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Between the Bridges, Commonwealth, Double Cross, Hit and Run, Navy Blues, Never Hear the End of It, One Chord to Another, Parallel Play, Pretty Together, Sloan, Smeared, Twice Removed
Back in 1996 I got my copy of One Chord to Another and thought it was pretty cool, but frankly I was a bit distracted. I didn’t give it the worship it deserved. Reviewing it now I can better appreciate how this band had it all going on – great sound, solid hooks, and a palpable authenticity. How did Nova Scotia produce such a monster act? Their first EP Peppermint and full length album Smeared had a great indie sound, with both versions of “Underwhelmed” worth hitting repeat on. But their first major label effort, 1994’s Twice Removed, announced the arrival of a polished and original musical force, with “Penpals” a great weird single. Then they turned around and dumped their major label (Geffen) and turned out another great record, 1996’s One Chord to Another, spending one-tenth the budget of the previous one. While the album is bursting with great tracks, I’m partial to the very Beatle-esque “The Lines You Amend.” Talk was, Sloan would be the next big thing worldwide. But things didn’t really pan out that way.
Earlier this month I saw Sloan play One Chord to Another in its entirety at the Phoenix in Toronto as part of 20th anniversary tour commemorating the album. The show was broken into two sets, with the first blasting through OCTA and the second drawing from their other ten albums. Despite owning three of their records, I couldn’t name a single tune, though their audience was pretty well informed, drowning out the band on a few sing-a-longs. After such an amazing show, I decided to school myself on all things Sloan. Was this a band just reliving the glory of a few early records? After reviewing their catalogue, I can honestly say ‘no’. If anything, Sloan’s records only improve over time as the band expands its sonic range and songwriting scope. And that is saying something because those early records – Smeared, Twice Removed, One Chord to Another, Navy Blues – showcase the signature early sound of Sloan where the vocals and guitars slide together into a great sonic mash of hook-laden tunes. But, I will have you believe, their later material is even better.
Midnight Mass
Things begin to change up on the 1999 EP Hit and Run with the nice acoustic-y number, “Midnight Mass,” with its simple and endearing piano riff. The band continued to explore new lines of musical enquiry on albums like 1999’s Between the Bridges with “Losing California,” and 2001’s Pretty Together featuring “If It Feels Good Do It” and “The Other Man.” 2004’s Action Pact upped the guitar muscle but still had surprises like “The Rest of My Life,” as did 2011’s Double Cross with “Shadows of Love” and “Unkind.” 2008’s Parallel Play had the outstanding single “Believe in Me” with its nice crunchy guitar and organ lead lines.Both 2006’s Never Hear the End of It and 2014’s Commonwealth are minor masterpieces, showcasing a band in complete control of its creative development. As all four songwriters contribute great material to these efforts, it seems churlish to single out just a few songs. Nevertheless, Never Hear the End of It has “Everybody Wants You,” the lovely dreamy “Listen to the Radio,” the rock out “I Can’t Sleep,” and the wistful “Someone I Can be True With,” while Commonwealth has “You’ve Got a Lot on Your Mind,” “Cleopatra” (with a neat piano solo), and the imaginative “Carried Away” with its great harmonic changes. And there were a few super stand-alone singles, like 2009’s “Get Out of Your Bed,” with its delightful overlapping vocals and topical lyrics like ‘help yourself to some of their wealth’.
Everybody Wants YouListen to the RadioCleopatraCarried AwayGet Out of Your Bed
Sloan live in Toronto May 2016
So the bottom line is, believe the hype. Sloan are a great big load of talent. They exemplify the rock and roll form: four guys, all songwriters, all multi-instrumentalists, all dripping something authentic artistically, without the arrogance and pretention that often goes along with the package. I’m really fascinated to see what they come up with next.
Find Sloan and all their music and tour dates online.
Patrick Boutwell’s first solo outing came highly recommended from 
I saw John Mark Nelson open for Little Green Cars in Toronto last month and I was struck by his boyish earnestness, a quality that permeates a great deal of his recorded material. His first three albums are alternatively folky, whimsical, sometimes even vaudevillian, occasionally poprock, while his most recent, I’m Not Afraid, marks a departure into more serious territory. Check out his video for “
At the risk of turning this blog into a Teddy Thompson fan site, I had to feature “In My Arms” from his 2008 album A Piece of What You Need. On his fourth album, Thompson exudes a new confidence, bringing all his disparate influences together into a bold new style, with “In My Arms” as a dynamic single. The opening drums signal some classic poprock is being served up and Thompson does not disappoint. The hooks are so subtle you don’t realize you’re being seduced until you find yourself singing along. The accompaniment is both traditional and unusual: solid acoustic guitar anchoring the song, nice electric guitar flourishes, great background vocals, but then inserted here and there are what sound like video game sound effects and a killer, full-on, in-your-face organ solo. In your own personal imaginary video, the top is down on the convertible, the wind is blowing through your hair (in the most photogenic way), and the radio playing this song is cranked. Of course, this video captures the sentiment nicely too. 
There is something very Dandy Warhols about the recent Turbo Fruits single, “Show Me Something Real.” On their most recent recordings, both bands appear to combine a late 1990s rock sound with some classic late 1960s ambience, to great effect. While a number of 
Victoria’s Sam Weber has material that sounds deceptively simple but there is significant depth to his songs: subtle hooks, sophisticated production, and great arrangements. His 2014’s debut album, Shadows in the Road, has so many great songs it is hard to showcase just a few. Certainly “Right Hearted” has to be singled out as the obvious radio single. While the intro might be a little long, when the acoustic guitar kicks in the song takes off, stratospherically so when the keyboard appears at the 1:17 point. There is a very Sam Roberts feel to the hooks and chorus.Right Hearted
Sam Weber and band appearing live in a Toronto living room, May 2016.
Two Vancouver bands with striking similarities take us in a motherly direction in this post. They were both formed in the mid-2000s and branched out musically from more stripped down roots and acoustic leanings in their early recordings to embrace indie rock, new wave, and even dance influences later on. “Mother” is from Said the Whale’s 2013 album hawaii. While overshadowed somewhat by the 1981-ish, new wave sounding hit single “I Love You,” “Mother” is a solid release in its own right. Kicking off with a rather spare bass and drum sound, the vocals stand out for their effervescent quality, only to break out into a surging chorus laden with great keyboards and guitar lines, while the lyrics perfectly capture the transitional anxiety of young adults as the singer urges “don’t tell my mother till I pull myself together.”
There is something quite wonderful about this impressive mash-up of late 1950s Felice and Boudleux Bryant-era songcraft with the fresh and contemporary sound of Thompson and Jones on this recording. The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison – we could imagine any of them recording this song, but that does not in any way take away from what is accomplished here. Great plinky piano, ghostly background organ, dead on handclaps, subtle guitar lines, and two vocalists who really know how to entwine a harmony. “Never Knew You’d Love Me Too” is featured on the duo’s new album Little Windows, which mines a seam of old-time American cross-over country and western that can only be described as ‘delightful.’ This is all the more impressive when one considers that neither performer is a dedicated country artist (though Thompson’s catalogue does include various country songs and one previous dedicated country album), and yet somehow they have the authentic feel for the genre that, frankly, a great deal of new country lacks. If we still had variety shows, these two would be your featured Saturday night special guests.
Linus of Hollywood, stage name for Los Angeles musical polymath Kevin Dotson, has distilled a unique blend of 1960s/1970s influenced poprock on his four albums and various singles since 1999. And he has a voice that is often a dead ringer for Squeeze frontman Glen Tilbrook. The album catalogue might look a bit thin, but that’s just because he’s in such constant demand to do music for television and movies and produce and write songs for other people’s records to pay the bills. But what he has managed to put out is quality stuff, fully deserving of stratospheric success.
All that went before was enjoyable but 2014’s Something Good takes Linus of Hollywood’s performance to a new level. As 
You’ll never see the rock critics expounding on the seminal influence of Simon and Garfunkel to contemporary music – but it is there. Not because S&G broke new ground like the Beatles or the Kinks or the Who. Nor did they exude a counter culture rock persona like the Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix. But they did contribute to the unique 1960s synthesis of musical styles, songwriting, and performance that would define the popular song in the decades to come. Paul Simon’s genius was in melding the authenticity of folk music with the more relentless hooks from pop music, cast against a dazzling array of musical backdrops (something more fully exploited in his solo career). But in S&G, his talents produced a unmistakable sound, regardless of the style of the material. That sound can be found all over the contemporary music-sphere.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog postings to bring you these breaking recent releases that run the gamut of indie/alt rock, alt country, powerpop and nouveau folk.
“David Newberry sings folk music with rock sensibilities. Or is it the other way around?”
Casting back through Newberry’s catalogue there are so many great songs, ones that touch on both the personal and political. I am partial to “4th Fret” and “The End” from When We Learn the Things We Need to Learn and “Easter” and “English Bay” from No One Will Remember You. But his 2014 EP Desire Lines definitely represents a shift in approach – now the record seems more than just a collection of songs and Newberry is clearly experimenting with his sound and image. Listen to these two starkly different treatments of his song “Slow”: one draws from his folkie electric esthetic while the other is a full blown poprock song. Personally, I think the latter has got hit single written all over it.
If Desire Lines and the radio edit of “Slow” represented a boundary-testing bit of experimentation, then 2015’s Replacement Things comes on like a new, more comfortable synthesis of his many influences. This is a solid record with great songs and a coherent, unique sound. Littered with references to his sometime Vancouver home, I’d have to call out “Coyote,” “Shiny Pretty Things,” and the haunting “Freddy Mercury” as my stand-out tracks.
Sure, when you first hear Edward O’Connell you get the Costello vibe, you get it bad (by which I mean you get something good). You might even think “Hey, this guy is putting out the albums I wish Elvis Costello would …” But the seemingly familiar Costello ring to the songs, to the vocals, to the turns of phrase is so much more than simply reminiscent. O’Connell has taken the inspiration and made it his own. And there is so much more influence afoot in his two albums of material: a bit of Matthew Sweet, a dash of Peter Case, even some Marshall Crenshaw and, of course, Nick Lowe and Tom Petty.
His debut record from 2010, Our Little Secret, is a solid start: a host of great tunes and a cover riffing off of Nick Lowe’s Jesus of Cool album and the unknown comic. “I Heard It Go” has a great turnaround in the chorus, “Cold Dark World” has wonderfully shimmery vocals, “We Will Bury You” is trademark Costello country, while “All My Dreams” sounds like a lost track from Imperial Bedroom. But the standout song on this album for me is the majestic “Pretty Wasted.” A real gem that exudes equal parts Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, with a lovely Nick Lowe lyrical sleight of hand with the line ‘She’s pretty wasted … pretty wasted on you.’ Pretty Wasted
Four long years passed before O’Connell’s sophomore effort, Vanishing Act, emerged in 2014, but it was worth the wait. The album kicks off with strong material in “My Dumb Luck” and “Lonely Crowd” but the third tune, “Every Precious Day,” is a master class in poprock songwriting: killer guitar riff opener, great Tom Pettyish vocals, with just a hint of Crowded House in the swirling organ and guitar work at the 2/3 mark. Other highlights include “Severance Kiss” (with another great guitar opener), “Odds Against Tomorrow,” “Yesterday’s World,” and “Last to Leave” with its exquisite low tempo atmosphere. “The End of the Line” deserves to be featured if only for its surprisingly aggressive guitar opener that then melds seamlessly into a super midtempo poprock number. But my favourite song on the record is the witty Nick Lowe-ish “I’m the Man,” a sad tale of a man who ‘should have seen it coming’ with his death-obsessed partner.
Poprock Record 