New Sloan album “a satisfying creative experience”

--taken from: The Regina Leader-Post

by Barbara Woolsey

With four members playing equal parts in songwriting and nary a lineup change in over 20 years, Sloan must be the most democratic band in rock ‘n’ roll. But now, Canada’s long-beloved indie pop darlings are reaching for another level of egalitarianism with the new album, Commonwealth.

“Our story has been for the past 10 years or more (that) Sloan are still together, same line up,” said singer and bassist Chris Murphy. “Just making the record this way has forced people to talk instead about the ways our band is unique. And not just a bunch of old guys.”

Commonwealth, Sloan’s eleventh studio album, is actually a double disc with four solo EPs fitted together. Each member got to write and sing his own side of the compilation.

The band is already known for its communal approach, with everyone contributing at least two songs to every record. Commonwealth, however, was an opportunity to give everybody a taste of full autonomy, from composing right down to sequencing songs.

“It wouldn’t upset me if people conclude, and some have said that, ‘Oh I don’t like it this way, I like what they do normally,’” said Murphy. “This was just a fun experiment for us, it doesn’t mean this is how we are going to be represented from now on.”

According to Murphy, making the album in such a way was a satisfying creative experience too. He particularly lauds the work of bandmate Andrew Scott, who does vocals and drums, for one adventurous track that’s more like six or seven tracks mashed together.

“I think that Andrew making a song just shy of 18 minutes is obnoxious in the best way,” Murphy laughed. “I think it’s really fun. At the risk of sounding like a journalism student, I think it’s even a fun talking point. Everybody in the world is releasing a record every week, so that is something unique.”

The band is now touring Canada and the U.S. promoting the new album, and relishing every second of it.

“Being on tour is the easiest time of my year,” said Murphy. “Being at home is hard, fighting about who had more Smarties (with my kids) and all that. Being on the road is just about sleeping in as long as I want and eating fries.”

Sloan’s long-term success in an industry that’s built on marketing frontmen, is no small feat. It’s proof that rock bands don’t necessarily need to break up and dissolve in the stereotypical showdown of egos.

“We are a band that’s created a giant body of work, basically 200 released songs, and I’ve written about 70 of them,” said Murphy. “But I wouldn’t have been able to write 200 of them. Sometimes I joke about if one writer is like investing in a stock, investing in four writers is like a mutual fund. Even if one stock is down, it’s buoyed by hopefully the others. It doesn’t necessarily skyrocket, but there’s always steady growth.”

--taken from: The Regina Leader-Post

Sloan go solo as a group on 'Commonwealth' LP

--taken from: Toronto Sun

by Jane Stevenson

Canadian rock-power-pop band Sloan’s long-standing democratic songwriting philosophy became more formalized on their 11th studio release, Commonwealth.

Each of the four members got their own side of the double disc titled after playing card suit names like Diamond (singer-rhythm guitarist Jay Ferguson), Heart (singer-bassist Chris Murphy), Shamrock (singer-lead guitarist Patrick Pentland) and Spade (singer-drummer Andrew Scott).

“At the risk of suggesting that this is not really very special – the writing process was all the same – it’s really only a sequential difference,” said Murphy, 45, recently in a coffee shop in T.O’s Bloor West Village before the group’s Canadian tour kicks off next Tuesday.

“We play as much or as little on each other’s songs as ever. Each of us splits the real estate of the records fairly evenly. I probably wrote the majority of the stuff at the beginning (of Sloan’s 1991 formation in Halifax)...and to us (on Commonwealth) it was just a fun experiment like, ‘How much of ME can you handle?’”

That being said, Murphy says Pentland – the hardest rocking of the bunch – has written the most hits for Sloan, including Commonwealth’s first single Keep Swinging (Downtown), while Scott, whose contribution is one 17:49 minute song called Portal has written the least.

“(Patrick) probably feels a lot of commercial responsibility that Andrew does not feel,” said Murphy.

“You could frame it that Patrick is financing Andrew’s art project or that Andrew lends credibility to a professional rock band. I really think that he’s a world class player both on drums and guitar. He plays most of the lead guitar on most of my songs.”

As for Jay Ferguson, Murphy states: “I’m kind of Jay’s henchman in a way. Like Jay has this vision...he wakes up in the night and writes down ideas. Jay and I work together really well and we love to work. Had we become really rich off this we may have retired and been sitting on our asses in Palm Springs. But we haven’t made enough money to retire EVER. I’m already 45. I’m in a young person’s game.”

So how much longer can Sloan continue then?

“Well, I look at 54-40 and Blue Rodeo and I say, ‘Well, if they can do it, they’re 10 years ahead of us.’ And they look at Rush and The Guess Who. I joke sometimes, ‘If you’re around for 20 years doesn’t that mean that you can do it forever?’ ”

Still, Murphy is definitely proud of Sloan’s legacy – 200 released songs over the last 23 years with the same four members still intact. And he’s happy that Commonwealth, which debuted at No. 9 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, is the group’s highest position on that chart in their history.

“It’s the culmination of everything we’ve been working towards – our ability to do this.”

--taken from: Toronto Sun

Sloan’s Two By Four

--taken from: Planet S Magazine

by James Brotheridge

The story this time around: Commonwealth, the latest record in Sloan’s over-20-year history. It’s a double record where each of the four members get their own side for their own material.

According to Patrick Pentland, guitarist and one of the group’s four singers, Sloan often tries to have a story behind its new records — “more of a story than, ‘Some label gave us the money to record a record’,” as he put it.

Pentland sees 1998’s Navy Bluesas their hard-rock record, for instance, and 2006’s Never Hear the End of Itas a 30-song rock opus. This time, Pentland, guitarist Jay Ferguson, bassist Chris Murphy and drummer Andrew Scott each got a 20-ish minute chunk for their own songs.

Pentland had a bunch of possible approaches in mind.

“Originally, I was working on music that was quite different from anything anyone in Sloan would’ve done, and then eventually I just thought, ‘I don’t want to record stuff on this record that’s radically different for the sake of being radically different,’” says Pentland. “So I reined myself in. I’m just going within the context of Sloan, because it was still a Sloan record.”

What other directions could his side have taken?

“I had two different approaches. One was more of an ambient, electronic sound. I had a bunch of music that I had recorded over the years that I was going to bring back and flesh out, that basically had no guitars and no live drums or anything. I realized that was going to be a little bit too brattish or something, a little bit too thumbing my nose at the rest of the band,” he says.

“The other –– I had done a lot of demos with Chris of stuff in an open-G tuning, which is more of a Stones-y, bluesy-rock sorta feel, more Zeppelin-sounding sorta stuff,” adds Pentland. “I had about four or five songs like that. But then I realized, I’m going to have to tour this record and play these songs for a year and then have them as part of my repertoire. So, if my heart’s not fully into these songs, I don’t want to play and record them.”

What he didrecord for Commonwealthsounds like classic Pentland stuff. Of Sloan’s four members, Pentland’s songwriting style might be the easiest to pin down: he’s a straight-ahead rock guy. “‘13’ and ‘Take It Easy’ are just noisy guitar songs,” he says of a couple of his tracks on the record.

“Some people might look at those as very simple or something, but that’s what I wanted,” he says. “I’m never interested in fleshing songs out so that people will be impressed. I’m capable of adding strings and horns with harmonies to everything I do, but I don’t do it just to show it off. I’ll do it if the song really needs it.”

If Pentland sounds a little defensive, it’s not the only time in our phone interview. At another point, he talks about his frustration with Commonwealth’s reviews.

“I find it frustrating reading reviews of the record –– I’m happy that people are writing about it, but they’re constantly picking the side that wins or whatever,” he says.

It’s hard to hear that and not think of Mason Pitzel’s Prairie Dogreview. Pitzel wrote that Pentland’s side “sounds as desperate as a 40-year-old’s sudden, conspicuous interest in motorcycles.” Ouch. And Canadian music monthly Exclaim!’s review, meanwhile, said that Pentland’s “riff rock fetishes ... fare poorly when placed all together.”

But Commonwealthisn’t designed to be experimental, and Pentland’s songs have the essential simplicity that’s made him a go-to guy for singles, from “Ill-Placed Trust” off Never Hear the End of It, to “Believe in Me” off Parallel Play, to “Unkind” off The Double Cross.

When helistens to Commonwealth, Pentland hears four musicians playing to their strengths — even Scott, who delivers a single, near-18 minute song. “I don’t hear it as being a big departure or anything like that. It’s all good. I think people brought strong material to the record,” he says.

So even Scott’s side isn’t surprising?

“Of course not. You don’t think, given a side, Andrew would make one long song? Of course he would.”

--taken from: Planet S Magazine

Owners Of “Lukes General Store” Pick Their Favourite Albums

--taken from: Scout Magazine (read more here)

by Maya-Roisin Slater

Definitive Records asks interesting folks to pick the three albums that anchor their musical tastes. Today we hear from Aaron Schubert and Gareth Lukes, the coffee, music, and apothecary connoisseurs behind the soon-to-open Lukes General Store on the DTES.

Aaron Schubert:

Sloan – One Chord to Another
No question in my mind — this is one of the greatest Canadian records of all time. Never gets old, never gets tired. The day I found it on vinyl was a happy, happy day. I still get excited when I see it in my apartment and remember that I have it. I believe it was recorded on a 4 track which is impressive considering how good it sounds. Its got 60s pop elements and some fantastic horns. There isn’t a weak song on the record and its tough to make a call on which of the four member’s songs are the best. Lyrically amazing as well. “I’m writing Young and Gifted in my autobiography. I figured who would know, better than me” [from Autobiography]

--taken from: Scout Magazine (read more here)

Quick Spins: Sloan, Steve Gunn, Cancers

--taken from: Chicagoist

This week we examine forthcoming and recent releases from a trio of bands that couldn't be more different. However, luckily for us, the results of each group's efforts result in a trio of excellent albums that won us over.

Usually when a band releases an album evenly split between the members each taking solo sides, the results can leave fans shuddering. Is the band breaking up? Fulfilling contractual obligations? In a best case scenario, even if it's based in mindset of truly creative exploration it often at the very least exposes the weaker songwriters in a band (sides 3 and 4 of Pink Floyd's Ummagumma, anyone?).

Of course there are exceptions to the rule, and Sloan is one of those few bands with four amazing songwriters who more than hold their own against each other on every album they've released. Commonwealth is a little different since it groups each contributor's songs together as solo efforts, which end up making this feel like a collection of mini (and one long) suites instead of a more cohesive and unified artistic statement. The album's four sides stick with each songwriter's strengths—Jay Ferguson's still the one with the tender tough, Chris Murphy takes the mid '70s AOR approach, Patrick Pentland hews to the harder rocking power-popper mold and Andrew Scott is still the most experimentally minded while still delivering the hooks—so Commonwealth doesn't really reveal any new insight into the band.

So what makes this album, the 11th LP of the band's career, remarkable is the fact that it sounds just as strong as any other Sloan album despite it basically being four solo EPs wrapped into a single package. It's still one of the best rock albums we've heard this year. Hopefully this is a brief sojourn for the four men of Sloan to create independently before ushering in the next chapter of their astoundingly long and consistently fruitful career.

--taken from: Chicagoist