I got into Sloan recently. If you don't know them, Sloan is a Canadian rock band out of Halifax who got big in the mid to late ninties, and still have a solid following. I never paid much attention to them in the ninties though, because in the video for the song "Everything You've Done Wrong," we all thought that they were just knocking off The Beatles. Maybe they were, but is it really fair to dislike a band for having a member who looks a bit like John Lennon? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Who cares?
Anyway, I was picking up a copy of The Stooges album Fun House a few weeks ago. It was on the two CDs for $10 rack, but I couldn't find another disc and I eventually just grabbed this Sloan disc Smeared. The Stooges disc was as awesome as I knew it should be, but I was really surprised by Smeared, especially the fantastic opening track "Underwhelmed." It's been on heavy rotation on the music box since.
A few weeks later I took a poke through my local record shop and found a Sloan double live album for like, $15. Yeah, okay, on the strength of "Underwhelmed," consider it sold.
Now that night I'm listening to it for the first time and I get to the track "Money City Maniacs," which I believe was their biggest hit. The live performance they give, heavy on audience participation in the small venue where the place was recorded, including urging the crowd to urge on the drummer to a huge drum solo, well, it just got to me: I was sitting at my desk with earphones in with this huge open-mouthed smile on my face just going, "Yeah, aw damn that's cool! Yeah!"
So the next day I'm going to work and I'm thinking, you know, I don't really have a rock and roll friend to tell about this. I've got work friends, but since I've come to this city, I haven't really made any rock and roll friends that I can bring over to my house and play a disc for and say, "Isn't this cool? Listen to this part," like I did in years gone by. I remember sitting at a house party once listening to The Misfits Evillive album, saying to a buddy, "Okay listen, Danzig is going to threaten to kill this guy in a second, it's fucking cool."
I miss stuff like that. Damn, no rock and roll friends. Alas. Only the blog, which is a weak substitute. No offence.
Hey, just raise your kid on rock. Then he'll point out the stuff you once noticed to you. 0_o eerie, no? And good luck with all that's going on with you now. Evans is quite a confused fellow.
Mate, I love Sloan. And like you, I got into them by chance.
At Uni I worked at the community radio station there, and a review copy of their best side 'A sides win' was given to me to review, being the journo student.
I loved it and while sometimes it may sound derivative, it doesn't really matter. Why? Because they brought something a little different to it I suppose, like the lyrics weren't Stonesy or Beatlesy.
THat and it sounded good.
Those throw out bins are great, especially the 3 for $20 pics. If a store is having a CD sale I can't resist. Last time, I got Rory Gallagher, a Iggy Pop live album and a Big Audi Dynamite greatest hits all for $20.
Good times.
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Lamenting the Lack of a Rock and Roll Buddy blog
