Anyway Gang Plays it Safe on Debut

--taken from: The Heights

by Nathan Rhind

As we look back on the alternative and indie music scene of the past decade, it’s clear that the best albums were also the most forward-thinking, original, and experimental. Jack White’s Boarding House Reach interwove different sounds and genres into a cohesive whole that still rocked and rolled. Lorde’s Melodrama zeroed in on the growing pains of adolescence with painful, incisive detail. Unfortunately, on Anyway Gang’s eponymous debut, the band does little to close out the decade with a respectable performance. Failing to explore different sounds or pen interesting lyrics, the band falls short of any meaningful impact.

Anyway Gang is a recently formed Canadian supergroup consisting of Sam Roberts, Menno Versteeg of Hollerado, Dave Monks of Tokyo Police Club, and Chris Murphy of Sloan. They are signed to the label Royal Mountain Records, along with other notable Canadian acts in the indie scene such as Mac Demarco and Alvvays. Anyway Gang struggles to live up to their labelmates’ reputations and don’t even manage to live up to the standards set by its previous solo works.

The lyrics on the album are painfully unoriginal and made worse by the whining, yelping vocals. Songs such as “Everybody Cries” and “Square One” feature choruses as boring as “Everybody cries / Everybody cries sometimes” and verses as uninspired as “Just put one foot in front of the other / We’ve all been there one time or another.” The songs all have the same jangly guitar-strumming, skipping rhythms, and dull cliches, as if the band used a formula devised for crafting forgettable indie rock.

Believe it or not, the lowest point on the project is actually not these two songs but the “Interlude” nestled between them in the tracklist. The vocal straining and overly serious tone of the 43-second snippet bodes poorly for listeners determined to make it through the rest of the album.

The four lines of the “Interlude” are enough to make any English teacher cringe, with no identifiable theme holding the lyrics together. “Cause without rain, there’s no shine / Without a stone, there’s no stream / And on the way, down the line / This’ll all just be a dream,” they sing. Common platitudes put to rhythm and melody, these lines do little to illuminate the purpose of the track or to function as a true interlude and connect elements of the album.


The one bright spot on the album comes on the sixth track, “Eyes of Green.” It features a catchy acoustic melody; confident, passionate vocals; and swirling choral echoes in the background. For the first time on the album, it seems that Anyway Gang is clicking and successfully recreating the sound of other indie acts known for producing energetic anthems: Blossoms, Sundara Karma, and Circa Waves. Unlike other songs on the album, the different members’ vocals meld together perfectly, and the song sounds like a true group effort.

Within this track, the tension builds with driving percussion and heartfelt choruses until one of the members starts howling, “It’s too late to turn back now.” It is a defining moment that shifts into an electric guitar solo that would have made the song better if extended. Unlike other tracks such as “Fly Francisco” and “Only One,” which are more sentimental and subdued, this song is fast and powerful and clearly suits the band’s sound better.

It’s perhaps harsh to characterize this album as a complete failure, as the song “Eyes of Green” shows promise, and the artists in the supergroup are all accomplished musicians in their own right. The project would have been improved if some of the weaker tracks were either revised or even cut entirely so the band could put its best foot forward on its debut.

It’s unfortunate that Anyway Gang didn’t take more risks on its debut, something it could have easily gotten away with since it’s understandable that as a new band, the members are still refining their sound. The group’s self-proclaimed motto is “three-chord maximum.” While this style has worked for bands as iconic as the Ramones and the Strokes, these past rock legends used these chords to greater effect, providing a bigger punch in their songs than the ones on Anyway Gang’s album. Three chords work sometimes, but Anyway Gang should realize that simplicity leaves no margin for error.

--taken from: The Heights

watch Sloan, Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew & Tracey Ullman cover Buzzcocks’ “Why Can’t I Touch it?”

--taken from: Brooklyn Vegan

by Bill Pearis

Last night in Toronto was 15th annual Andy Kim Christmas Show, which featured appearances from Ron Sexsmith, Sloan, Bif Naked, Men Without Hats, Crash Test Dummies, Jane Siberry, and more. As part of their set Sloan brought out surprise guest Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene and the great Tracey Ullman to pay tribute to Pete Shelley (who died almost exactly a year ago) and cover Buzzcocks’ classic “Why Can’t I Touch It?” Sloan joked on Instagram, “We were starting to think this was never gonna get crossed off our very extensive and specific bucket list: ‘sing a Buzzcocks song onstage with Kevin Drew and Tracey Ullman.’” If you’re wondering, Tracey Ullman did her hit cover of Kirsty MacColl’s “They Don’t Know” elsewhere in the evening. Watch video of both, below.

Sloan are in the midst of their Navy Blues tour where they’re performing that 1998 album in full. East Coast dates start in February and includes a NYC stop at Bowery Ballroom on February 20.



--taken from: Brooklyn Vegan

Anyway Gang

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Kyle Mullin

Sloan were Canadian legends throughout their '90s heyday. Sam Roberts reigned supreme over mid-2000s airwaves. But it's arguably the glossy, gleeful sheen of younger True North rising stars Tokyo Police Club and Hollerado that characterize much of the tone of Anyway Gang, the eponymous debut of a super-group featuring members of all four of those well-established Canucks acts.

Throughout most of these brisk and blissful nine tracks, Tokyo Police Club and Hollerado frontmen Dave Monks and Menno Versteeg, respectively, offer peppy sing-alongs aplenty and hooks gargantuan enough to clog any arena. Frequent Hollerado producer Gus Van Go, meanwhile, helms this effort, ensuring the tone glistens like the most modern of rock gems.

Take "Everybody Cries," which features earnestly shrill singing and thunderclap percussion. Its refrain about relatable weeping would be a bland platitude, if not for the sincerity in the vocal delivery (and a goofy, breathless speak-singy midway breakdown that's sure to leave the Barenaked Ladies salivating with envy). "Eyes of Green" is all the more punchy and poppy, even though its toned-down tempo renders it practically a ballad alongside most of these other speedy tracks. Then there's "Square One," an endlessly jaunty piano-laden number, and "Only You," which is put over the top by its impassioned handclaps.

Roberts and Sloan's Chris Murphy — the relative elders in this supergroup foursome — are, of course, no strangers to radio-ready hooks. But their comparatively stripped-back pedigree makes for a jarring juxtaposition on production more typically associated with young bucks Monks and Versteeg. Regardless, the veteran rockers have a blast with that slickly trendy backdrop, bellowing and soloing along with youthful abandon, especially on the respective stadium rafter shaking opener and closer "Big Night" and "Lost Boy." So, yes, the Anyway Gang are a disparate crew, but that just makes for a uniquely fun combination.

--taken from: Exclaim!

Sloan Treat 'Navy Blues' to Massive Vinyl Box Set

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Calum Slingerland

Ahead of heading westward through Canada on their Navy Blues anniversary tour this month, Sloan have now detailed a massive box set reissue for their fourth studio album.

Limited to 1,200 pieces, the Navy Blues deluxe vinyl box set is now available for pre-order through the band's website. The set features three LPs, a pair of 7-inch singles, a colour poster, digital downloads and a 32-page book complete with "many unseen photos, posters, artwork, ephemera, lyric sheets" and more.

As Sloan's Jay Ferguson explained in an email, the box's first LP will feature Navy Blues "in all its glory remastered from the original mixes," while the second LP contains "home demo recordings for each track on Navy Blues...some with early different arrangements and alternate lyrics."

The box set's third LP features 14 outtakes from both the album sessions and a handful of demo recordings.

"Some of these songs wound up being re-recorded in different forms further down the road in our career (some lounging around for 20 years!) and some never went any further than here," Ferguson added. "The Outtakes LP almost makes for an alternate upside-down-world 1998 album that never was.

"We'd like to thank all the fans who have been supportive and encouraging of both the previous box sets and tours (not to mention the continued interest in our new recordings). So please make room on that shelf, and we hope you dig this latest deluxe box. We're looking forward to seeing you all this fall and next spring."

Sloan last released their 12 album in 2018. That same year, they treated digital-only EP Hit and Run to its first-ever physical release.

--taken from: Exclaim!

BIll’s Indie Basement (10/4): the week in classic indie, college rock, and more

--taken from: Brooklyn Vegan

by Bill Pearis

These Sloan deluxe album box sets are so well done, it’s a real treat to go through their back catalog with them, learning stories behind the songs and getting to hear alternate versions and songs that didn’t make the cut or that weren’t quite ready for primetime yet. It helps that, where they are in this reissue series, is dead in middle of their mid-’90s creative peak, with all four members writing some of their best-ever songs. I waffle back-and-forth as to what Sloan’s best album is — One Chord to Another? Twice Removed? Between the Bridges? — but Navy Blues is up there for me.

The album has a reputation as a dive into ’70s riff-rock, and the album’s two singles — the AC/DC-ish hit (and continued Canadian jock jam) “Money City Maniacs” and the incredible Thin Lizzy-esque opener “She Says What She Means” — certainly fall into that category. But 21 years on it feels more like a continuation of what they were doing on on One Chord to Another, but now moving out of the ’60s and into the early-’70s. Less Beatles and Kinks, more Badfinger and Big Star. (There’s still a little Beatles here, at least a couple songs feel pulled from Side 1 of Abbey Road.) Production and arrangements became more ambitious, with songs flowing into one another, and at least a couple “song suite” type numbers (Chris Murphy’s “Suppose They Close the Door” and Andrew Scott’s “Sinking Ships”).

There are no bad songs on Navy Blues and the highs are dizzying: from the aforementioned riffy rippers “She Says What She Means” (by Murphy) and “Money City Maniacs” (by Patrick Pentland) to Jay Ferguson’s jaunty “C’Mon C’Mon” (which has one of my favorite guitar solos of the last 25 years), Andrew Scott’s  cocky “On the Horizon.” There’s also Murphy’s joyous “Keep on Thinkin’,” and Pentland’s wistful “Stand by Me, Yeah” (which has a little Thin Lizzy in it too), and…the whole record’s fantastic. What was “retro” sounding in 1998 has aged into evergreen. A classic.

There are two LP’s worth of bonus material. The first is Navy Blues in demo form with some songs pretty much arriving fully-formed (all of Andrew’s song), some almost there minus lyrics (“C’Mon C’Mon” is almost totally “blah de blah de yeah yeah”), and some that would change quite a bit (“Keep on Thinkin'”). The third disc is much more interesting, all studio outtakes, many of which would end up on later albums. Sometimes much later and in radically different form. Patrick’s “Just One Shot” finally reared its head 20 years later as “This Day Will Be Mine” on 2018’s 12, and I like the slightly lighter touch the original has. Elements of “Open Your Umbrellas” and “I’ve Enable Myself” would end up in Chris’ “Fading Into Obscurity” from 2006’s Never Hear the End of It, “and Daddy Be Cool” became “Your Daddy Will Do” on 2013’s The Double Cross. “So Beyond Me,” would end up on Navy Blues‘ follow-up, 1999’s Between the Bridges with just a bit of “Yours to Steal” thrown in.

I find it so fascinating to see how songs evolve, are torn apart, spliced together and, for the most part, made a lot better. The liner notes, part of the 32-page book that comes with the set, help tell that story too.  More casual fans may want to wait for the sure-to-come single LP repress of Navy Blues, but fans should definitely pick this up (you probably already have). And if you’ve never heard it at all…

--taken from: Brooklyn Vegan

Sloan releases a new deluxe (and quite massive) edition of their Navy Blues album

--taken from: A Journal of Musical Things

by Alan Cross

[Picking a favourite Sloan album is tough, but the safest thing to do is default to the Navy Blues album from 1998. If that sounds like you, the band has just issued a new deluxe edition vinyl box set. Here’s the word from Jay. – AC]

Navy Blues is finally turning 21! Since a debutante ball is a bit expensive, what better way to celebrate this LP’s formal coming of age than with a marginally less expensive deluxe vinyl box set!

In 1998, we were coming off the heels of our most successful record, One Chord To Another. This 4th LP was the first record where there were real expectations, both commercially and critically. First single “Money City Maniacs” did (and continues to do) well at radio (and, currently, at Raptors games) here in Canada. While the record was, at the time, generally considered a nod to a more 70’s-rock infused sound, in hindsight it’s feels like a pretty varied collection from 4 songwriters.

Perhaps the extra content from the era added here even expands on that notion.

As with our previous Twice Removed and One Chord To Another box sets, there will be three LPs contained within. First up is Navy Blues in all it’s glory remastered from the original mixes, followed by a second LP of home demo recordings for each track on Navy Blues…some with early different arrangements and alternate lyrics.

The third LP is a 14 song collection of outtakes from both the formal studio sessions at Chemical Sound where the album was recorded and a handful of demo recordings. Some of these songs wound up being re-recorded in different forms further down the road in our career (some lounging around for 20 years!) and some never went any further than here.

The Outtakes LP almost makes for an alternate upside-down-world 1998 album that never was. As well as the three LPs, there’s not one, but two 7” singles included this time. The first single contains two more demo recordings leading up to Navy Blues…an early rocking incarnation of Chris’ “Summer’s My Season” titled “Rock Star Admit It” paired with a home demo of Patrick’s “Out To Lunch”. The second 7” single is a reverse nod to the very limited white vinyl, label and sleeve “Rhodes Jam” single we released in 1997. This time it’s an all black vinyl, label and sleeve instrumental outtake called “Hammond Jam”.

That’s correct…”Hammond Jam”. That’s me trying to keep up on bass while Chris wrestles the drums and Andrew jams the Hammond. That leads us to the piece-de-resistance from the attic offices of “Murphy Design”, the beautiful 12” x 12”, 32 page, full colour book detailing the recording process, stories and experiences from the era along with song by song specifics all told in an oral history fashion.

This is all rounded out with many unseen photos, posters, artwork, ephemera, lyric sheets and many other items that have finally found justification for sitting stored in boxes over the past 21 years! Now we’d absolutely be unable to make these box sets without our friend and photographer Catherine Stockhausen’s wonderful archive of photos and once we again had more visual content than would fit in the booklet. So, we relegated a shot she snapped of us atop Reaction Studios in Toronto (where we mixed the album) to create a deluxe 18” x 24” poster contained within.

We’d like to thank all the fans who have been supportive and encouraging of both the previous box sets and tours (not to mention the continued interest in our new recordings). So please make room on that shelf, and we hope you dig this latest deluxe box. We’re looking forward to seeing you all this fall and next spring.

--taken from: A Journal of Musical Things

Sloan’s siren song and their hockey connection as the band returns to Halifax

--taken from: For Star Halifax

by Jack Parson

Air raid sirens are not an unusual sound at Halifax Mooseheads home games.

For some, the Halifax-born rock band Sloan is synonymous with hockey. Fans of the Mooseheads will recognize the sirens of the band’s iconic tune “Money City Maniacs,” waiting in anticipation for the first few strums of the guitar to give way to the ensuing catchy riff.

The song is often played while spotlights dance around the arena as the Mooseheads take the ice in the Scotiabank Centre. This will likely be the case some time during the Memorial Cup, running May 17 to 26.

Canadian artist Andrew Scott, best known as the drummer and one of four songwriters for Sloan, is a big fan of the game. Currently residing in Toronto with his wife and two kids, the 51-year-old Scott plays hockey four to five times a week in a recreational league.

“It’s so many aspects of keeping my mind and body in working order; if I can’t play the game it really pains me,” Scott said in an interview.

“Hockey’s a huge part of my family’s day-to-day. I’ve got a 15-year-old kid who plays single A GTHL (Greater Toronto Hockey League) hockey here, and that dominates our fall, winters and springs.”

Sloan’s music has also been played for hockey games at the national level, and Scott has heard of it being played at Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres games.

“If it turns a nonfan into a fan vicariously, then that doesn’t hurt,” Scott said when asked how he feels about his band’s music being used for hockey games.

During his youth in Halifax, Scott noticed the line between athletes — or “jocks” — and those in the music scene. He was a part of these two worlds and still is. He feels as though that divide is not as prevalent as it once was.

“You block out the stupid kind of ‘This is our gang, that’s your gang, you better not cross this line or watch out’ or whatever. That’s just silly, childish kind of thinking,” Scott said.

“Now, it’s just, like, who cares if you like sports or you like music, like whatever the hell you want.”

Scott will be in Halifax with the rest of Sloan on Saturday night as part of a 10-day music festival on Argyle St. that opened with Matt Mays Friday night and ends with the Joel Plaskett Emergency next Sunday. The festival is part of the Memorial Cup celebration and runs on the same days, with shows ending before the games that day start.

This series of outdoor concerts features homegrown talent, showcasing some of the best musicians to come out of Halifax, an appropriate accessory to the high-profile hockey being played nearby.

“It always feels good to come home,” Scott said.

Whether folks are coming into the city to watch the games or see the concerts, they can expect to hear some Sloan.

--taken from: For Star Halifax