Monday, March 03, 2014

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Sloan

Artist:Sloan
Song:The Other Man
Album:A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005





Sloan was fairly successful in their native Canada. But they desperately wanted to break through in the US and they were foiled by record company problems. I suppose it would have helped if they were a little grungier but that's not who they were. Sloan was formed in 1991 when lead singer and bassist Chris Murphy and drummer Andrew Scott were attending the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Keyboard player Patrick Pentland and guitarist Jay Ferguson joined the band soon after. Murphy and Ferguson had previously been in the band Kearney Lake Road. The name Sloan is based on a friend's nickname Slow One. They released an EP and then signed with Geffen Records in 1992. Their 1992 debut CD Smeared did OK but then Geffen refused to promote the 1994 Twice Removed. Geffen didn't like it. They thought it was too pop. I guess they wanted Sloan to be grungier. But the CD did OK in Canada. They went on hiatus and it was thought that they had split up. But they returned on their own label with the 1996 CD One Chord To Another. They continued to have success in Canada with singles like The Good In Everyone and Everything You've Done Wrong. The Other Man is from the 2001 CD Pretty Together. Chris Murphy wrote the song while he was in a love triangle with Leslie Feist and Andrew Whiteman of Broken Social Scene. But Sloan still wanted to break into the US market. So they signed with RCA for the 2003 CD Action Pact. When that didn't work, they moved to the smaller Yep Roc Records and their CDs have done OK in the US. There's less pressure on them to hit a home run. This CD has all of Sloan's pre Yep Roc singles. Sloan's latest CD was released in 2011 but apparently a new CD is scheduled for a 2014 release. They are a pretty good pop band and they deserved more success. But they seem happy to be where they are. Here's the video for The Other Man by Sloan.

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