Sloan

Here's a brief review from the Nov 5th-11th issue of Melody Maker of Sloan's London gig:

SLOAN - THE GARAGE, LONDON (4/5 Stars)
"If ever 'That '70s Show' is looking for an in-house band (and God knows it needs something to perk up the dreadful script), I think I may have found one. Sloan have surely been beamed in from Planet 1974: four delightfully goofy Canadians with skanky ruffle-worthy hair, skinny-fit T-shirts and a nice line in self-depreciation, grinning insanely like the Monkees on pay day and churning out reams of powerchord-saturated super-melodic tunes.

While it's child's play plucking reference points from a riff-happy show in the arm like "Losing California" - The Who, The Jam, The Beach Boys, you know the drill - Sloan succeed where the dreadful Phoenix fail by sheer enthusiasm and an almost uncannily natural feel for perfect close-harmony singing.

The set takes in aspects from various points in their eight-year career but concentrates on the current, irresistably sunny "Between The Bridges" album; it's only when the chorus of joyous piano-fest new single "Don't You Believe A Word" is still ringing around your head some three full days after you last heard it that you realise quite what refreshing, incisive songwriters Sloan are.

A little over-fond of protracted and momentum-disturbing wildly codas they may be, but the audience sings every word of oldie "Underwhelmed" like it's the Canadian national anthem. There's no escaping that defiantly retro power-pop wins on points. "

Author Ian Jack is in the middle of writing a comprehensive book chronicling the Canadian music scene, from 1985-1995. Ian is reportedly devoting entire chapters to bands such as The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Change of Heart, and Sloan. The book will also feature a chapter detailing the "East Coast music phenomenon". The book is tentatively scheduled to be finished sometime early next year.

Bravo U.S. has begun airing episodes for the critically-lauded Canadian sitcom Twitch City. As many fans know, Sloan made a brief and un-credited appearance on episode nine of the series ("Klan Bake"). You can catch Sloan's guest appearance on the following dates and times:

• Wednesday, Sept 13 ~ 10 pm and 1 am and 5:30 am EST
• Friday, Sept 15 ~ 11 pm and 2:30 am EST

Jay recently spoke with MTV Online about the current status and direction Sloan is taking with the next album. The guys are presently recording in the studio right now, and hope to release the album in May 2001. You can check out the full article here.

This just in... Finally we have a news page on the Sloan Website. Over the weeks to come I will use this page to update fans on upcoming Sloan events,changes to the website and news on anything and everything related to Sloanand murderecords. As always, if you have any specific questions about Sloan or ordering from murderecords, you can contact me (Mike Nelson) directly at: murderecords@hotmail.com