Sloan: Juno Nominees' Next Album Might Sound Like My Bloody Valentine

--taken from: Spinner

by Jenny Charlesworth


Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland of Sloan aren't too interested in winning another Juno. Their longtime band are up in the Best Rock Album category for The Double Cross but the guys are pretty blase about it. So are the Canadian indie rock veterans too cool for award season? Nope, they're just design snobs.

"Junos now are horrible!" Pentland tells Spinner. "You don't want to win one, aesthetically."

"Unless they go back to the old design," jokes Ferguson. "Then we'll consider accepting one."

"I have my Juno above my kitchen cabinet, it's prominently displayed," he adds. "But it's the old-style one, the weird three-dimensional isosceles triangle."

The bandmates can have a good laugh over the Juno award revamp but they agree there's no need to mock the honour itself.

"I don't mean to downplay it at all," says Pentland. "Our Juno nomination is for our album, which we made with somebody -- Ryan Haslett was the engineer, Gregory McDonald plays with us and we have management and road crew -- so it's not just about celebrating the band, it's about celebrating everyone involved in the record and who helped to promote it. We don't take that lightly, it's nice to be nominated."

Sloan has been around for longer than most of the groups who will be walking the red carpet at Sunday's star-studded award show in Ottawa. And for that, the guys are truly thankful -- though their gratitude may be concealed by perfectly-timed jokes.

"I'm grateful that our band has been together for 21 years and we're still being recognized," says Ferguson. "There aren't that many bands up for an award that have been making records that long beyond Blue Rodeo and Ron Sexsmith; it's a younger kid's game."

While they band are happy to see The Double Cross rack up some Juno fanfare, they are a bit worried about what that means for the next record.

"We tend to do records in threes and I feel like this record is the third -- Parallel Play, Hit & Run and this record all have a similar feel to them -- which means that the next one will suck and then we need another rebirth," says Pentland.

"Although, I made a demo the other day in my basement that sounds like My Bloody Valentine so maybe we're OK, maybe we'll make a louder record."

"Yes," says Ferguson, "we're due for one of those records."

--taken from: Spinner

Welcome!

Sloan Stuff was created on Saturday, February 25, 2012 by a Sloan fan who wanted to make it easier for people to dig up information about the band.

It's a work in progress. Adding things little by little.

OK, the background isn't that great yet - bear with me.

Audiobiographical: Sloan

--taken from: Musings On Music

by Matt Laforest

Hailed as Canada’s answer to Nirvana and all things grunge, Sloan shot out of the underground in 1992 with their debut album Smeared which featured future classics “Underwhelmed”, “500  Up”, “I Am The Cancer” and more.  Fast forward two years and Sloan had moved away from the noisy, feedback drenched sound of their debut and had embraced a more classic pop sound (although the pop songs were always there on Smeared, they were just disguised a bit).  1994’s Twice Removed is consistently hailed as a one of the best Canadian records of all time, and rightfully so.

My first memories of Sloan are a little hazy.  I moved to Europe in the fall of 1992 and wasn’t aware of their meteoric rise on the Canadian music scene. When I returned to North American shores a few years later I was fully immersed in the burgeoning Britpop scene that was coming out of England.  Even still, I remember seeing the video for “Coax Me” and thinking it was a great song.  The same can be said for “People Of The Sky”, with the half sung, half spoken vocal delivery of drummer Andrew Scott.  In a landscape of post-grunge, post-Nirvana clone bands, the songs really jumped out.

The follow-up to Twice Removed arrived in the form of 1996’s One Chord To Another, a  contemporary throwback pop/rock record (does that make sense?).  It wasn’t until early 1997 that I became a full fledged Sloan fan.  Something just clicked and I got it.

It was around this time that I became really interested in independent record labels and, to my delight, I discovered that Sloan had their own label, murderecords.  Originally created to release their debut EP, Peppermint in 1991, Sloan had resurrected the imprint after their subsequent split from DGC (who released Smeared and Twice Removed).

Another intriguing aspect of the band is that they’re all songwriters.  Listening to their records for the first time is always interesting as you’re never sure who’s song is up next or which member will have the most songs on the record.  For the most part they divvy up the songs in equal parts, but their have been anomalies.  In concert, watching them switch instruments so every member has the opportunity to take centre stage is something to see.

Some of my favourite memories ever involve Sloan shows.  The first time I saw the band live was at Edgefest ‘98 (a huge outdoor travelling festival).  There was a signing tent where fans could line up and select bands would make appearances and meet and greet with fans.  Much to my dismay, Sloan were scheduled in the tent at the same time Foo Fighters were on stage.  Suffice it to say, the line wasn’t moving as fast as I would have liked and I began screaming at the top of my lungs “Get out, get out, get out” along to the Foos tune “Alone + Easy Target”.  Yes, I was that guy.  Everyone in line ahead of me does a one-eighty and I even managed to draw the attention of a couple of Sloan guys.  Woops.

Then, in 2001, at Barrymore’s in Ottawa, the band were touring in support of Pretty Together.  I’m standing watching The Dears (how awesome is that for a opening band?) and look to my left and there, standing right beside me is Sloan drummer Andrew Scott, taking it all in.  Being the fan that I am, I figure I’ll never get another chance to ask him a question again.  Now, everybody always thinks “If I could only ask so-and-so one question, it would be (insert question here)”.  When, on a seconds notice, you find youself in that situation, sometimes the results are less than stellar, as was my choice.  The drummer for The Dears is tearing shit up on stage and I turn to Andrew and think I’m asking a pretty “cool” question, not the usual drivel.   “Hey Andrew, how’s it goin’?  Question for you: in a drum battle between you and George, who do you think would win?”.  Andrew raises an eyebrow and very matter-of-factly states “Are you watching this, he’d fucking kick my ass!”.

--taken from: Musings On Music

Sloan hit up the Great Hall for the holidays

--taken from: blogTO

Sloan played the Great Hall on Wednesday night as the second of a two-night run of shows benefiting the COUNTERfit Harm Reduction Program and the Barriere Lake Legal Defense Fund. Local heroes Fucked Up, who also curated the Toronto-centric lineups for each show, headlined the first night. Having already played Toronto a handful of times this year, this show was notable as it found them airing out their third LP, 1996's "One Chord to Another", in its entirety. Despite the relative similarity of the performances to those found on the album, far be it from a band as energetic as Sloan to phone it in and stage a mere recital.

It was "One Chord to Another" that solidified Sloan's reputation as both critical and commercial darlings (at least in Canada), mixing the four members' unabashedly hooky but sometimes disparate songwriting styles and congealing them with a wash of 1960s AM pop production. For this show alone they rehearsed and unearthed a number of songs that either hadn't be played in years or never at all, and it was during these tracks, as well as the guest-heavy encore, where the show got its boost from injecting some unpredictability into Sloan's signature dependability.

From the first notes of "The Good in Everyone", with its distinctive stop-start intro, the band had forged the night's theme: it was 1996 all over again. And everyone, band and audience alike, loved it.

Indeed, while I had seen a couple Sloan shows over the years that seemed to run on autopilot, this was thankfully not the case on Wednesday. The mega-hits kept coming with "The Lines You Amend" and "Everything You've Done Wrong", the latter featuring a three-piece horn section. Some of the best songs of the night were the record's deep cuts, including the Chris Murphy-led double whammy of "Nothing Left to Make Me Want to Stay" and "Autobiography."

While the lyrics of both suggest dissatisfaction with the music industry following the band's less than amicable break with Geffen Records following the release of "Twice Removed", the performances tonight were spirited and joyful. Indeed, a charitable air permeated the evening, with each of the night's bands repeatedly thanking Fucked Up for the chance to support these great causes.

That Sloan were going to pull out all the stops to faithfully recreate the magic of "One Chord to Another" was no surprise; the encore, though, featured more than a few curveballs. The band pulled one track from each of their first two records, with "500 Up" showcasing Sloan's early nod to shoegaze and sounding crystal clear in the acoustically magnificent Great Hall.

The final two songs would bring two high-profile guests to the stage, first with Fucked Up's Damian Abraham for a faithful rendition of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" (sadly devoid of any stagediving antics), and then with Feist joining to play her signature hollowbody Guild on "She Says What She Means." Keeping with the gaff of it being 1996, Patrick Pentland joked before the last song that "this is a work in progress from our next album."

Despite "She Says" being taken from 1998's "Navy Blues", the joke had resonance. Sloan have proved over the years their ability to forge on relentlessly with new material; this one-night victory lap of revisiting and revitalizing the good in a classic record showed that Sloan can rise to the challenge of past, present and future.

The Rural Alberta Advantage, Ohbijou, and Bonjay opened the show. All three Toronto-based acts turned in solid performances, with Paul Banwatt of the RAA's absolute domination of his drumkit inspiring crowd participation en masse. By the time Ohbijou took the stage, the Great Hall was filling up nicely, but the majority of the crowd sadly missed out on the short but sweet Bonjay set. Melding dancehall grooves with emotive inflection, the three-piece band led by the magnetic Alanna Stuart started the show by packing as much energy into the empty space of the venue as possible. Expect big things from them in the future.


--taken from: blogTO

Sloan Turns Back The Clock With Charity Show

--taken from: Toronto.com

by Garnet Fraser

If you stayed home last night in a bid to sleep through the longest night of the year, you missed a heck of a party. In a benefit show at the Great Hall, the Canadian '90s survivors Sloan played, in its entirety, their 1996 album One Chord to Another for the assembled throng at the Great Hall. (Bonjay, Ohbijou, and the Rural Alberta Advantage rounded out the impressive bill.)

One Chord is close to a sacred text among some young Canadian rockers; it gets name checked but not often played, as it involves some supplemental instruments Sloan doesn't often travel with. (What's "Everything You've Done Wrong" without those horns?) But on this night the band had backup - not just longtime sideman Gregory "Goose" Macdonald on keyboards but and honest-to-God brass section - and, just as important, a bit of practice. (Sloan records are always catchy, but the ensemble hasn't always been tight onstage.)

So it was that Patrick Pentland, Chris Murphy, Jay Ferugson and Andrew Scott came roaring out of the gate, poised and propulsive, with "The Good in Everyone," delighting the kids, too, and not just the many greybeards in attendance. (I only mean aging hipsters; there weren't many literal greybeards except for Pentland, who's singing and playing better than ever but who know looks like the leader of some obscure radical movement.)

As a live experience the album works great; it's a lean 39 minutes and 12 tracks on disc, with nary an indulgence, and Pentland's songs still rock, Murphy's still funny, Ferguson's songs are still the prettiest things the band's ever done, and Scott delivers welcome change-of-pace arty pieces that let the crowd catch its breath and made the concert feel like more than just ear candy. (Scott is absolutely still one of the best drummers in the land, too, though the Rural Alberta Advantage set made an excellent case for that band's exceptional skin-pounder Paul Banwatt.)

Then came the encore: A couple of non-One Chord songs, a brief battle for the control of the crowd between the event's emcee and organizer Damian Abraham and the equally amusing Murphy, and Abraham joined the band for a cover of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" (at one point twirling Murphy around his neck onstage). Finally, Feist showed up, reminding us that before her music was a coffee-house institution,
she was a bona fide rocker. She grabbed a guitar and lent even more power to "She Means What She Says," a chugging nugget from One Chord to Another's follow-up album, Navy Blues. Maybe we can hear that one next year ... right, guys?

(Patrick Pentland on creating and now re-creating the album at The Grid.)

--taken from: Toronto.com