Posts Tagged ‘sloan’

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Cruisin’ with the Mountain Goats

December 31, 2008

Norwegian Jewel

Go on a cruise with the Mountain Goats, the Weakerthans, Sloan, and many more. The Barenaked Ladies have organized a six-day trip, Ships & Dip V, on the Norwegian Jewel [pictured], with you and whole slew of artists. It’s the first week of February, starting from Miami and going to Cozumel and the Grand Stirrup Cay. Part of me thinks, “Ooh, a week  with John Darnielle and John K. Samson” and then the rest of my higher brain functions kick in and remind me that it’s a cruise, and not even a cool cruise.

However, if it sounds like a fun- and music-filled vacation to you, you can find full details here. Book fast – there are only a hundred cabins left (of course, it’s also just a month away).

MP3: The Weakerthans – Left and Leaving

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Listen local, Indiana edition: Whisper Down

July 28, 2008

A special ‘Listen local’ post from the road, as I’ll be passing through Indiana tomorrow. Whisper Down is a Terre Haute-based folk/alternative band (they cite influences from The Smiths through Death Cab for Cutie through Tracy Chapman). Like Sloan, they share songwriting and vocal duties. Check them out if you’re in the area.

More Whisper Down: myspace website

MP3: Whisper Down – My Part-Time Guardian Angels (MP3 removed at the request of the band; you can hear some of their songs here)

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Great bands with multiple lead singers

June 9, 2008

Mission of Burma

Speaking of Sloan, they made The Onion AV Club‘s recent list of ‘bands with more than one prominent lead singer,’ which also includes z=z favourites Mission of Burma (pictured above) and The New Pornographers. I’m not sure that I totally buy the pop-psych explanation of Sloan’s lack of success in the US, though:

It’s possible that perpetually underappreciated (in the States, anyway) Canadian power-pop band Sloan is too democratic. Fans tend to gravitate to bands where the members have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. In Sloan, everybody sings, writes, and trades off instruments. This means there’s no leader or star in Sloan, though a surplus of wonderful songs and killer harmonies would make up for that in a just world.

It’s especially hard to be swayed by that argument when the company they’re keeping includes, well, The Beatles (and the Beach Boys, and Fleetwood Mac, and the Clash, and Pink Floyd). You know, ‘perpetually underappreciated’ bands like that.

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Upcoming: Sloan, Parallel Play

June 7, 2008

Sloan - Parallel Play

Sloan’s new album, Parallel Play, drops next Tuesday, June 10th. They are supporting it with a short tour and will be hitting Cambridge, MA on June 18th (yes, I will be there), returning to TT the Bear’s. I saw them the last time they were there – as well as being enormously fun live, they had the best response to Cambridge’s rather draconian curfew that I’ve ever encountered. They announced that they wouldn’t bother with a (manufactured) encore. Instead, they played until the stroke of 1am. Chris Murphy was fronting the band for the last song, and when they finished, he just set aside his guitar, sat down on the edge of the stage, and began to chat with the fans.

MP3: Sloan – I’m Not a Kid Anymore

website myspace emusic amazon

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Threesome: Language matters

May 18, 2008

Threesome is a new feature on this blog. As its name suggests, it’s a trio of songs that are related by a common theme (okay, wait, I know that’s not what its name suggests to most of you…). Today’s theme is language, and this post features songs about the Oxford comma, the word ‘underwhelmed’ (which is, in fact, in the OED), and some general linguistic playfulness from UW-Madison via The Box Social.

MP3: Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma (more Vampire Weekend)

MP3: Sloan – Underwhelmed (more Sloan)

MP3: The Box Social – Why Oh Why (more The Box Social)

Previously: The logical outcome of OCD ticket purchasing; Coverage: Vampire Weekend, “Exit Music (for a Film); Neophile: The Box Social

Image: grammar by Flickr user katiekrueger, reposted here under its Creative Commons license.

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The logical outcome of OCD ticket purchasing

May 16, 2008

I’ll freely admit to my obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and their manifestation in my ticket purchasing habits are only further enabled by Tourfilter and my proximity to music venues in Central Square, Cambridge, like TT the Bear’s Place and the Middle East. But I seem to have taken them to their logical extreme when I went to buy Sloan tickets for their June 18th show – check out the numbers in the upper-right corners.

Sloan: website myspace

MP3: Sloan – Who Taught You to Live Like That?

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