Arboretum festival lineup includes METZ, Junglepussy, Mykki Blanco

--taken from: Ottawa Citizen

by Lynn Saxberg

Hard-hitting noisemongers Metz, veteran Can-rockers Sloan, breakout New York rapper Junglepussy and California art-rap sensation Mykki Blanco are among the acts coming to the grounds of Ottawa City Hall this summer as part of the ambitious fifth-anniversary edition of the Arboretum Festival, to be held Aug. 17-20.

City hall’s Marion Dewar Plaza is the new location for the indie festival’s main stage, their fourth home in five years. Arboretum’s managing director Stefanie Power, who has been working with the festival since creative director Rolf Klausener founded it in 2012, hopes it will become their permanent site.

“It’s interesting for us to change spaces and change the way people think about these public spaces,” Power said, “but it’s also a business and logistical challenge for us to change sites every year. We’re hoping that we can make City Hall a bit more of a home for us.”

Last year’s festivities took place on Albert Island amid controversy over the site’s status as a sacred meeting place in First Nations culture. That site was not available this year, Power said. The two previous years’ events were held at Arts Court, which is now under redevelopment. The inaugural fest took place at the Ottawa Jail hostel.

The new City Hall site is not only central and spacious, but also has a place in Ottawa music history. “A lot of people have good memories of going to Bluesfest there and discovering music,” noted Power, recalling the years that Bluesfest descended on the city hall grounds. With a projected attendance of 3,500 or so, this year’s Arboretum is a fraction the size of Bluesfest, but organizers are looking forward to having the space to expand the beer garden and offer bicycle parking.

Tuesday’s preliminary lineup announcement also includes the new electronic solo project by Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara, Toronto’s electro art-punks Doomsquad, SXSW buzz act Dilly Dally, the fast-rising Halifax-based punk duo Partner, powwow artists Kina Miniwag, psych rockers Hooded Fang, indie-rock troubadour Shotgun Jimmie, Afro-Columbian innovator Lido Pimienta and the underground Toronto collective Above Top Secret.

“I think it’s ambitious and we have some really great Cancon favourites like Sloan but we also have some new and challenging artists. We’re trying to maintain that excitement and integrity,” said Power. “I’m excited that we provide a platform for some artists who don’t normally come here, like Mykki Blanco. He opened for Bjork a few years ago, but I don’t think they really route him through Ottawa so that’s exciting for us.”

An East Coast native, a personal favourite for her is the Halifax-born band Sloan, who will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark album One Chord to Another. She’s also looking forward to Junglepussy, whose Pop Montreal performance was one of Power’s concert highlights of 2015. “She’s phenomenal, a young rapper, 24 years old, who talks a lot about healthy living. The way she presents herself is inspiring and wonderful,” said Power, who also used to book acts at the now-defunct Raw Sugar Cafe.

Several independent Canadian labels will also showcase their artists at Arboretum’s day parties and club shows. Hard Drawn Dracula, Buzz Records, 88 Days of Fortune, You’ve Changed Records are confirmed, with more to be announced.

To find out the rest of the lineup, you have to wait until May when organizers plan to announce more acts, cultural talks, industry events, details on the festival village and a restaurant-driven charity component to raise money for the Ottawa Food Bank.

--taken from: Ottawa Citizen

Sloan Extend 'One Chord to Another' Anniversary Tour

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Gregory Adams

As previously reported, Sloan are taking their 1996 album One Chord to Another out on tour this year to mark its 20th anniversary. Following some recently rolled-out tour dates, the Maritimes-bred alt-pop quartet have offered up details on another clutch of concerts around Ontario.

While the first batch of "One Chord to Another 20th Anniversary Tour" dates gets underway early next month, running from Barrie, ON, towards Vancouver Island, Sloan have now added a few U.S. appearances to the schedule before heading back out to Ontario. All told, there are eight new celebratory shows taking place in the province this May, including a performance at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre on May 14.

No need to worry if you're a Sloan fan further out east, as the band confirmed to Exclaim! that a third round of concert appearances as part of the tour will be revealed later this year. Those particular dates are expected to take place in the fall.

For the time being, you'll find the band's updated tour schedule down below.

The details have yet to arrive in full, but Sloan will be issuing an anniversary box set behind One Chord to Another, much like how they delivered a B-sides-loaded edition of Twice Removed in 2012. The ETA for this expanded release is still unclear.

--taken from: Exclaim!

An Essential Guide to Sloan

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Corey Henderson

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the formation of Sloan, the Halifax-turned-Toronto power-pop quartet. If you told them in the early days that they'd be together this long, I'm sure you'd have been greeted by a pretty big laugh. From noise rock darlings courted by major American labels (Geffen, Sub Pop) to arguably one of the most important Canadian rock acts of all time, Sloan have never really followed the classic rock narrative. In fact, they almost ended before they really had a chance after the band nearly broke up following their sophomore album — an album that would solidify their success in Canada.

Eleven albums later, Sloan have stayed the course. Every member still has an equal share in the writing of songs, trading instruments and lead vocals on stage. It doesn't really seem like they are going to stop any time soon. Chris Murphy has begun performing with TUNS, a trio of former Halifax rock greats Matt Murphy (Super Friendz) and Mike O'Neil (the Inbreds).

With such a long career, and a sizeable output of music, it's difficult to know where to begin with such a legendary cult band. Thus, we present the Essential Guide to Sloan.

Essential Albums:

5. Smeared
(1993)

Their first full-length release, Smeared, is Sloan in their fuzzy, shoegaze prime. Kicking off the record is the song that made Sloan a force to reckoned with in the early '90s rock scene, the silly and sad "Underwhelmed." Drawing inspiration from two former relationships, this is a topic from which Murphy would mine a number of great songs. The lyrics are biting, filled with jabs at both former loves as well as Murphy himself. Sonically, it's fuzzy, almost droning with the same riff chugging along the entire time. Smeared also contains Sloan's first foray into power pop, the style that would be cemented on their following records. "500 Up" has an insanely catchy riff, and crisp and clean three-part harmonies on the choruses, only very rarely veering back into the noisier sound of the record.

4. 4 Nights At the Palais Royale
(1999)

A live record can be a gamble even at the best of times. Luckily for Sloan, 4 Nights At the Palais Royale is a snapshot of a band at the height of their popularity and skill. Covering songs from their golden era, the record captures a lot of what made them so popular. It's just plain fun, loud and always just about to fall off the rails, with the audience eating it up, singing along and screaming all over the place.

Highlights include a blazing rendition of "G Turns to D" and an extended version of classic jock jam "Money City Maniacs," with a huge mid-song drum break from Andrew Scott and a ton of audience participation. 4 Nights demonstrates that Sloan are at their best when they're having fun.

3. Navy Blues
(1998)

At this point, every hockey arena in Canada comes pre-loaded with "Money City Maniacs." Navy Blues is Sloan's '70s rock album, stuffed to the brim with huge riffs and wailing guitars. "Money City Maniacs" is a how-to guide on writing great pop rock, with a massive riff and that classic Sloan wit on lines like "If you admit that you're wrong, then we'll admit that we're right." Instrumentally, the song gives plenty of room for each player, with a groovy bass line bleeding into a wild guitar solo that's followed by one of the best breakdown/build-ups in rock history.

For all the straightforward rock tunes on Navy Blues, there is also a lot of whimsy here, like the mini rock opera that is "Suppose They Close the Door." Drenched in organ, it feels like three different songs stitched together, with the spooky minor key verses moving into upbeat pop choruses that make for one of the most dynamic songs on the record. Although piano is found on a lot of Sloan releases before Navy Blues, this is the record that really embraced the instrument, especially on the tracks written by Andrew Scott, adding an almost Magical Mystery Tour vibe to tracks like "Sinking Ships" and "Seems So Heavy."

Navy Blues also contains a quiet coda at the end of the album, aptly titled "I'm Not Through With You Yet." Stripped down to just acoustic instruments, it's a melancholy counterpart to the mostly bombastic album, showing that Sloan's best tricks are not the guitar solos or drum fills, but the deft use of emotion.

2. One Chord To Another
(1996)

This is the record that almost wasn't. Coming together after the hiatus and potential end of Sloan after the Geffen ordeal, this record was recorded for $110,000 less than Twice Removed and in only two weeks — and it features Sloan at their most fun. It opens with the sound of a large crowd and the voice-over announcer welcoming Sloan to the stage on "The Good in Everyone."

The band discuss the same themes on One Chord To Another as they do on other Sloan releases — broken relationships, self-deprecation, and immaturity — but the songs have a more upbeat sense to them overall. Fuzz and dissonance are replaced with even more harmonies, acoustic instruments and heavy use of auxiliary percussion (maracas, tambourines). One Chord To Another also contains one of the best/worst breakup songs, "G Turns to D," on which the band blaze through a great pop riff while Murphy laments teaching his ex how to play guitar because now she writes songs about him. It's comedic in its hypocrisy throughout, discussing how he has already written songs about her, and especially when Murphy says that he doesn't really mind in the middle of a song about how much it upsets him. No one does passive aggression like Sloan.

Then, there's the overt Beatles influence all over the record. "Autobiography" could be the spiritual sequel to "A Day In the Life," while tracks such as "A Side Wins" and "Everything You've Done Wrong" might have sat nicely on The White Album. Jay Ferguson's "The Lines You Amend" has that distinct mid-period British Invasion vibe, falling somewhere in between Revolver-era Beatles and the Rolling Stones, with the jangly guitars, pop riffs and chugging bass line.

1. Twice Removed
(1994)

Two years after Twice Removed was released, it was voted the best Canadian album of all time by a Chart magazine readers poll, beating out stalwarts such as Joni Mitchell's Blue and Neil Young's Harvest. In the States, it was one of Spin magazine's "Best Albums That You Didn't Hear This Year." It was also the album that almost killed Sloan before they'd barely started. Geffen wasn't happy with the album they had recorded, which had traded in most of the fuzz and noise for pop hooks and vocal harmonies. With limited release in the States, Twice Removed went on to be a classic in Canada. It's Sloan's quietest record, replacing the droning distortion of Smeared with more dynamics throughout, such as on "Bells On," an ode to a former lover that goes from quiet and smirking to loud and upset. It's a record filled with sadness over lost friendship, broken promises and a feeling of not being part of the crowd.

"I Hate My Generation" seems to make public some of the tension that was going on during recording of Twice Removed, lamenting being lumped in with a bunch of people just because of the way they looked. What's noticeable is whenever they discuss the past, it is sonically happier, trading in melancholy guitar lines with bigger, more fun riffs, upping the energy and moving into a major key. This is followed up with the Andrew Scott-penned "People of the Sky," a Bob Dylan-esque pop tune that strings stanzas of poetry together with only a vocal refrain every few verses to break it up.

The highlight of the record is the oddly prophetic "Coax Me," a song about selling out for what you love, once again connecting the song to the backstage conflict going on with Geffen. Paired with a video reminiscent of the Ed Sullivan Show, "Coax Me" is particularly disarming, with its haunting vocal hooks and catchy pop chorus. It also shows a full sonic departure from Smeared, with the song featuring almost no distorted guitar. Murphy's lyricism is on point as well, penning one of the best lines in Canrock history: "It's not the band I hate, it's their fans." The song builds on the sense of isolation and separation that is found all through the aptly named Twice Removed.

What's truly amazing about Twice Removed is its timelessness. Coming on to 25 years old, it doesn't sound dated at all. The use of retro rock staples, mixed in with the slacker, lo-fi vibe of the '90s, gives the record a sense of being unstuck from time.

Further listening

There are plenty of post-1998 gems in Sloan's catalogue. 1999's Between the Bridges is a wonderful walk through the Sloan story in the form of a rock opera on which the opening medley of tracks work almost as character studies of the quartet: Andrew Scott on the whimsical, piano-laden "The N.S."; Chris Murphy on the chipper, rollicking "Beyond Me"; Jay Ferguson on the soft rock-inspired "Don't You Believe A Word"; and Patrick Pentland on his full barrel banger "Friendship." It's also worth checking out 2001's Pretty Together, particularly for bad guy anthem "The Other Man," a song about Murphy's love triangle with Feist and another member of BSS. In the song, Murphy is unapologetic with his advances, urging us to see things from his perspective.

--taken from: Exclaim!

Sloan to Play 'One Chord to Another' in Full on 20th Anniversary Tour

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Gregory Adams

With over 25 years worth of music to sift through, it may be hard to pick a favourite Sloan album. If, however, you're a massive fan of the Canadian pop rock project's 1996 LP, One Chord to Another, you're in for a treat. The band have just announced they're going to be playing the album in full on an upcoming 20th anniversary tour.

While a few dates had leaked earlier in the month, Sloan have now unveiled a proper tour route for their "One Chord to Another 20th Anniversary Tour." Speaking to Exclaim!, the band explained that the first leg of concerts kicks off in early April, with shows running from Ontario out to BC.

Sloan will play two sets a night, with a full-album performance of One Chord to Another preceding a more general set of "hits and fan favourites." The quartet had pulled off a similar feat in 2012 when they were touring behind an expanded box set release of their 1994 classic, Twice Removed.

Though details have yet to arrive in full, guitarist/vocalist Jay Ferguson also confirmed to Exclaim! that a box set release behind One Chord to Another is on the way. It's as yet unclear if the collection will be up for grabs for these spring dates.

You'll find the rundown on the first leg of anniversary dates down below, while dates across East Coast Canada and a fuller stretch in the U.S. are expected to be revealed later in the year.

One Chord to Another was written by Sloan in 1995 during a time at which many believed the band had been broken up. It followed their two-album stint with DGC Records and was released in Canada through the group's Murderecords in 1996. Since-shuttered indie imprint the Enclave handled the U.S. release in 1997.

Album stand-outs include the hard garage bop of "The Good in Everyone," horn-blaring pop piece "Everything You've Done Wrong," and Ferguson's knock-out gorgeous, Ringo Starr-saluting masterpiece, "The Lines You Amend."

--taken from: Exclaim!

Choir! Choir! Choir! Celebrates Five Years

Founders reflect on their favourite performances with the city's no-commitment singing group.

--taken from: Torontoist (read more here)

by Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman

On February 2, 2011, Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman gathered at the Bosley Real Estate office in Queen West to sing. “We had no idea what we were doing,” the pair suggests. But they did something right: that night, Choir! Choir! Choir! was born.

The casual, no-commitment singing group meets twice-weekly in the city to perform their own twist on pop hits. Since that first night, the group has bounced from Bosley to Adilman’s basement to their current home in the back room at Clinton’s, and has performed with big names in the music industry.

In honour of Choir! Choir! Choir!’s five-year anniversary, Torontoist asked Goldman and Adilman to recount their five favourite performances.

4. John Lennon—Imagine

We have such fond memories of all our Epic Nights! events, which have included singing with Sloan’s Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson (“Coax Me”), Hey Rosetta!’s Tim Baker (“Carry Me Home”), Joel Plaskett (“When I Close My Eyes”), and Odds’ Craig Northey (“Someone Who’s Cool”). But the biggest one yet was held last December, the climax of our “C!C!C! Sings For Syria” campaign to sponsor a Syrian family in Toronto.

Held on the tragic 35th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, Reuben Bullock, front man of Reuben And The Dark, sang the lead to “Imagine” while a capacity crowd at Lee’s Palace sang backup. The night raised $11,000, and to date, our campaign is nearing $70,000.

--taken from: Torontoist (read more here)