Live Lounge with Sloan

--taken from: inMusic

Watch the video here at inMusic.

Sloan Revive Twice Removed, The Album That Almost Killed The Band

--taken from: Chicagoist

by Tankboy

The year was 1994 and Halifax, New Scotia's Sloan was primed for huge success. Their debut, Smeared was released two years before on the hugely popular Geffen Records and rode high on the noisy waves of grunge that was quickly dominating that label's roster. It was commercial enough that Geffen saw fit to promote the band along the likes of Nirvana, Weezer, Hole and Counting Crows on a popular compilation released in the midst of the "alternative" explosion. While the band's music was noisy and, yes, sonically smeared, what differentiated them from the rest album was a healthy serving of jangling hummability buried under all those guitars.

The band's sophomore album, Twice Removed, brought those melodies to the fore and dialed back the guitars to create a work that was leaner and cripser but no less powerful. Unfortunately this new approach didn't sit well with the airwaves at the time and Geffen offered the band almost no support, causing an album that was once picked as the #1 Canadian album of all time to slip by almost completely unnoticed in the U.S., sending the band into a nosedive. In fact Sloan was believed to have been broken up until 1996 when they self-released One Chord To Another, a surprisingly successful and insanely catchy rebirth for the band lauded by the CMJ set (think of it as an old man's Pitchfork) and reinvigorating the band's career. Twenty-four years later Sloan is still going strong and releasing album after album of solid material.

This year the band released an expanded and lavish deluxe edition of Twice Removed to properly celebrate both the album and the band's success in turning that low point of popularity but high point of creativity into the genesis of one of the longest and most successful second acts we've ever witnessed. The group is in the midst of a tour, stopping at Subterranean Sept. 22, playing Twice Removed in its entirety along with a second set of music from their entire career. We've been peeking through the band's setlists over the last month or so and it looks like fans of the band are in for some real treats including both "the hits" and a couple unburied treasures. Whether you're a longtime follower or brand new to Sloan's music, we can't highly recommend seeing this show enough.

--taken from: Chicagoist

Sloan rocks Louis’: Toronto band exceeds every expectation live in concert

--taken from: The Sheaf

by Leif Carlson

Don’t forget to check out our full photo gallery from Sloan’s Sept. 19 show at Louis’.

Oh, Sloan. I’ve loved their albums since I was a zitty-faced teen and I still love them now, as a 29-year-old scumbag.

I’ve always been more in love with Twice Removed than any other album of theirs, mostly due, at first, to its accessibility. One song after another is pop perfection. Luckily for me, they played that classic album in its entirety at their Sept. 19 show at Louis.

I should mention at this point that I had never seen them live before. I’ve attempted to, and lost out, but this time I finally made it. There was no opening band, much to my pleasure. Over two hours of Sloan.

About an hour past the estimated time, Sloan hit the stage. They started with “Penpals,” the first track from Twice Removed.

As they continued to play the album, I had a horrible grin on stuck on my face while I awkwardly mouthed the words the entire time. I had more and more beer, and duck out for a cigarette when they played the last song.

The second set was a mix of old favorites and songs from their new album, The Double Cross. The new songs sounded great and I wish I had known more about them prior to them playing.

The encore began with “Motor City Maniacs” and ended with songs that were less familia to me. While I have not been following them closely for the past 10 years or so, I definitely wished I had been when I got to the show.

As I said, I have never seen them live before. At the first chords of “Penpals,” and further through one of the greatest Can-Rock albums ever released, I found myself exactly where I wanted to be in life.

Frontman Chris Murphy is a beautiful man who led a chorus of 1990′s innocence all the way to the root of my heart. Later in the night I attempted to talk to Chris, rather unsuccessfully. It came out something like, “Hurr duur good shoooow.”

If you don’t trust my admittedly biased review of this great Canadian band, and listen to any one of their albums before submitting yourself to one of the most satisfying live experiences of your life.

--taken from: The Sheaf

Sloan to revisit album live in Regina

--taken from: Metro News Regina

by Carrie-May Siggins


Halifax-raised band Sloan is playing in Regina tonight as part of their Twice Removed Tour.

The tour is celebrating the 18th anniversary of the release of the album, which they’ll be playing in its entirety.

It’s now the stuff of Canadian music legend- “Twice Removed” was at first rejected by Geffen, the band’s label at the time. The album was bright and pop-y and melodic, nothing like Sloan’s first grungy album or the grinding noise of hit-makers Nirvana at the time. Geffen asked the band to re-record the LP, which they refused to do. As a result, Geffen didn’t promote it when it was released in 1994, and then dropped the band.

But over time the album built up a strong critical response in Canada. Single “Coax Me” spent 12 weeks in the Top 10o. In 1996, it was voted best Canadian album of all time by readers of the music magazine Chart (now online and called ChartAttack), and in 1998, it went gold. The album ranked 14th in Bob Mersereau’s book The top 100 Canadian Albums.

Alan Cross is a music writer based in Toronto. He says that, along with Geffen, Canadian fans were surprised by the change in direction from Sloan’s first album to their second.

“But there was something charming in this Beatle-esque left turn,” says Cross. “Maybe Sloan wasn’t a bunch of grunge copycats after all. The fresh pop sensibilities of the songs won people over rather quickly. And it’s this Canadian support that prevented the band from flying apart completely.”

--taken from: Metro News Regina

Sloan takes Twice Removed on the road

--taken from: the projector

by Matt Williams

Band’s original lineup still going strong and coming to Winnipeg

For over 20 years, Sloan has been one of Canada’s most consistent and hardest working bands. Their critically acclaimed 1994 album, Twice Removed, was voted Chart Magazine’s best Canadian album of all time. It’s now getting a tour in celebration of its legacy and a deluxe vinyl reissue, complete with outtakes, demos, a seven-inch single and a 32-page booklet.

“It’s not like a reunion per se where I haven’t seen these guys in years or we’re out of playing shape. We’re just a touring band… You’re okay, go play in the mud!”, singer and bassist Chris Murphy said in a phone interview while watching his youngest son at a park in downtown Toronto. Although they’ve been around for longer than most young bands can fathom, Sloan shows no signs of slowing down.

“I don’t feel like we’re, you know, just a greatest hits act or whatever,” Murphy says. “We still make new records, but you’re competing with yourself when you put out a new record. People are like, ‘I like your old stuff. I don’t want to hear any of your new shit!’ But you know people are nice to us and they give the new stuff a chance.”

Giving new stuff a chance might be exactly what set off the success of Twice Removed. In 1994, the music world was obsessed with grunge, and Halifax was supposed to be the new Seattle. Sloan’s label, Geffen Records, wasn’t interested in doing much to promote such a poppy and melodic album. Although they released it, the label’s relationship with the band ended there. The album went on to be a massive hit in Canada.

“By the time we made Twice Removed, the writing was probably on the wall that we weren’t gonna break, we weren’t gonna become a big band,” Murphy says. “After that we became, I guess, more independent. We were independent the whole time, sort of, in that we were able to do a lot of that stuff ourselves, but it was kind of fun to be courted by the major labels and think that maybe everybody would know all our songs. But it wasn’t to be.”

While a blow like that is often a death sentence for an up-and-coming band, Sloan has continued to put out albums at a consistent pace. And what’s better is that they’re consistently good. Their latest, The Double Cross, was a nod to their 20 years together.

“I’ve often joked that bands that’ve been doing it a long time, like The Rolling Stones, they think their new record is good, and everyone knows it sucks,” says Murphy. “But I’m still delusional enough to think that our new record actually is good. So maybe I’m just as delusional as they are.”

Murphy says he’s, “into group chemistry,” and that might be the reason Sloan is still together. In their 20-plus years of being a band, their original lineup – Jay Ferguson, Andrew Scott, Patrick Pentland, and Murphy – has never changed.

“I think that’s basically the best thing we have, our strongest suit. I feel like all that stuff sort of sets us apart. But I don’t know if the fact that we lasted for 20 years means we can last forever, because I always feel that we’re one bad conversation from the fistfight that ends the band,” Murphy laughs. “But hopefully it doesn’t happen.”

--taken from: the projector