and “Keep Swinging (Downtown)” leave something to be desired. The former gets lost in a swirling morass of guitars and reverb-laden vocals, while the latter is a bar band workout that lacks the band’s usual vocal hooks.

Commonwealth is a welcome left turn after the excellence of The Double Cross. It may have been folly to try to duplicate the creative success of that record with another just like it, so Sloan tried something else. The closest antecedent here is 2005’s Never Hear the End of It, which had a similarly (mild) experimental bent. There, the entire band contributed to a nonstop 30-song suite, while here each member pretty much creates their own suite. While this isn’t a huge step away from what the band has always done, it’s enough of one to keep it interesting for the band members and their listeners.

--taken from: PopMatters

A Commonwealth Interview With Singer Chris Murphy

--taken from: The Spacelab

by Morgan Y. Evans

Sloan are a perfect model for a pop rock band with integrity. A deep passion for songcrafting, a love of great hooks without abusive commercial tendencies that ruin the really great and catchy human elements and years pursuing the Sloan musical muses, wherever they might be. It was a charmed life moment to talk to Chris about new album Commonwealth, one of their all time best.

SPACELAB - "Carried Away" starts Commonwealth with such fanfair. Love the string hits. Sloan has always been able to sound immediate and make it seem near-effortless to come up with great hooks. Do you think just plain enthusiasm for music gets you able to write song after song well?

CHRIS - I wouldn’t say Carried Away starts the record. Ideally, there is no order to the sides. We did not number them on the vinyl. They are just named after the suit associated with each guy. On the digital version we were forced to put things into an order because we didn’t want to seek the sides separately. Of course, in true democratic style, we opted to put them into alphabetical order. 1. Ferguson 2. Murphy 3. Pentland 4. Scott. This was fortuitous because Jay’s lead off song, We’ve Come This Far makes a nice beginning to the record and Andrew’s 18 minute opus is a hard act to follow so it closes out the record.

That said, I’m glad you like Carried Away. I wouldn’t say it was effortless. I have to work on music and really work to come up with lyrics. I accept and appreciate that hard work is required to do a good job and keep the band moving but luckily I like to work and it’s a great job.

SPACELAB - "Cleopatra" is such a strong single. Are there certain eras or records in minimal pop you tend to gravitate towards? Love your emphasis on backup vocals with this song.

CHRIS - Cleopatra is Jay’s song. You say minimal. I am working my ass off the entire song playing tons of bass lines and singing all over the place. I don’t know what era this would be lifted from. Maybe ancient Egypt mixed with early 60’s Hollywood? I like the clean guitars, which might be a nod to 70’s pub rock. I’m not sure.

SPACELAB - When you write, is there just a sense of trust between you all?

CHRIS -Yes and no. We don’t all agree on many things so we have created a system where we split the writing duties equally and each person is in charge of his own songs. People can suggest ideas for the other guys’ songs and we do but ultimately the writer has final say. This assures that no one will not have his ideas vetoed. It’s not exactly democracy but we think it’s the best way to keep everyone happy in the group and we hope that people continue to tune into our experiment.

SPACELAB - What about Commonwealth, in your estimation, serves to best represent where Sloan is at now in this phase of your lives

CHRIS -Giving ourselves an entire side of a double record is the culmination of the way we work. We could have each made a solo record but we thought it would be too much music to digest (not to mention to write/record and pay for). This amounts to 4 solo ep's in one package. The writing process is the same as what we do normally but with this record we were able to curate 15 - 17 minutes of music in the writing of the record instead of what normally occurs where songs randomly sequenced after the recording process amounting to a compilation style. I like the way we normally do it but this is a fun experiment for us and hopefully for people who follow our band.

SPACELAB - Do you think people fear change too much? And does that lead to war?

CHRIS - What?! I am not qualified to answer that one but I think religion and oil provide plenty of opportunities to kill poor people.

SPACELAB - "Misty's Beside Herself" joins a grand tradition of "story" songs. Were you always fans of this mode? Or the song "Jack & Dianne"?

CHRIS - I suppose "Misty’s Beside Herself" is a story song. Nothing against Mr. Cougar but "Jack & Dianne" was not an influence. The best lyricists by the way are maybe Ray Davies, Chuck Berry and Morrissey? Discuss.

SPACELAB - Hmmm, I pick Billie Holiday. What is the best way to set your mind at peace or brace yourself for a long sequence of recording or writing? Or even being in public and letting people have access to your energy?

CHRIS - As of Friday, I will have 2 kids in school full-time and I am looking forward to having more time to write songs. I have found it difficult to have enough time to write music during the last 7 years.

As for people having “access to my energy”. The most draining people for that are my 2 (awesome) kids. Other than them, Sloan never got so famous that I felt like the public were demanding too much of me. I can easily make time for people who want to tell me Sloan’s music is important to them.

SPACELAB - How does Commonwealth rest in conjunction to The Double Cross? Is there a relationship there?

CHRIS -  The Double Cross was succinct and perhaps more easily digestible. This is sprawling and perhaps difficult to digest but may I suggest listening to it in 4 separate parts? As a small business, we feel like each album needs to have a story. This record is the one where we each got a side so it had to be long. The Double Cross was released as the band turned 20 so it didn’t really need to be anything specific. Not sure what else connects them except proximity.

SPACELAB - Is there anything from the Smeared-era you learned that still serves you well today as a musician or person, not that musicians aren't people - haha -?

CHRIS -  I was in the position of being the principal songwriter and the person who brought the guys in the band together. I feel like when we got signed, I could have made a play to be the boss and write all the songs, call the shots and make the majority of the money. I’m glad I invested in the writing of the rest of the guys because having the 4 of us write has made us last. My songs haven’t generated the most money, I would have been out of ideas about 3 records in and the guys would have certainly left a situation where someone was making more money than they are. I am thrilled to still be doing it with the same guys.

--taken from: The Spacelab

Sound Affects: Music reviews and ratings

--taken from: The Bellingham Herald

by Chris Conaton

"Commonwealth" is Sloan's 11th studio album, and for the first time since the abstract sketch-style cover of their 1993 debut, "Smeared", the band has created an album cover that isn't simply a variation on a photograph of the four members. Sure, their faces still appear prominently on the cover, as the four kings on playing cards, but there's a lot more to the album artwork than just the guys in the band. It's a welcome departure for Sloan, and while the music contained on the album isn't nearly as much of a departure, it does find them attempting something different this time around.

The track opens with three minutes of abstract music, featuring a dog barking, a background percussion loop, and a lot of slow piano, guitar, and bass that don't line up rhythmically with the percussion or each other. There are hints here and there of music to come later on, but mostly it's just a chore to get through. Once the song proper kicks it at the three-minute mark, things improve markedly. Scott's first pair of song ideas are catchy, going from muscular rock to wistful power ballad and back, with the power ballad leaning heavily on the wispy, high-pitched vocals of Jay Ferguson. The third section resembles some of Scott's weaker songs by featuring his aggravating speak-singing style.

It's torpedoed entirely when Scott directly quotes a handful of lines from the Sloan classic "Delivering Maybes", right down to the backing vocal harmonies, and those 15 seconds are better than the entire rest of that section of the song. From here, the track rambles through a few more ideas, including a string-backed piano ballad, a middling mid-tempo rock section, and a bouncy, horn-backed Beatles-style pop song that Scott cuts off way too early to slide into the down-tempo, four-minute conclusion. This conclusion features a lot of slow guitar soloing and a children's choir, and the lyrics finish with Scott saying, "WWLRD?" After some pondering of this question, I've decided that Lou Reed would absolutely put together a messy 18-minute track and wouldn't care what anybody thought about it.

"Commonwealth" is a welcome left turn after the excellence of "The Double Cross". It may have been folly to try to duplicate the creative success of that record with another just like it, so Sloan tried something else. The closest antecedent here is 2005's "Never Hear the End of It", which had a similarly (mild) experimental bent. There, the entire band contributed to a nonstop 30-song suite, while here each member pretty much creates their own suite. While this isn't a huge step away from what the band has always done, it's enough of one to keep it interesting for the band members and their listeners.

--taken from: The Bellingham Herald

Sloan go solo, together, on 'Commonwealth'

--also at Global News (watch an interview video with Sloan here)

--taken from: York Region

Jay Ferguson, left, and Chris Murphy, right, of rock band Sloan pose for a photo in their Toronto rehearsal space on August 16, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michelle Siu

by Nick Patch

The new Sloan record, "Commonwealth," distinguishes itself in many ways: it's a double album, the second-longest of the band's career; it's divided into four sides, each a solo showcase for one of the quartet's creative engines; and the final song is 18 minutes long, an Andrew Scott-penned marathon of superglued song sketches.

And despite all that, the new Sloan record essentially sounds quite a bit like a Sloan record.

Of course, that can be said of pretty much everything in their catalogue since their adolescent (if audacious) debut recordings "Peppermint" and "Smeared" came out in 1992.

Little that they've done since 1994's "Twice Removed" has sounded much like what was going on in rock music, but it's all sounded of a piece: sure-footed, polished power pop.

"From our second record on, it's like, what year is that, 1981? Or 1965? Or 2008?" pointed out Chris Murphy recently, surrounded at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel by his bandmates Scott, Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland.

"A lot of the songs — I don't know about all of them — could be on any of the records. It's fairly interchangeable. Except for a deliberate attempt to make a streamlined record on our 2003 record, 'Action Pact,' it's been pretty much just an eclectic, whatever you've got at the time (process). I could probably take all the songs that we have, which is 200 of them, and I could probably create albums out of it with different sounds or something."

Here, Pentland interjects from a nearby couch.

"It's odd, because ... in a weird way, you're kind of comparing us to AC/DC or something, where every record sounds the same. And you're probably right," said Pentland, clad in a Jesus and Mary Chain shirt.

"But it's four AC/DCs because we're all doing our own sound throughout it.

"None of us have really changed our sound that much, I guess."

The process hasn't changed much, either. Even as "Commonwealth" boasts its "four solo records" conceit — which indeed winks at Kiss and their ill-fated series of solitary ego workouts — Murphy stresses that the only real difference was the track sequencing. The four members worked largely in isolation on writing their songs, but that's what they've always done.

In a way, the segregated nature of their contributions sort of goes against the band's defining narrative of democracy and unity, one that sees them evenly splitting both the mike and the money.

But it's the way they've worked since the second record, and any deviations from the formula were flitting and even infamous.

"When we recorded our album 'Action Pact,'" began Murphy, again taking aim at the 2003 record, one of only two in the band's discography that failed to chart in Canada, "we had a producer (Tom Rothrock), which we usually don't have. And he was really into this idea of us recording everything together. So we'd come in, he's a real 'vibe' guy — like a surfer basically — put on a click, weird beat, and be like: 'Just play something. Now you play something. All right, YOU play something.'

"And it was just," he pauses, "garbage."

Considering that the band has always essentially been composed of four solo artists, their cohesion and consistency is surprising. Pentland attributes that in part to the fact that, individually, their tastes have been more or less unchanging since the band's beginning.

On the other hand, Murphy says he's been actively working to make timeless-sounding records since their distortion-contorted debut "Smeared."

"I think that I spent some time being so mortified by our first album being so of the time, slash, behind the time that I was hell-bent on not feeling that way again.

"I don't hate our first record anymore. I never really hated it. It (was just) so '88, but we were doing it in '91."

Although their next record, 1994's dramatically more mature and now-beloved "Twice Removed," first laid down the blueprint for their sound — cheerfully lit power pop tinged with jangly psychedelia — they still hadn't completely committed to the one-for-all thing.

"Patrick was probably trying to make songs within the confines (that) we were allowing him on that record," Murphy pointed out. "He used to refer to Jay and me as the 'alt gestapo.'"

"When we made that record, I thought: 'What the (hell) are you doing? We made this record, it got us on a major label, and now you're making a completely different record?'" Pentland recalled.

Finally with 1996's "One Chord to Another," the band achieved egoless equality. Pentland even gave the band its first two Top 10 singles in "The Good in Everyone" and "Everything You've Done Wrong" (their third, and to this point final, Top 10 hit was 1998's "Money City Maniacs," also a Pentland composition).

Each member of the band agrees that Sloan wouldn't have lasted if it couldn't constitute a creative outlet for all four players. They're the first to drop the "democracy" term, by the way, although Murphy wants to clarify exactly what that means.

"We're not a democracy where (we say), 'What do you guys think of this song?' and then we all vote or something. It's not like that. It's like: 'OK, we're all in this. We're all going to give ourselves. Everybody's going to get songs, and you can do them however you want.'"

And how are disagreements handled?

"If you don't agree with someone, but the other guys do, you just have to step away and trust that they're making the right decision," Pentland replied.

"Or wait and say I told you so."

Sloan's last full-length, 2011's lush and punchy "The Double Cross," was critically celebrated by critics in the U.S. and did better there than some of their past records.

Still, Murphy points out, "we haven't had a pay increase in 10 years." The band seems utterly bored by discussion of sales or broadening their audience.

"It's hard to compete with the nostalgia people have for the songs that came out in university or whenever they were in love with life or whatever," said Murphy. "I think the music that we're making is just as good, but it would be naive to think it's going to have the same kind of effect on people.

"We'll reach some young people, but it's mostly people who have been following us all along, and our music has already changed their world in a way our latest record won't."

It was in part the disappointment surrounding the much-battered "Action Pact" — an album fuelled by a major investment from the label, Pentland says — that crystallized a way forward, one where Sloan would double down on its Sloanness and worry less about fitting in.

"A lot of pressure came off us," remembered Pentland. "After a while, it was just like, this isn't going to happen. We're not going to be superstars. So let's just focus on being us. We don't care about being on Letterman anymore."

--taken from: York Region

--also at Global News (watch an interview video with Sloan here)

Maroon 5, The Tea Party and Sloan top this week's new music

--taken from: Toronto Sun

by Darryl Sterdan

All for one and one for all. It’s always been Sloan’s MO, if not its official motto. But it’s never been put into play quite like this. For their 11th album, the Toronto-based Maritimers divvy up the labour and the recording time equally, with each member helming his own multi-song suite on one side of a double-LP. Naturally, nearly everyone (parallel) plays to his individual pop-rock strengths — Jay Ferguson composes lush romantic melancholia, Chris Murphy delivers catchy hooks and bouncy beats, Patrick Pentland drops crunchy nuggets and drummer Andrew Scott plays odd man out with an ambitious, 18-minute ADD amalgam of styles and sounds. But no matter who’s in the foreground, it ends up sounding like what it is: Another excellent Sloan album that showcases the good in everyone.

--taken from: Toronto Sun

Big Releases on Sept. 9: Sloan (Commonwealth)

--taken from: The Calgary Herald

by Chris Lackner

Big Picture: It’s the album The Beatles could have made (if they didn’t kind of hate each other). Sloan aims for a democratic double album, with each member of the quartet handed creative control of a single side. The Toronto-based, Halifax-born rockers showcase their wide musical spectrum, from psychedelic rock and Brit pop to pitch-perfect, harmony-infused pop ballads. Andrew Scott’s closing side of the album is the ambitious, 18-minute long pop opus Forty-Eight Portraits. (Abbey Road, eat your heart out.) Hard to play favourites, but Chris Murphy’s fiery, moody second side is the one most likely to make it into your regular rotation.

Forecast: Finally, a Commonwealth worth being a part of. On their 11th studio album, Sloan remains vibrant and relevant — the elder statesmen of Canadian rock.

--taken from: The Calgary Herald

Sloan provides a wealth of uncommonly fine songs on ‘Commonwealth’

--taken from: The Daily Breeze

by Sam Gnerre

How do you make room for four gifted songwriters in one band?

The veteran Canadian quartet Sloan has come up with a way on its 11th album: Give each man one-fourth of the album to call his own, and turn him loose.

As each segment unfolds, the listener gets a sense of what makes each contributor tick, as well as a feel for the varied tastes and sensibilities that combine to form the band’s total sound.

Jay Ferguson favors propulsive pop-rock tunes during his portion of the album, out Tuesday, emphasizing melody and vocal harmonies on the standouts “You’ve Got a Lot on Your Mind” and “Cleopatra.”

Chris Murphy adds decidedly Britpop tinges to his five songs. The vibrant, harmony-drenched “Misty’s Beside Herself” resembles a vintage Hollies track, while the driving rocker “You Don’t Need Excuses to Be Good” adds reverbed guitars and a definite “Revolver”-era Beatles vibe.

Patrick Pentland changes gears immediately during his turn, favoring a heavier rock edge colored with fuzzed-out, squalling guitars on “Take It Easy” and “What’s Inside.” He sounds heavy-handed at times compared to his colleagues. The toned-down “Keep Swinging (Downtown)” uses less sonic firepower, but is much more effective.

That leaves Andrew Scott, who finishes off the album with the ambitious “Forty-Eight Portraits,” a nearly 18 minute-long song cycle. It starts slowly with a long instrumental intro, but turns lively and adventurous as the songs and fragments — I counted at least 10 different ones — blend seamlessly into one another.

So “Commonwealth” offers a bit of everything, from conventional, bouncy pop-rock to hard rock and an adventurous pop-production suite, all of it well-crafted and tuneful. But mostly, it shows just how talented the members of Sloan are, and how skillfully they manage to fit their various influences into a unified whole.

--taken from: The Daily Breeze

Sloan - Commonwealth (Yep Roc)

--taken from: Now Toronto

by Sarah Greene

Canada’s answer to the Fab Four, Sloan, are still charming after 23 years together – yep, 23 years.

The band’s 11th studio album is meant to be experienced as a double record on vinyl, one side dedicated to each of Sloan’s four co-songwriters.

But even over headphones attached to a computer, the record unfolds in distinct chapters: Chris Murphy’s eclectic Heart side is a little Tom Petty, with some minor-key piano balladry breaking into Police-like reggae on So Far So Good, and boasting a slow, melodic standout in Misty’s Beside Herself. Patrick Pentland’s Shamrock contribution is fuzzy, psychedelic and rocking – take it with you on your next run. Andrew Scott’s closing Spade side is one epic, eccentric track complete with a children’s chorus.

But Jay Ferguson’s opening Diamond section is worth the price of admission alone: 13½ minutes of power pop perfection that feels like familiar territory.

Top track: Cleopatra

--taken from: Now Toronto

Indie-rockers Sloan release 11th studio album

--taken from: Inside Toronto

Andrew Scott, left, Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy and Patrick Pentland, members of the band Sloan, get together at the Gladstone Hotel on Wednesday.

by Natalie Chu

Halifax rockers, turned Toronto residents, new 15-track album, Commonwealth, drops Sept. 9

Call it a feat or just the inevitable, Canadian indie-rockers Sloan are back with new music.

“We’re like Country Style coffee instead of Starbucks,” joked drummer Andrew Scott. “I mean we’ve managed to stay around for so long.”

Scott along with fellow-band members Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson and Chris Murphy met for an interview at Queen Street West’s Gladstone Hotel to discuss the upcoming release of their 11th studio album, Commonwealth.

“It was a great, fun project that we wanted to do for a long time,” said Pentland. “Commonwealth is like a statement of sorts, and it looks good written out.”

The Halifax rockers, turned Toronto residents, knew they were going to settle with a four-card motif on their album artwork, signifying each individual’s side of music.

The first single off the album, ‘Keep Swinging (Downtown)’, written by Pentland is a catchy rock number reminiscent of the veterans’ previous offerings.

“With four people, we split everything four ways,” Pentland added in regards to the album’s direction. For Sloan, sharing the songwriting has always been part of their history as a band, but this time it’s a little more distinct.

“We’re one of the few bands that have four singer-songwriters in the band, so we could do something like this,” said guitarist Ferguson.

Listeners can look forward to a 15-track album with equal contributions from all members, including Scott’s side, a 17-minute magnum opus track ‘Forty-Eight Portraits’.

“I mean, we know that in this day in age we have to be on our feet to stay relevant, so we tried to be creative and put something out there that was unique,” Scott said.

Sloan, who celebrated two decades in the business with their album Double Cross in 2011, have long since been praised for their prolific songwriting and staying power.

But despite each member’s individual talents and musicality, nobody has released a solo album. Does Commonwealth, essentially four solo EPs, signal a change?

“It could be. I mean, I guess so,” said Murphy. “The recording process was not much different than what we normally do, it was really more of just a sequencing difference,” he said.

Murphy attributes the band’s willingness to embrace the juxtaposition of each member’s musical styles to their success. While the album may not be seen as a traditionally cohesive whole, it works.

“This was the time to do it. This doesn’t mean that we’re now solo acts any more than we ever have been,” he said.

Music aside, the ability for the members to co-exist as friends over the past twenty years has been equally impressive. What has been the secret to their longevity?

“Well, if there was a secret we wouldn’t tell you,” Pentland laughed. “But there have been other bands, like Rush, that have lasted as well.”

Murphy agreed, adding there’s another, more practical element. “Well, you make sure everybody’s paid the same so that no one’s going off as a millionaire. And that’s all you can do, really.”

They may not be invincible, but how long Sloan will stick around is still anyone’s guess.

“There’s always an end in sight, especially when you reach middle-age,” Scott said. “But I don’t think any one of us sits around panicking about the potential end,” he said.

“We just keep doing what we’re doing and when it’s over, it’s over.”

Commonwealth will be released September 9.

--taken from: Inside Toronto

Sloan announces fall tour

--taken from: Kelowna Capital News

by Barry Gerding

With only a week to go before Sloan releases their 11th studio album, Commonwealth, fans can now get a sneak peek at the new songs on CBCMusic.ca First Play.

The new album, out on Sept. 9 via Yep Roc Records, is a 15-song collection that sees Sloan creating one of the most unique and ambitious recordings of their two-decade-plus career.

The band will hit the road this fall, with dates in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. (details below).

Commonwealth is available for pre-order on iTunes now, with an immediate download of album tracks, Cleopatra, Carried Away, 13 (Under A Bad Sign), and Keep Swinging (Downtown).

The Toronto-based rock quartet is perhaps the most truly democratic group in the annals of pop, with Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, and Andrew Scott all contributing original compositions to each record, equal partners with equal say over every aspect of their work.

Where in the past, creative lines have been blurred to come up with the multi-faceted Sloan sound, Commonwealth sees the four bandmates disassociating ever so slightly to create an old-school double album sequenced with each member staking out a single side as their own artistic dominion.

Commonwealth follows 2011’s The Double Cross, which earned Sloan some of the most glowing notices of their acclaimed career. Designated by the four playing card suits, the essentially solo sides allow for all four members’ work to at last be heard through the prism of individual identity.

Ferguson’s opening Diamond side showcases his remarkable knack for symphonic pop, Pentland’s Shamrock offers a substantial helping of pedal-hoppin’ psych rock and Murphy’s Heart is fit to burst with wit, jangle, and eclectic energy.

As if the four-sided concept weren’t challenge enough, Commonwealth finishes with Forty Eight Portraits, an ingenious 18-minute pop suite that fills the entirety of Scott’s closing Spade side.

Ultimately, what makes Commonwealth so special—and so distinctly Sloan – is how the fragmented approach in fact only serves to underscore the veteran band’s extraordinary strengths, showcasing the particular ingredients without ever losing sight of the sum of their parts.

--taken from: Kelowna Capital News